Baltimore Student Athletes Awarded Scholarships from 2012 Basketball Academy
(Baltimore, Maryland) The 16th Annual Baltimore City Public Schools Basketball Academy presented by State Farm was held at Lake Clifton High School in Baltimore from January 26-28. This week, Academy planners announced the recipients of the James Thomas Hubbard Memorial Scholarship, Downtown Locker Room Scholarship and Most Valuable Player scholarship awards.
The academic portion is the basis of the academy and we use basketball as a carrot to influence the students of the importance of seeing the academic piece as well as basketball as part of their futures, said Basketball Academy Academic Coordinator Dr. Warren Hayman who is responsible for the academic component. The scholarships are important because they re-enforce The Basketball Academy theme academics plus athletics equals a win, win combination!
Prior to the beginning of the Academy, each school nominates a top senior athlete (female and male) for the James Thomas Hubbard Memorial Scholarship and the Downtown Locker Room scholarship, and the Academy committee selects the top students from all submissions, based on the criteria.
Aaron Park of Lake Clifton High School and Kirsten Gaither of Digital Harbor High School are the recipients of 2012 James Thomas Hubbard Memorial Scholarships for $1,000.
The James Thomas Hubbard Memorial Scholarship was created in honor of the life of Mr. James Thomas Hubbard. The family provided two $1,000 scholarships to the senior athletes (one male, one female) making the greatest contribution to his or her team in terms of overall excellence in participation, performance and leadership while maintaining a minimum 2.5 GPA. Nominees must be graduating seniors.
Nia Alleyne of Aberdeen High School and Miles Code of St. Frances Academy are the respective recipients of the Downtown Locker Room Scholarships, two $500 scholarships to the male and female basketball players (graduating seniors) with the highest cumulative GPA.
Basketball Academy MVPs are below. This award is given to the most valuable player on the team and is based on overall performance in the games they played during the Academy.
| SCHOOL | STUDENT |
| Aberdeen (Girls) | Michelle Wright |
| Baltimore Polytechnic (Girls) | Jasmine Smith |
| City College | Omari George |
| Digital Harbor (Boys) | Ronald Epps |
| Digital Harbor (Girls) | A’Lexus Harrison |
| Edgewood | Thomas Dillard |
| Edmondson-Westside | Isiah Tripp |
| Friendly | Victor Blakey |
| Lake Clifton | Aaron Parks |
| Largo | Derrick Colter |
| Milford Mill | Tyson Smith |
| New Town | Jalen Clarke |
| Owings Mills | DeShawnte Lloyd |
| Patterson | Aquille Carr |
| Patterson Mill | Garett Burkhead |
| Paul Laurence Dunbar (Boys) | Donte Pretlow |
| Paul Laurence Dunbar (Girls) | Brionna Jones |
| Randallstown (Boys) | Jerell Cooke |
| Randallstown (Girls) | Tiffany Davis |
| St. Frances (1 game) | Daquan Cook |
| Woodlawn (Girls) | Janelle Lane |
About the Basketball Academy
The Academy aims to prepare students for the SAT and the college admissions process, while exposing middle and high school players to competitive basketball teams from Baltimore City, Baltimore, Harford and Prince George’s counties. Basketball Academy graduates include several NBA and NCAA division 1 players such as Rudy Gay (Memphis Grizzlies), Josh Selby (Memphis Grizzlies), Will Barton (University of Memphis), Roscoe Smith (University of Connecticut), Asia Logan (University of Pittsburgh) and LaShay Taft (Syracuse).
For more information, please visit www.bballacademy.com.