Born Ready Project Supports umttr.org 3v3 Hoops Benefit Tournament

 

Since Evan Rosenstock took his life in May 2013, his friends and family have rallied to support suicide prevention and education. Most emphatically, the group started umttr, a community of young adults leading a movement to change the story from bullying, depression and suicide to a compassionate culture where every person matters.

umttr’s marquee fund raising event is a 3v3 basketball tournament, which will take place June 14 at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, Maryland. The Born Ready Project is a promotional partner with umttr and has donated a speech to those attending.

Dave Ungrady, author of Born Ready: The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias and the founder of the project, will speak at the event about the importance of good decision making. Books will be available for purchase.

The event will showcase 8th – 12th grade basketball players (coed), men’s basketball (under 50 and over 50), and feature celebrity appearances, speakers, politicians and a silent auction. Proceeds from the event will support student mental health and wellness organizations.

For more information, contact Susan Rosenstock at 202-679-6869, susan@umttr.org. Register here.

GoGrady Media Supports Capital Classic Hoops

The Capital Classic High School All-Star Game will take place for the 42n consecutive year on April 24, and GoGrady Media, along with the Born Ready Project, will have a presence at the event.

GoGrady Media is offering media consulting services to the event, helping primarily with media outreach. Further, tournament organizers will allow GoGrady Media president Dave Ungrady to sell his book, Born Ready: The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias, at the event. Proceeds from book sales will benefit the Born Ready Project’s Youth Leadership Fund, which support speeches about life skills to teenagers and young adults in underserved communities.

When the Capital Classic was first staged in 1974, the game featuring Moses Malone attracted some 11,000 spectators at the old Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland. At that time, it was one of only two national high school all star games. The other was the Dapper Dan Classic in Pittsburgh. The Capital Classic soon became the preeminent national high school all-star game. Over the years, it has featured such stars at Ralph Sampson, Len Bias, Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Patrick Ewing, and LeBron James.

Over the last decade, the game has changed management and lost some of its prestige. But Bob Geoghan, the event founder, resumed control of the event in 2011 and along with DMV Elite is trying to revive its status as the premier national game for high school basketball stars.

The 2015 game will be played at Catholic University’s DuFour Center.  Click here for more information about tickets, etc.

BRP Safe Summer Speeches Set for Late July and Early August

Some three decades ago G. Van Standifer started a midnight basketball league in Prince George’s County, Maryland as a safe haven for teens and young adults. The program placed youth in a safe environment with late night basketball and mandatory education counseling, mentoring and personal development workshops.

The program started in 1986, the same year Len Bias died of a cocaine overdose. An extension of the midnight basketball exists today in Safe Summer, operated by the Prince George’s County Parks and Recreation’s Xtreme Teens program.

 

And the Born Ready Project, developed from the book Born Ready: The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias, is proud to announce it will be part of Safe Streets this summer. In late July and early August BRP founder Dave Ungrady will make speeches at three community centers.  The date are as follows:

July 29 – Marlow Heights Community Center, Temple Hills MD

Aug. 6 – Kentland Community Center, Landover, MD

Aug. 7 – John. E Howard Community Center, Capital Heights, MD

BRPs Safe Summer presentations mark Ungrady’s return to the Xtreme Teens program. He spoke at six recreation centers in Prince George’s County during the winter of 2014 through Xtreme Teens.

Dave Ungrady speaks to youth at the Columbia Park Recreation Center in March 2014 as part of the Xtreme Teens program.

 

The Safe Summer speeches are supported in part through the BRP’s Youth Leadership campaign.

For more information, contact Dave Ungrady at djungrady27@gmail.com, 703-282-5259 and Stephen Makle of Xtreme Teens at Stephen.Makle@pgparks.com, 301-446-3408.

