About

The Florence Wildcats Organization would like to introduce youth initiatives to work within the scope of establishing a proactive approach to eliminating the ever rising population of at-risk youth. Our intent is to create a basketball culture that enhances the ideology that it really does take a village to train children effectively in education, arts and sports. We want to produce this mission by: Building a better Florence for future generations. Becoming respected partners with the entire community. Teaching respect, by modeling respect through basketball initiatives Valuing better educational opportunities and personal development for everyone.

STRATEGIC PLAN Our Florence community is known as a tough town with tough kids. This makes going to school…tough, being a parent…tough, and fighting crime…tough. This is, of course, familiar ground to any growing city. This is Florence, and we have to stay on top of it to begin our stigma change through education or sports. If everyone sees our kids as tough, they may not get a fair shake at first glance. Changing the attitude and outlook of our youth will save them when it’s time to go forth and impress the world. Toughness is necessary, but they need to be able to recognize their resilience, respect it, and use it wisely to develop their character. Respect plays an important role in changing the way young people think about themselves and their community. Our efforts as a semi-pro basketball organization will instill a change in this climate by teaching these very attributes. We want to partner with organizations to do the following: BASKETBALL CAMPS –This is will be a camp (boys & girls) that focuses on developing the complete player. Youth will develop shooting, ball handling, passing, footwork, defense, rebounding, athleticism, character development, and other essential skills to become a great a basketball player.


Youth also get to take the skills they’ve practiced and apply them in a controlled game setting at the end of camp. There are no promises, but if youth do these little things well, they are setting themselves up to have success in life. Besides making them a BETTER PLAYER, these little things will take them farther in life. MENTORSHIP – Mentoring through athletics is a way to be committed to the character development of young people. We will strive to develop young people through four core areas; Discipline, Responsibility, Accountability and Respect. Each of these areas are critical to the progress of young people on and off the athletic field/court of play. Athletics provide a training ground for our youth; as they participate in camps, leagues and various workshops they will embark on different experiences.

Our mentorship is not limited to the sports arena. Our mentorship can take place in a number of settings as our mentors interact with their mentees in their classrooms as well as their home environments. (pending any approvals) Our goal is to develop the whole person so that they can experience success in all areas of their lives. Mentoring on the helms of athletics embraces the opportunity to touch as many young people as possible and equip them with tools that will foster success in each facet of their lives. CREATING COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS – Community partnerships are the key for any organization to have success. In the area of sports we definitely will be reaching out to those specific outlets but we also want to capture networking with our neighbors and surrounding schools and community organizations to form a strong partnership in the area. We hope that with all of the detailed information provided you will feel inclined to assist such a great community project!