Ify Ossai was one of the few girls her age shooting baskets in the gym at Lake Highlands North Recreation Center last year. But this year, the 16-year-old is a member of the center’s award-winning new girls basketball team, the True Starters.
In their first eight months, the nine girls (ages 10-16) not only learned to work together and make the most of one another’s skills, but they also won a Dallas rec league championship in early summer and the Hoop It Up “Young Guns” competition in July. They also played in the Larry Johnson “Slam Jam” at Texas Woman’s University in Denton.
“I’ve gotten so much better on my skills since I came up here and got the chance to play guard,” says Ossai, who has played junior varsity basketball at Ursuline Academy and hopes to make the varsity team this year.
Teammate Lettice Gentry, 13, of Lake Highlands Junior High started out shooting baskets with her brother and then was asked to join the girls team.
“This rec center needed a girls sport program, so we decided to start with basketball,” says Charles Walker, the True Starters coach and a rec center community program assistant.
“These girls had not played together before, but they have done really well.”
Walker emphasizes basketball not only as a sport but as a social activity – something kids can do after school that gives them the opportunity to make friends, develop skills and perhaps become involved in other rec center programs.
