Help Struggling Student Athletes During COVID-19

As the head highschool basketball coach at DPAC in West Las Vegas, I feel called to help these young men reach their goal of going to college and bettering themselves by getting a 4 year degree.

  As everyone knows, the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected different people in different ways. Our student athletes in particular, have been affected in ways that could, and in some cases, have affected their future collegiate prospects.


Since the state of Nevada has cancelled all winter sports our seniors have not had the chance to showcase their skills to potential colleges who would give them scholarships to possibly attend school for free. 

Democracy Prep in NV is 98% free and reduced lunch; the impact of that means zero percent of our student athletes can afford to pay any amount for college. 

 

We are not naïve to believe that all of our student athletes will get a scholarship to play college basketball; however we have a handful of athletes that can,  and because of this pandemic, this season has been stolen from them. 

 

By the grace of God, a group of people have gotten together in High School grassroots basketball (apart from the state associations) and are putting on independent events that will allow college coaches from all over America to live stream the games; unfortunately these games are not in Las Vegas; in turn we have to travel to Phoenix Arizona to play in a 3-day event. Over those three days there will be a large cost to doing this. 

We have factored into a budget that it will cost us approximately $3,700 to make this trip happen; that includes van rentals, food, gas, and hotel stay for 2 nights for our boys. We are taking 10 players and 5 staff. 



We also have 3 other events like this one; tentatively on the schedule - because we do not have the funds to commit fully to those events yet. Our boys need these events to be able to showcase their skills for college coaches around the country. So that they can have the opportunity and a better chance at a greater future. 

(Apart from traveling for these tournaments; we have a slide deck that outlines all of our goals and the mission for the program and our student athletes. This deck includes all the details and our plans for the money raised. If you would like more information and to see this please contact me and I will be happy to send this to you as well!) 

We as a program believe in the power of prayer and miracles; and although God might not care of the outcome of a game, He does care for the individuals playing in it.



We thank you so much for your consideration. 


God bless,

Coach Cory Duke