The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

ONE local non-profit organisation is aimed at providing an additional outlet for young student athletes to hone their skills and learn valuable life lessons.

Sterling Pratt and his Eagle’s Nest Youth Development Programme continue its community outreach efforts and are constantly on the look out for an opportunity to bring more young men into the fold.

“It’s all about saving the youth and we use basketball as the vehicle to teach them about life, teach them the importance of working together as one to accomplish one common goal.”

Eagles Nest is based out of the Baillou Sporting Complex as a weekly after-school programme hosted Wednesday and Friday with increased activity nearer to events or league.

“As a non-profit organisation we first started out as a church and I decided to take it beyond those four walls and spread it to different communities. Some of the guys that don’t make their school basketball team, they still get the opportunity to be a part of something, to learn the game, to play and to get better while having that camaraderie and learning life lessons.”

Eagles Nest had participated in the Baptist Sports League, The Nelson Cooper Peace on da Streets Tournament, the Urban Legends Summer Series and a number of events. He has hopes of expansion as the number of participants continues to increase and include more communities.

“We play in a lot of tournaments but off the court we fellowship, we pray, we have discussions on the importance of peer pressure and placing an importance on your academic life. We sit down and talk, then we go through our workouts to prepare ourselves for various tournaments. As we do that we attract other young men who want to be a part of something positive. Our motto is ‘each one, teach one,’ he said.

“We started with just eight guys but now we have over 100 young men. Some are off to school in universities, some have turned things around and now have stability with employment. We want the benefits to be cyclical so it can keep repeating itself. Each one of them can reach another person.”

Interested persons can contact Pratt at 804-1397, 433-0297 or email at sterlingandrew@hotmail.com