 

GoGrady Media Partners with Loudoun Soccer to Produce Player Videos

February 3, 2015

GoGrady Media, with support from Loudoun Soccer, is offering a promotional video package for youth players. Players can use the videos to promote themselves to college coaches, assisting their efforts to play college soccer, and will be marketed primarily to high school sophomores, juniors and seniors.

Dave Ungrady, founder and president of Grady Media and developer of the Born Ready Project, will produce the videos. Dave is an author who has vast experience as a multi-media journalist. He has done on air and production work for ESPN, CNN, NBC and Voice of America and produced Loudoun Soccer TV in 2013. Dave is also a professional coach with Loudoun Soccer, primarily as head coach of 03 and 05 boys teams and head coach of recreational all-star teams.

Players who use the service will be eligible to receive Born Ready Project counseling about ways to make good decisions.

For more information about the videos, contact Dave at dave@gogradymedia.com, 703-282-5259. To contact Loudoun Soccer, call 703-777-9977.

Born Ready Youth Leadership Tour Debuts in Virginia

The first Born Ready Project Youth Leadership Tour took place Dec. 2 at T.C. Williams H.S. in Alexandria, Virginia at its fall sports banquet. Born Ready Project founder Dave Ungrady spoke to some 200 athletes and their parents about the importance decision making for about 25 minutes before the athletes received their awards.

Here’s what William Campbell, a member of the Alexandria City School Board, said about the speech: “I wholeheartedly endorse the Born Ready Project, Despite our time constraints, Dave was able to present our group a truncated yet extremely powerful portion of the motivational message. We had two team coaches ask if we could have him back to do a longer presentation to their individual teams! We look forwarded to quickly having him back in the Alexandria community.”

The Youth Leadership Tour is supported by donations made to the Born Ready Project through its GoFundMe campaign. The next Youth Leadership Tour speech will take place early in 2015.

“Born Ready” Author To Write New Terps Books

Dave Ungrady, the author of the book Born Ready: The Mixed Legacy of Len Bias, has signed with Triumph Books to write his fourth book about the history of athletics at his alma mater, the University of Maryland. The new book, “100 Things Terps Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die”, is due for a fall 2015 release. It will be published by Triumph Books.

Ungrady’s previous books about Terps athletics include the best selling “Tales from the Maryland Terrapins: A Collection of the Greatest Stories Ever Told (2003, updated in 2014); Legends of Maryland Basketball (2004). In 1998 Ungrady’s self-published his first book, Unlucky: A Season of Struggle in Minor League Professional Soccer”.

Ungrady, president of GoGrady Media and founder of the Born Ready Project, was a member of two sports at Maryland (soccer and track and field) and was an all conference middle distance runner and track team captain. He is a 1980 graduate of the university.

 

 

Nats Manager Williams Owns a Big Decision

Sports competitions provide an environment for some of the toughest decision-making situations. And baseball managers, more than coaches or managers in other sports, face more tough decisions on a daily basis. This is due in large part to the game’s heavily unscripted format . Players and coaches are forced to react to many twists and turns that unsettle the best laid plans.

A case in point–the Nationals vs. the Giants in game 2 of the National League Division Series Saturday night. After Nats starting pitcher Jordan Zimmerman walked a batter with two outs and a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the ninth inning, Nats manager Matt Williams chose to replace Zimmerman with closer Drew Storen, who quickly gave up a hit that scored the tying run. The Nats lost in 18 innings and fell two games down in the best of five series.

Williams explains the decision in this column by Mike Wise in the Washington Post. You may disagree with Williams’ reasoning–I’m sure thousands of Nats fans do not approve–but you must give Williams credit for one thing, and that is owning the decision.

Owning a decision is one of the six tools of sound decision making. It’s important to embrace a decision that went awry because there will be lessons from that decision that will help in the future. And by owning a decision, even one Williams made that led to such high levels of disappointment for so many, you earn the respect of your peers and enhance your credibility.

In the professional world, few things are more important to securing a sound legacy and an admired reputation.