How do you give kids a competitive edge on the basketball court? There's a fifth-grade team in Tacoma, Wash., bound for state championships, whose coach believes he's found the key. Not just to outstanding sports skill development, but to outstanding futures. This team takes its best shot reading, before the game begins.

Coach Andre Stout has been working his basketball team for nearly a year, using a unique reading program at Tacoma's D.A. Gonyea Boys & Girls Club. Twice a week, the coach and tutor Trevor Wong (an education major from the University of Washington) work with a group of 27 fifth-graders for 30 minutes before their basketball practice.

Using the Club's education room right after Power Hour, Boys & Girls Clubs of America's homework help and tutoring program, Coach Stout and Wong supervise a half-hour of exercises that develop each player's skills at reading aloud, comprehension and reading speed. Using instructional materials developed at the University of Oregon and a simple timer, tutors and peers build reading power one passage at a time. Stout, who is pursuing a degree in education at the University of Washington, explains the need.

"The reading standard for this age group is about 150 words per minute," he says. "Some of our kids were reading at the rate of 74 words per minute. Now at least half of our team is reading at an eighth-grade level."

A Unified Approach

A coach for nearly a decade, Stout saw many of his grade-school basketball stars grow into better players – but poor students – as they got older. Some who were outstanding on the court couldn't make it into college because of mediocre academics. That's when Stout decided to complement coaching with reading skill development.

"If you can't read, you can't do anything else," he says. "What this program teaches kids is that running, jumping, learning and reading – it's all one thing."

Robert Reed, athletics director at the Gonyea Club, says of the team: "Their basketball has improved due to their improved self-confidence – they get this from mastering reading. Their focus and concentration is enhanced after the reading sessions – they are channeled into a learning process."

The kids have to present their report cards to the coach and tutors. If they don't have the grades, they don't play basketball. Gene Anderson, D.A. Gonyea's branch director, points out that the program's "group mentoring" approach is extremely effective. The coach, tutors and parents are really dedicated to this program," he says. "There's a real feeling of family. It's personal, and the kids are being tutored and guided by people they really respect."

One pleased parent – whose son has started reading at home without being asked – recently cornered Coach Stout at a basketball game, saying: "Man, what you're doing for my son is unbelievable."

Sounds like a slam-dunk.


Johanna Lindemann is director of strategic communications at BGCA.