Photo By Senior Airman Cedrique Oldaker | Members of youth sports group Out Work Everyone display their trophies won while...... read more read more
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ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England – Growing up, many children enjoy being a part of sports groups and teams as a way to hang out or compete with their friends. Military children, however, do not always have these luxuries while stationed overseas.
Out Work Everyone is a youth basketball and football group based out of RAF Lakenheath, created in 2017 to give children in the tri-base area of RAF Lakenheath, Mildenhall, and Feltwell opportunities to play sports at a competitive level while they are living in England.
Formed by coaches Kenneth Colbert and Anthony Jirtle, OWE helps connect its players with the community while also fostering a competitive training level that children in the states have easier access to.
“What I want is to get these kids to a level where they can pursue an opportunity to earn scholarships from playing sports, if that’s something they want,” said Colbert. “We have educators and scouts come to talk to them about realistic goals and give them mentoring on what it takes to be a student athlete.”
A previous player for the group, Amare Francois, is a current hopeful for a Division 1 Basketball scholarship at Lakeway Christian Academy in Tennessee. Francois had attended an invite only camp in pursuit of the offer and would be the first player from the O.W.E program to obtain a scholarship.
In the past year, the organization formed a girls’ basketball team for the first time, which, along with both the under 12 and under 14 boys’ teams, competed at a Continental Basketball League tournament in London, England.
At the tournament, both boys’ teams took home first place and the girls’ team became runner ups, despite being a brand new team and only being able to play with 6 players. However the girls’ team had one of their players, Laela Britt, named CBL’s Most Valuable Player of the year for her performance during the tournament.
“I was kind of surprised, but I know that with the help of my coaches and my team, I was able to put in the work to get myself there,” said Britt.
Parents involved with the program assist the team as well. The parents help with score keeping in games as well as carpooling the kids to be sure all the players possible are able to go to the games.
“This is a great opportunity for kids to connect and interact with the community around them and build friendships,” said Teresa Moon, a parent of two of the players on the girls’ team.
OWE allows the players to improve their skills and make friends in the community while traveling around the island to compete in different leagues. The group brings the Liberty Wing community and its neighbors closer.
| Date Taken: | 09.30.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 09.30.2021 06:16 |
| Story ID: | 406384 |
| Location: | RAF LAKENHEATH, SFK, GB |
| Web Views: | 124 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Out Working the Competition, by SrA Cedrique Oldaker, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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