Sunday basketball clinics teaching the fundamentals

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It’s 10:30 a.m. Sunday morning and young children are bouncing basketballs all over the Nicholas A. Ferri Middle School Gymnasium.

Mike Bedrosian, a supervisor with the Johnston Parks and Recreation Department, is talking with a group of kids underneath a basket that has been lowered from its normal 10-foot height to eight or so feet.

At the other end of the gymnasium, Gianna Mazzulla is organizing another group of kids who’d soon be doing such things as dribbling, passing and even shooting basketballs – if, in fact, they could reach the bucket..

Meanwhile, a host of proud parents were sitting calmly in the wooden bleachers, looking over the many championship banners that are affixed to the north and south walls of this storied sports venue and keeping an eye on their sons and daughters who are enrolled in a unique recreation activity officially known as Co-Ed Basketball Clinics 2017.

While it’s yet another outstanding offering from the JRD that will run through June 18 at the small cost of $50 per child, several adults who were standing at the Ferri Gym entrance commented: “This is Basketball 101 at its best!”

Few people, if any, would dispute that theory, especially since Bedrosian and Mazzulla – who once played on the Ferri court before they enjoyed sports successes at Johnston High – were making sure each and every child was having fun.

Basically, Bedrosian and Mazzulla – on behalf of the JRD – are introducing grade school boys and girls to the highly-popular game of basketball that has been popular in Johnston back to the days when JRD Director Dan Mazzulla played in the same gymnasium and before there were such things as Sunday morning Co-Ed Clinics.

The first session, Bedrosian noted, is for first- and second- graders and runs every Sunday morning from 10 to 11:15 a.m. The second clinic is for third- and fourth-graders and takes place from 11:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

“Some of these kids have played basketball before,” Bedrosian explained. “But, for most of them, it’s their very first exposure to the game.”

Sunday, both clinics had a combined total of 60 kids, who in some cases, received all kinds of encouragement – and important instructions – from Bedrosian and Mazzulla to smiles on the faces of their moms and dads who were standing by with water bottles just like the high school and college players use.

With the clock winding down and the small yet storied gym filling up with people, Bedrosian – a 2010 JHS grad and full-time JRD employee – said: “OK kids, let’s line up. We’re going to dribble the balls all the way down the court.”

Mazzulla, younger sister of legendary Bishop Hendricken and University of West Virginia star Joey Mazzulla, who is the only Johnstonian to ever play in the NCAA Final Four and recently completed the 2017 season as assistant coach of the Boston Celtics’ Maine Red Claws D-League team – readied the other group of kids for yet another drill.

Drills that are ever so important to these tiny basketball upstarts, some of who will go on to play at the middle school and perhaps high school levels and have a hand – or two – in adding more banners to the Ferri Gym’s Wall of Fame.

Anyone who’d like further information about the Sunday morning Co-Ed Basketball Clinic should call the JRD office at (401) 272-3460 or even show up for the fun-filled program Sunday.

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