Flash Points:

• Saint Francis men's basketball made a visit to Altoona Area Junior High School on Monday, November 14.
• The Red Flash is participating in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Stay In To Win Program.
• The program is designed to help middle and high school students focus on making good academic, career and personal choices.

LORETTO, Pa. - The Saint Francis men's basketball team visited Altoona Area Junior High School on Monday, November 14, to kick off its participation in this year's National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Stay in to Win Program. 
 
The Stay in to Win program is designed to help middle school and high school students focus on making good academic, career, and personal choices. The purpose of the program is to help students focus on making important decisions that will help them become more successful in school and positively impact the overall quality of their lives.
 
"It was a great experience and a good opportunity to try and teach the kids about the importance of education," said sophomore Scott Meredith (Pilot Mountain, N.C./Hargrave Military Academy (Va.)). "It might mean more coming from someone they can relate to."
 
This marks the fourth year that SFU men's basketball has participated in the program.  Georgios Angelou (Halkida, Greece/Lykeio Kanithou), Isaiah Blackmon (Charlotte, N.C./West Charlotte), Jordan Forehand (Bridgewater, N.J./IMG Academy (Fla.)), Jamaal King (Salisbury, Md./Bishop O'Connell (Va.)), Tre McKeithen (Pittsburgh, PA/Taylor Allderdice), Meredith, Ifeanyi Umezurike (Uturu, Abia State, Nigeria/Montverde Academy (Fla.)) and Andre Wolford (Willowick, Ohio/Saint Ignatius) joined together with the junior high school teachers and administrators to motivate and encourage students to stay in school and graduate.
 
"It was amazing to interact with the kids and try to communicate our mistakes to them, so that they could avoid them," said Angelou. "I also emphasized to them that an important thought they should all have is that 'my hero is myself in 10 years' to get them to work hard and do their best to succeed in the future. I felt honored to set an example and I learned that a lot of the students want to play sports, which is a great thing and hopefully they can use that to their benefit."
 
The players communicated the value of effective decision-making skills, and how academic, career, and personal decisions they make now will have an impact on their futures. The junior high school students were encouraged to develop "success teams" to help them overcome obstacles as well as "success plans" to guide them as they make the educational and career decisions that will direct their lives.
 
The Stay In To Win program preaches five keys to success:
- Stay in school and graduate
- Create a success team and success plan
- Learn and practice decision-making skills
- Improve academic performance
- Focus on personal development.
 
"The Stay In To Win program provides our student-athletes with a great opportunity to get a very important message to the junior high students in our local community," said Head Coach Rob Krimmel. "Our players did a great job sharing their experiences and thoughts on what it takes to be successful on the court, in the classroom and in life. The Five Keys To Success help the junior high students to focus on making great decisions, surrounding themselves with great people and more importantly – staying in school."
 
The Red Flash men's basketball team presented the five keys and related the keys back to their personal experiences.  The presentation ended with a fun moment as everyone joined together for the "Mannequin Challenge".   
 
"Every year, I look forward to the men's basketball team participating in this program and sharing their experiences with the seventh grade students," said Dasha Cherkasov, Associate Director of Student-Athlete Academic Services. "I believe that Stay In To Win is such an incredible program and allows everyone involved to be impacted in a different way and I was extremely proud of the players and the message that each of them delivered."