Loretto, Pa. - The Saint Francis men's basketball team visited Altoona Area Junior High School on Thursday, October 11, to kick off its annual participation in the 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.
 
"This was my second year coming here and I just love it," said senior Andre Wolford (North Olmstead, Ohio/Saint Ignatius). "This is an important age for these kids where they might start to be introduced to some bad things. I can share some of my experiences and hopefully inspire them to be the best person that they can be and surround themselves with people that want to help them reach their goals."
 
This marks the sixth year that SFU men's basketball has participated in the program.  The team split into two sessions. Group one consisted of seniors Luidgy Laporal (Petit-Boutg, France/Harcum C.C.), Jordan Forehand (Bridgewater, N.J./IMG Academy (Fla.)) and Wolford, redshirt junior Isaiah Blackmon (Charlotte, N.C./West Charlotte), and junior Keith Braxton (Glassboro, N.J./Delsea). Group two was comprised of senior Scott Meredith (Pilot Mountain, N.C./Hargrave Military Academy (Va.)), sophomore Dan Henry (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg), freshman A.J. Labriola (Altoona, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) and assistant coaches Umar Shannon and Brett Barron. The players shared personal stories and motivated and encouraged the students to stay in school and graduate.

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 is something we've been involved in for sometime," said head coach Rob Krimmel. "The great thing about the message is it encourages kids to stay in school. If we can reach one kid then the program is a success. Our guys do a great job relaying the message because it wasn't that long ago that they were in these kids shoes and had to make important decisions to be successful."