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Aim high, players tell youngsters
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Flipping basketballs around their necks and dunking with the greatest of ease, five members of the Harlem Rockets comic basketball team wowed a gym full of students Friday.
The Rockets toured Hilton Head Elementary and Hilton Head Middle schools, show-ing off their gravity-defying tricks and presenting messages of goal-setting, respect and saying no to drugs.
"It's important to have your dreams and goals, because there's nothing else important in life," Rocket John Dadzie told Hilton Head Middle School students.
Kathy Moore, director of the Hilton Head Island Student Training Empowerment Program, said the Rockets performed twice at the schools a few years ago. The children's enthusiasm remains the same, she said, because the Rockets are good role models.
"They follow a similar path that our program does; reaching for high goals and helping (children) see how they can reach goals that seem to be unattainable," Moore said.
During the 30-minute assembly, the gymnasium constantly was full of laughter. The students jumped up and down when the Rockets chose volunteers.
Sixth-grader Sara Burton, 11, said the Rockets are "very cool."
"I loved their tricks, especially when they twirled the basketball around their backs," Sara said, adding that she understood their messages.
"I know that if you don't do drugs, you can achieve anything you want," she said.
Rocket player Rickie Lopes, who introduced himself as 7 feet tall with a size-15 shoe, said he enjoys working with children.
"What other job can you have where you laugh every day?"
Staff writer Heather Hoefer can be reached at 706-8133 or .
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