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Varsity Boys & Girls Basketball

Athletics Leadership Council

Basketball Showcase. Cubs Donate to Perspectives. Cheer Program Shines in 2015.

PERSPECTIVESATHLETICS

Middle School Basketball

CHICAGO | VOLUME 5, ISSUE 2, APRIL 2015 | @pcs_athletics

a seasonal review of the Perspectives Charter Schools Sports Program

The Per-spectives Leadership Academy/High School of Technolo-gy boys bas-ketball team finished with a solid 14-12 overall record and a particularly impressive 8-2, second-place mark

in the Chi-cago Pub-lic League White South conference. Senior captains Darian Whiteside, Treyson Johnson and Charles Grif-fin led the way for head coach Curtis Strong.

The progress these young men made over the course of the season, not only as basketball play-

ers but as young men, is amazing, Strong said of his team.

The PLA/Tech sophomore team was 15-9 behind sophomores Bartee Taylor, Derrion Lockett, Lashon Gist and Kavonte Cole and freshman Jackie Crawford.

Through the ups and downs the team continued to play hard, sopho-more coach Curtis Williams said.

The Warriors freshman team built a strong 19-10 record, including a seven-game win-ning streak, with leadership from Tyvon Jones and Michael Daily.

This team was a bunch of kids who never played on a team and came to-gether to push one another to have an outstanding year, freshman coach Antonio Reese said.

The Perspectives/IIT Math & Science Academy/Joslin boys team was 13-13, which included a runner-up finish in the Lisle Thanks-giving Tournament and third place in the ICCP/Westmont Holiday Tourna-ment.

Head coach Way-bon McConnells top contributors in-cluded sophomore DeAndre Lightfoot, freshman Marquan

Williams, senior Kameron Wil-liams and junior James Jordan. He particularly praised Jordans improve-ment and the effort of senior Kentrail McKinney, who, he said, demonstrated a strong work ethic while only getting limited minutes on the court.

The MSA/Joslin sophomore team was 12-9 overall, 5-5 in the White West, and sported an impressive victory over tradi-tional city power Simeon.

Sophomores Ja-quan Lawrence

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Varsity Girls Hoops continue to play at a high level of competition.

Perspectives Athletics

CHICAGO

P3Danielle Sla-ton has been a scholar, a leader and a winner, which made her a perfect choice to speak to a March meeting of Perspectives A Disciplined Life Leadership Council.

Slaton, who conducts work-shops for the Positive Coach-ing Alliance, was an All-American and the 2001 NCAA Scholar Ath-

lete of the Year while starring for the Santa Clara University womens soccer team. In 2000, she played on the United States Olympic silver medal-winning team and went on to play profession-ally and coach before becoming a television soc-cer analyst.

The leadership council consists of 60 nominated student-athletes

representing all the high school teams at the three PCS cam-puses.

Danielle did a great job of reinforcing the principles of A Disciplined Life, Direc-tor of Athletics and Programs Vinay Mullick said. She talked to our student-athletes about elevating your game and be-ing a good per-son, athlete and

teammate at the same time.

She encouraged them to take her message back to their team-mates to initiate positive change within the culture of their teams. It was good to see.

By Barry Temkin

Mr. Temkin retired in 2008 from the Chicago Tribune and volunteers in the Perspectives Charter Schools athletic depart-ment. He spent his last 20 years at the Tribune writing a high school sports column that cov-ered hundreds of schools, including Perspectives.

@pcs_athletics

basketball team finished 15-11 over-all, 10-3 in the CPS Metro conference under head coach Stefan Fisher.

With leadership from senior Crystal Lackey and junior Tatyana Albritten, the Warriors also reached the state tournament re-gional finals while

giving three fresh-men significant playing time.

They have excel-lent potential to be really good, Fisher said of his young players.

In her first year as head coach, Chasity Wilsons PLA/Tech sophomore team finished with an

outstanding 8-0 mark. Top contribu-tors included soph-omore Latanya Pitts and freshman Diamond Jones.

The MSA/Joslin girls team was 4-18 overall in Bill Yadrons first year as its head coach but demonstrated a champions attitude.

These young ladies played with a lot of heart, Yadron said. Our motto was, We dont get tired.

They love the game and each other.

We were a very young team and expect to improve dramatically over the next year.

Leading the way this past season were juniors Tashana Tyler and Kayla Buchanan and sophomores Damia Williams, Akina Watson and Armone Bingham.

By Barry Temkin

Varisty Hoops Con-tinued from P2

and Montrell Ken-nedy and freshmen Rakwon Roberts and Montreal Wil-lis led the way for coaches Marcellus Phelps and Marlon Jackson.

