{"id":101222,"date":"2015-03-30T09:01:20","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T13:01:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=101222"},"modified":"2015-04-06T10:16:59","modified_gmt":"2015-04-06T14:16:59","slug":"huskies-challenge-kids-to-bring-their-a-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2015\/03\/huskies-challenge-kids-to-bring-their-a-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Huskies Challenge Kids to \u2018Bring Their A Game\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The Junior Husky Club Starting 5 during halftime at the Women’s Basketball game vs. Memphis in Gampel Pavilion on Feb. 28. (Athletic Communications\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the NCAA tournament in full swing, the UConn Women\u2019s Basketball team can count on the support of a new generation of fans.<\/p>\n

For more than a decade, UConn Athletics has been leveraging the success of both the Men\u2019s and the Women\u2019s Basketball programs to engage children in local communities. Programs like the Junior Husky Club and youth outreach ticketing initiatives encourage kids to come to games, and celebrate their success in school or community sports involvement.<\/p>\n

\"Women's<\/a>
Women’s Basketball player Kiah Stokes ’15 (CLAS) with Junior Huskies seven-year-old Max and five-year-old Tess Eckhardt in Gampel Pavilion. (Bret Eckhardt\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year, the Junior Husky Club has more than 500 members, ages 13 and under. Members participate in a range of activities, including free and discounted admission to games, a Dairy Bar birthday party for Jonathan, or a post-game basketball shoot-around in the XL Center or Gampel Pavilion.<\/p>\n

Bret Eckhardt, whose five-year-old daughter Tess is a member of the Junior Husky Club, says \u201cIt\u2019s great for the kids \u2013 particularly young girls \u2013 to see these positive role models. They see them out on the court, and then they\u2019re able to go out on that same court; it gives them a sense of the possibilities. And the kids take it very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cBring Your \u2018A\u2019 Game\u201d promotion, featured at the Feb. 14 women\u2019s game against Tulane, recognized excellence in the classroom. Any child who brought a quiz, test, or paper with an \u201cA\u201d grade received free admission to the game. Nearly 300 children showed off their academic skills and were able to watch the Huskies in person. A similar program encouraged kids to wear their community\u2019s youth sports jersey to gain free admission to either a Men\u2019s or a Women\u2019s basketball game.<\/p>\n

Steve Dunn, a coach with Sturbridge (Mass.) Youth Basketball, brought 22 children from his program to both a Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Basketball game this year. Despite living just 25 miles from Storrs, very few of the kids followed UConn Basketball or had ever been to a game.<\/p>\n

Dunn\u2019s players all played an abbreviated game at halftime, in front of their families and a full crowd at Gampel Pavilion. \u201cThe kids were so excited to be at the game with their team uniforms on, and then to go out and play on the Gampel Pavilion court \u2013 it was an amazing experience for both the players and their families,\u201d Dunn says. \u201cI was blown away by the support from the Student Section \u2013 they were very loud and supportive of our kids, who were out there giving it their all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Junior Husky Day post-game shootaround at the XL Center in January. (Athletic Communications\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For children in communities across the state and beyond, college student-athletes can often serve as positive role-models. And for many young kids, college sports are the first interaction they have with the University. Those who participate in these UConn Athletics youth outreach programs leave with a very positive impression of UConn.<\/p>\n

Dunn says his team from Sturbridge got caught up in Husky Mania, and will be supporting the Women\u2019s Basketball team in its quest for a 10th National Championship: \u201cGetting our kids involved not only gave them an unforgettable experience, but also helped create a whole group of new UConn Basketball fans. The kids still talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn Athletics youth outreach programs are creating a new generation of Husky fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":101221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1715,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-101222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-impact","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 05:26:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101222"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101231,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101222\/revisions\/101231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/101221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101222"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=101222"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=101222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}