The Mpls Lady Lakers Basketball Club
- About Us
The Mpls Lady Lakers Basketball Club Youth Program
The Mpls Lady Lakers Basketball Club
is a seven year old traveling team consisting of girls’ ages 9-19 years old. The Mpls Lady Lakers Basketball Club is a team of young ladies on a mission.
Members of the team participate in numerous tournaments, and have many
fundraiser events.
The Mpls Lady Lakers Basketball Club provides a direction for at risk inner city girls, as well as girls throughout the state of Minnesota. Basketball is the medium The Mpls Lady Lakers Basketball Club uses to help build strong self-esteem, encourage goal setting, teach social skills, and academic intervention amongst the girls. Many inner city youth grow up without opportunities for vision, without self confidence, without direction. These are the reasons that many young ladies in these situations fail at school, become involved in negative activities, and give up on their future.
The Mpls Lady Lakers Basketball Club believes that these young ladies are a valuable resource for the future. By providing them with a support system of activities, mentors, and exposure to different positive opportunities, these young ladies have hope and a vision for the future.
The Mpls Lady Lakers Basketball Club was started by two fifth grade girls who wanted to play competitive basketball. They approached one of their fathers to help them and be their coach. Together they developed a code of ethics, raised $1,500.00 selling candy door-to-door, held tryouts and established, The Mpls Lady Lakers Basketball Club.
The Mpls Lady Lakers Basketball Club decided that all team members must not only embrace the code of ethics – Peace, Achievement, Respect, and Teamwork, but also work hard in school and maintain good grades. Each team member is required to maintain a minimum C+ average grade. Tutoring is provided by team members and volunteers as needed.
Three short years after its creation, The Mpls Lady Lakers grew from one team to five teams. The Mpls Lady Lakers is considered a premier, elite basketball organization in Minnesota. In 2003, the 13u team won an invitation to the Nationals, placing 7th place in the United States. The Mpls Lady Lakers, have won numerous State and AAU tournaments. In 2004, the 14u team won Minnesota State qualifier Division I, took 5th at Nationals, and took 2nd at Rochester "Great American Shootout" (played up 15u). Our 16u team had a great season that also lead them to take a trip to the Nationals.
Along with their basketball performance, all team members have not only achieved but surpassed academic goals. However, the biggest real success of the Mpls Lady Lakers is that they are the only team in the state which girls are able to play travel sports who otherwise can’t afford it. This creates unique opportunities for girls with limited financial resources to be on a team that develops many skills in addition to basketball. The girls learn responsibility and goal setting as they fundraise to pay for tournaments through efforts like; car washes, barbeques, bake sales, hosting tournaments, selling products for a profit etc. They learn how to help each other both on the court and off by extending support with academics to girls who need it. This effort places most of the team on the Honor Roll.
The Mpls Lady Lakers has established a mission statement that all team members live by and believe in. “The mission of the Mpls Lady Lakers Basketball Club is to provide a variety of positive opportunities through basketball for college bound athletes. These opportunities are made accessible to young women of all cultural backgrounds and financial status' by our program and its' commitment to meet those needs. We fully intend to satisfy the hearts and desire of those ambitious young athletes, at the same time aide these young women in exposing their talent. Our program and its' prestige will open up many promising paths for these, [young women on a mission], that will lead to countless future successes.”
The Mpls Lady Lakers is more than basketball. We work with young women on and off the court to help aid them build a positive direction in life. Our program is very unique because it offers young women not only basketball skills, but mentoring both academically and socially.
Our basketball club consists of girls from an array of cultural backgrounds. Many of the girls come from diverse economic, social, and family environments. This cross cultural interaction helps these young ladies become more diverse and well rounded individuals. This provides them with valuable tools they can use throughout their personal and professional life.
In return, our program has been able to help some of the girls’ families by providing them food, clothes, furniture, transportation, and emotional support, etc. This past Christmas our club assisted several financially disadvantaged team members’ families to experience a Christmas they may not of had, otherwise.
The Mpls Lady Lakers organization goes above and beyond to improve the lives and the futures of our young women. Our goals are:
Over the past seven years the Mpls Lady Lakers has accomplished enormous success. Success is measured by accomplishing the following extremes:
The Mpls Lady Lakers is unique in the fact that, team members are not charged any player fees to participate. All operating expenses are paid by monies from fundraising or donations. Team members participate and work diligently at fundraising. We feel this gives them a positive activity to achieve a positive goal. These activities also provide the young ladies with skills to achieve a productive work ethic.
In past years, our organization took action to establish a professional side of our club. We were successful in becoming a 501c3 non-profit tax exempt organization and established a board of directors. Our non-profit status allows any cash contribution to be fully tax deductible.
The Mpls Lady Lakers feels that it takes the entire community, working in partnership, to improve the lives of disadvantaged youth. With help and support from corporations, volunteer adult role models, and private donations we can provide these young ladies with a support system of people at this critical point in their young lives.
In effort to provide a vision for the future, the Mpls Lady Lakers plans to use the following strategies to achieve the following goals:
We feel this program brings young people together with adults to resolve problems facing our youths; that brings adults together in a way that allows them to better understand our youth; and it brings the community together to share in their success stories and achievements. This program also builds on meaningful relationships that promote harmony throughout the community, which in turn translates into a true formula for success in the real game of life.
We are asking you to help us support these amazing ‘young women on a mission’. Any donation that you can send will enable the girls to continue along this journey. We also have a sponsorship program available. If you would be interested in becoming a corporate sponsor, please feel free to call Mark Aune or Nicole Aune at 612-721-1111 for more information. Please remember, any contribution is tax deductible as we are a 501c3 non-profit corporation.
Thank you for your interest.
Copyright 2003