Empire Rises Cougar Classic Tournament

The Empire Rises Cougar Classic League is a Brooklyn based youth organization focusing on under served

student/athletes ranging in age from 10-14. Founded in 2003 (formerly known as

the Cougar Classic) as a Brooklyn based 30 (20 boys & 10 girls) team middle school basketball tournament the

program has morphed into a 32 school, citywide partnership complete with

mentoring programs, basketball fundamental clinics, career education workshops

and a referees/umpires instructional camp. In total the program services over 500

participants on a yearly basis.

Empire Rises utilizes neighboring professionals, community residents, and alumni

of the program to serve as mentors for our participants in our once weekly

meetings. We incorporate game nights, mentor/participant competitions, field

dates and a host of other things to keep our youngsters engaged and motivated.

Because our base is predominantly Black male we try to ensure that our mentors

are as well and actively recruit that demographic to foster comfortability between

mentor and mentee.

Throughout our nearly 20 year run countless participants have went on to

stardom on the basketball court in high school, college, and beyond. There has

been over 75 players who have went on to play scholarship basketball at the

division 1 and 2 levels and many more at the division 3 level. In year 5 of our

program we decided to start offering basketball instructional clinics with many of

the program graduates serving as instructors and clinicians. The skill, knowledge

and enthusiasm that each alum brings to the court has and continues to be

priceless while serving as motivation to our participants.

One of the main focuses of the Empire Rises is to instill an understanding in our

participants that everyone is not destined for stardom on the ball court but that

there are other ways to stay attached to the game and profit from it. For that

reason we offer our career education component with a focus on all things sports

related. Careers in sports management, athletic training, sports statistics,

coaching, equipment managing, etc are all topics of discussion. Various

professionals from these fields are brought in to facilitate these workshops which

creates a more credible environment and mindset that attaining these careers is realistic.

The referee/umpires camp is the newest component of the Empire Rises and goes

hand in hand with our career education section. Actual referees and umpires

conduct the training it mirrors the training that each instructor completed on

their journey to officiating. At the conclusion of the course a written exam is given

to ascertain participant retention followed by a floor test that will gage their

mechanics. There is no pass or fail but merely an opportunity to peek interest in

some who may want to officiate in the future.