Baltimore Student Athletes Awarded Scholarships from 2012 Basketball Academy

Feb. 10, 2012 - PRLog -- (Baltimore, Maryland) – The 16th Annual Basketball Academy presented by State Farm was held at Lake Clifton High School in Baltimore from January 26-28. This week, Academy planners announced the recipients of the James Thomas Hubbard Memorial Scholarship, Downtown Locker Room Scholarship and Most Valuable Player awards.

“The academic portion is the basis of the academy and we use basketball as a carrot to influence the students of the importance of seeing the academic piece as well as basketball as part of their futures,” said Basketball Academy Co-Chair Dr. Warren Hayman who is responsible for the academic component. “The scholarships are important because they re-enforce The Basketball Academy theme – academics plus athletics equals a win, win combination!”

Prior to the beginning of the Academy, each school nominates a top senior athlete for the James Thomas Hubbard Memorial Scholarship and the Downtown Locker Room Scholarship, and the Academy committee selects the top students from all submissions, based on the criteria.

Aaron Park of Lake Clifton High School and Kirsten Gaither of Digital Harbor High School are the recipients of 2012 James Thomas Hubbard Memorial Scholarships for $1,000.

The James Thomas Hubbard Memorial Scholarship was created in honor of the life of Mr. James Thomas Hubbard. The family provided two $1,000 scholarships to the senior athletes (one male, one female) making the greatest contribution to his or her team in terms of overall excellence in participation, performance and leadership while maintaining a minimum 2.5 GPA. Nominees must be graduating seniors.

Nia Alleyne of Aberdeen High School and Mike Code of St. Frances Academy are the respective recipients of the Downtown Locker Room Scholarships, two $500 scholarships to the male and female basketball players (graduating seniors) with the highest cumulative GPA.

Basketball Academy MVPs are below. This award is given to the most valuable player on the team and is based on overall performance in the games they played during the Academy.

School                                              Student
Aberdeen (Girls)                             Michelle Wright
Baltimore Polytechnic (Girls)       Jasmine Smith
City College                                    Omari George
Digital Harbor (Boys)                     Ronald Epps
Digital Harbor (Girls)                      A'Lexus Harrison
Edgewood                                       Thomas Dillard
Edmondson-Westside                   Isiah Tripp
Friendly                                            Victor Blakey
Lake Clifton                                     Aaron Parks
Largo (1 game)                               Derrick Colter
Milford Mill                                       Tyson Smith
New Town                                        Jalen Clarke
Owings Mills                                    DeShawnte Lloyd
Patterson                                         Aquille Carr
Patterson Mill                                  Garett Burkhead
Paul Laurence Dunbar (Boys)     Donte Pretlow
Paul Laurence Dunbar (Girls)      Brionna Jones
Randallstown (Boys)                     Jerell Cooke
Randallstown (Girls)                      Tiffany Davis
St. Frances (1 game)                     Daquan Cook
Woodlawn (Girls)                           Janelle Lane


About the Basketball Academy
The Academy is a 501(c) 3 organization that aims to prepare students for the SAT and the college admissions process, while exposing middle and high school players to competitive basketball teams from Baltimore City, Baltimore, Harford and Prince George’s counties. Basketball Academy “graduates” include several NBA and NCAA division 1 players such as Rudy Gay (Memphis Grizzlies), Josh Selby (Memphis Grizzlies), Will Barton (University of Memphis), Roscoe Smith (University of Connecticut), Asia Logan (University of Pittsburgh) and LaShay Taft (Syracuse).

For more information, please visit www.bballacademy.com.

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