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Brotherly Love: Non-Profit Uses Squash To Reach Kids

By Ukee Washington

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A free Philadelphia sports program is getting kids off the streets and onto the court. It's not basketball, it's not tennis. It's squash.

Fifteen-year-old Jose Rubert Zayes is on the ball in more ways than one thanks to squash.

"I would be hanging around with my friends on the street, but now I can say that SquashSmarts is my second home," he said.

SquashSmarts is a non-profit afterschool program. It drafts children grades 6 to 12. Executive director Stephen Gregg says squash is relatively easy to learn.

"If you swing and miss, it's right there. If you hit it and miss it, it comes back to you pretty quickly," said Stephen Gregg, executive director of SquashSmarts.

Squash director Sakora Miller is a SquashSmarts alum and Penn State grad. She says not only is learning to win important, so is learning to lose.

"When they first lose their first match, it gives them more empowerment," Miller said. "It gives them the drive to keep going,"

After squash comes studying. Hundreds of volunteers like Drexel freshman Evan Ehlers help the students with homework and projects.

"They come over and sometimes they bring some of their work from class," Evan said.

Steve Brown, SquashSmarts academic director, said, "Academically, you see them become more confident in their skills."

Of the students who have made it through all seven years of the program, 100 percent graduated from high school.

"Now my academics are awesome, " Jose said. "I love math, science. My English is getting better."

So is his game.

SquashSmarts also takes students on field trips and service projects. To volunteer, check them out at http://www.squashsmarts.org/volunteer.html

 

 

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