OZANAM INC. ASSISTANT EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR DR. KAREN HALL, HOLDING THE BASKETBALL, WITH MEMBERS OF OZANAM. (PHOTOS BY J.L. MARTELLO)
For one thing to be alive and nicely 55 years within the making, any person have to be doing one thing proper.
Ozanam Inc., is a company that has its personal standing, makes its personal assertion. There aren’t many individuals in Pittsburgh who don’t know somebody who performed in its annual Summer time League, or realized invaluable life abilities through the college yr…heck, there are millions of Ozanam alumni who’ve been a part of the neighborhood group.
And when you’re a part of it, you by no means actually go away it, so says Dr. Karen Corridor, the group’s assistant government director. She performed basketball with Ozanam way back to 1979 or 1980, and her group was actually ballin’ in 1982, when the group gained its first AAU (Beginner Athletic Union) championship, in Boston.
CARL KOHLMAN, VISIONARY FOUNDER OF OZANAM INC.
Ozanam is celebrating its fifty fifth yr in existence in 2023. It was based by Carl Kohlman, an African American man who beloved youngsters, beloved training, and beloved success. He meshed the three collectively and confirmed simply how one can use athletics as a automobile to carry youngsters to the desk, the place they are often served a wholesome dose of training and life abilities.
THE OZANAM SUMMER BASKETBALL LEAGUE 2023—COURTNEY WALLACE, DR. KAREN HALL, JACK SHANNON, DERICK HARDEMAN JR., ONWUBIKO
“The distinctiveness of Ozanam is, it’s run by the alumni,” Dr. Corridor advised the New Pittsburgh Courier in an unique interview, July 3. “Folks like Dwight Clay, Ricky Coleman, Sam Clancy, all of them got here via in the beginning of the (Ozanam) Summer time (Basketball) League, and set the tone for it to be the premier league in Western Pennsylvania, with their superior play,” Dr. Corridor stated. “Then all of them went to school, and laid the (academic) basis.”
MICHAELA PORTER, GERALD WARRICK AKA SKYWALKER
She additionally talked about hoop stars like Jennifer Bruce and Mary Meyers; Meyers starred on the College of Kansas, Bruce at Pitt. “And we (together with Darelle Porter, Ozanam’s government director) all adopted them” as stars in Ozanam, and to school as nicely. Dr. Corridor performed on the College of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV), and Porter performed at Pitt. Dr. Corridor performed her highschool ball on the outdated Mount Alvernia Excessive Faculty in Millvale, whereas Porter performed at Perry Conventional Academy.
OZANAM’S SPECIAL 55TH ANNIVERSARY SHOE LINE…
Ozanam wasn’t and isn’t an all-Black league, Dr. Corridor stated. “In the event you may play, you got here to the Hill in Ozanam,” she stated, which meant that White gamers who knew what they have been doing on the basketball court docket have been welcome, too.
Ozanam’s Summer time League is happening at three websites this yr: Ammon Recreation Heart, on Bedford Avenue within the Hill; Manchester Tutorial Constitution Faculty; and the Kingsley Heart, in East Liberty. Ozanam is open to youth ages all through highschool. Ozanam is holding its Summer time League Champions Weekend at Manchester Tutorial Constitution Faculty’s exterior courts on July 15, starting at 2 p.m. It will likely be adopted by an Alumni Cookout on July 16 at Ammon Recreation Heart, starting at 2 p.m.
OZANAM INC. IS CELEBRATING 55 YEARS IN EXISTENCE IN 2023. (PHOTOS BY J.L. MARTELLO)
Ozanam will start its “fall programming” on the finish of August, held solely on the Ammon Recreation Heart. Dr. Corridor stated that’s the place youngsters study so many life abilities; how you can hearken to others who could also be talking, how you can improve their confidence, “discover their voice,” as Dr. Corridor stated, “and how you can get to know folks and get together with folks.”
The youth study correct research habits, have character-building workout routines, and so they take journeys to historic locations within the Hill to show them concerning the neighborhood’s lengthy and storied historical past.
However again to Dr. Corridor, and that journey she took to Boston 41 years in the past. There are youth in Ozanam whose first time on an airplane was via the group. That rings true for Dr. Corridor. Heading to Boston for AAU basketball with Ozanam in 1982 as a excessive schooler marked her first time on a airplane.
That was a part of the imaginative and prescient of Ozanam’s founder, Carl Kohlman. He referred to as them “cultural change video games,” the place Ozanam groups would play in a distinct metropolis, say Philadelphia or New York, and after the video games, the youth would go to totally different components of the town. In recent times, Ozanam youth visited the historic Rucker Park in New York Metropolis. Rucker Park is famend for its basketball icons that after performed on the courts there, like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, and Connie Hawkins, who gained an ABA championship with the Pittsburgh Pipers in 1968.
DR. KAREN HALL AND DARELLE PORTER, LEADERS OF OZANAM.
Kohlman’s imaginative and prescient “was to provide alternatives to internal metropolis, city youngsters, however use athletics as a automobile to supply a way to training,” Dr. Corridor advised the Courier. “He may care much less what number of video games they gained, his aim was the training base.”
So how has this group lasted 55 years, which now has 250 youth at the moment in this system? Dr. Corridor stated it’s easy. The neighborhood could be very aware of Ozanam and trusts that the youth will probably be in a protected haven that promotes studying on and off the court docket. Plus, she stated: “It’s lasted this lengthy as a result of we, as alums, we understood (Kohlman’s) imaginative and prescient. We share the imaginative and prescient.”
(Editor’s notice: For extra data on Ozanam, electronic mail athletics4all@yahoo.com or dap2kk@gmail.com)
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