The First Annual Feinberg Academic All-American Basketball Classic

This past Saturday at Citizens Bank Arena, in Ontario, CA, the culmination of a new kind of sporting event took place. A high school all-American weekend dedicated to celebrating the participating scholar-athlete’s character as well as their caliber of play and (to quote the founder and chairman Robert Icart) “promoting the education and athletics at the highest level.”

I’m talking about the first Feinberg Academic All-American basketball Classic.

Unlike similar events where participants are selected solely on athletic ability, the selection process for the Feinberg Academic All-American Classic (or FAAAC for short) is based on a number of criteria.

All players selected must be high school seniors that have committed to attend a four year university in the fall of the upcoming year and demonstrate outstanding achievement in the following areas:

• Scholastic achievement (specifically core GPA)
• Difficulty of class schedule
• SAT/ACT score
• Quality of the university the player scheduled to attend
• Community service

The inaugural class featured some of the finest young men and basketball players from across the country including as far east as Massachusetts, as far north Illinois and Utah, as far south as Texas, and as far west as California, the events home state.

Schools of participating players include basketball Meccas such as UNC and UCLA in addition to traditionally recognized academic institutions like Brown, Penn, Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford.

The whole weekend was packed full of events focused on helping the weekend’s honorees as they take the next step in their basketball and professional lives. UCLA’s Men’s Basketball Academic Coordinator, Kenny Donaldson led a seminar that laid out the expectations of each individual player as they navigate through college.

A sports psychology and mental training seminar was conducted by Graham Betchart. Senior Product Manager for the Basketball Division at Reebok, Justin Kittredge discussed how to increase the value of each individual player’s brand.

Milwaukee Brewers owner Mark Attanasio shared his thoughts on professional sports from a front office perspective and Drew Housman of the Harvard Crimson and Vince Oliver of the California-Davis Aggies gave the players a heads-up on what to expect as collegiate athletes.

In addition to the seminars and all-star games, the players participated in a service project at the Los Angeles Children’s Hospital. On the other hand, the weekend was not all work as the teams were also able to visit some of Los Angeles’ most famous landmarks including the Hollywood Walk of Fame and Universal Studios in addition to taking in some fine southern style cuisine at Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles.

In the end, individual honors were given to a number of the young men who participated including Matt Vogrich (CLR Scholar Award - given to the player with highest GPA (4.6) - committed to Michigan), Andrew Bock (Dave Ellis 3pt contest winner - committed to Creighton), Mike Marra (MBT Slam dunk contest winner - committed to Louisville) Reeves Nelson (East/West Game MVP - committed to UCLA), Roger Franklin (North/South Game MVP and FAAAC Player of the year - committed to Oklahoma State).

Nevertheless the point of weekend is not to hand out individual accolades but to highlight the contributions of 40 young men towards creating a better society by simply being outstanding citizens and human beings.

In an era where players are looking to go overseas and forego the college experience to chase pro basketball dollars, it’s refreshing to know there is an event that celebrates these talented young men in their totality, rather than just their ability to play sports.

As Icart says, “These are the people who will controlling and leading the country in the future….We’re looking for the next [Barack] Obama and Bill Bradley in addition to the next LeBron James.”

If you love basketball and appreciate character and education, check out the event’s website at www.aaa-classic.com for information on next years game time and location.