The Perspectives Leadership Acad-emy/High school of Technology girls

The Chi-cago Unity Basket-ball League champion-ship game has become a regular stop for Perspec-tives middle school boys teams.

MSA recently made its fourth trip there in the last five years and won its third title

in that span. Its opponent, Joslin, was making its third champion-ship game ap-pearance in the last four years.

MSA, under head coach Marlon Jackson, won its last six games to finish with a 14-4 record. Top per-formers included 8th-graders Dajuan Gordon, Yree Sheppard, Akil Coleman and Xavier Riley.

Co-head coaches

Marcellus Phelps and Emmanuel Tillmans runner-up Joslin team posted a 14-4 mark behind 8th-graders Marlon Young, Antwon Thomas and Ottro Guibero.

Jamari Massie and Dajon White, both 8th-graders, were among the top performers for head coach El-dridge A. Browns Perspectives Middle Academy team, which fin-ished with a 7-8

GET INVOLVEDat PERSPECTIVESCONTACT VINAY MULLICK

e: VMULLICK@PCSEDU.ORGp: 312-604-2116www.pcsedu.orgtwitter: @PCS_ATHLETICS

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record.

The MSA Middle School girls team finished at 7-3 under head coach Gabe Hernandez. Top contributors included 8th-graders Dasa Gordon and La-donna Ivery.

Joslin finished 2-9, but co-head coaches Meg Goethals and Mary Hilker praised their players for their perseverance and

sportsmanship throughout the season. Seventh-grader Ranyiah Roberts was their top performer.

Lakenya Starks, an 8th-grader, and 7th-grader Carrissa Lofton led the way for PMA, which was 1-7. Head coach Chasity Wil-son praised her athletes growth and ability to play together as a team.

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The Perspec-tives Basketball Showcase contin-ues to get bigger and better. In its seventh annual edition, the one-day extravaganza expanded to include a shooting

skills competition modeled after an NBA All-Star Game event.

Thatalong with more event spon-sorsenhanced the 11 boys and girls games Feb.7

in a packed gym-nasium at the Auburn Gresham campus. The Showcase in-cluded every high school and mid-dle school team across the PCS network.

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Chicagos pe-riodic harsh spring weather and practice ef-fectively indoors using state of the art equip-ment.

Perspectives used the funds to purchase a pitching ma-chine, two in-

door batting cages, two in-door pitching mounds and other equip-ment, including protective pad-ding. This has benefited both the Auburn Gresham and MSA high school programs.

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This has been a huge resource to our programs to be able to train when the

weather is not cooperating, PCS Director of

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It was a very successful event, Director of Athlet-ics and Programs Vinay Mullick said. Were grateful for the coaches, staff and student-athletes who made it hap-pen and the sup-port of the com-munity, parents and fans.

Were just very happy that the event continues to grow and move forward.

The Chicago Cubs have hit a home run with the baseball and softball players at Perspectives Charter Schools.

Thanks to the Cubs generous $20,000 grant, those athletes now are able to dodge

the top contribu-tors for the MSA cheer team under co-head coaches Denise Moore and Jennifer Coyle

PLA/Tech head coach Damiya Perkins key per-formers included seniors Shala-fonte Walls and Yasmine Stanford and sophomores Adia Temple and Jael Coleman.

Perspectives Middle Acad-

emy head cheer coach Kanisha Boyd praised the work ethic of her team, whose top athletes included 8th-grader Wylencia Boyd and 7th-graders Khaylah Dotson and Mikayla Peden.

I have a group of dedicated young ladies who work hard and dont mind being pushed to work harder,

the coach said. It was a pleasure to work with each and every one of them.

Eighth-grader Khaiya Martin and 7th-grader Wanita Watson led the way for head coach Am-ber Morgans MSA middle school squad.

By Barry Temkin

led by juniors Alana Green and Maushea House and freshman Katrina Dorsey.

I loved the team unity and the positivity from my juniors, head coach Sheena Baskerville said. They stepped up like it was their last year.

Senior Darnesha Ferguson and junior Kenesha Williams were

P6BYNicholas Ullamper

Perspec-tives cheer teams had another suc-cessful and fun year of performing, especially at the annual Perspectives Basketball Showcase.

Perspectives Joslins team was

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Athletics and Programs Vi-nay Mullick said. We are very grateful for the Cubs sup-

port and their commitment to youth baseball and softball, and we cant thank them enough.

In addition, the Cubs recognized several Perspec-tives players and coaches at a game last sea-son.