In our youth, many of us learned the value of playing on a team by participating in sports. Our coaches served as mentors on and off the playing field. Our coaches taught us more than sporting skills – they taught us life skills which we carry with us today.
Life West student, Alison Scarbrough, believes that through coaching and sports we can create a better understanding of the importance of health and wellness.
Alison Scarbrough is a former University Santa Cruz point guard and she extended her philosophy into the Hayward community by hosting a basketball clinic for local youths. Scarbrough began outreach for her camp in mid-October. She contacted all the Hayward middle schools and local basketball clubs and told them about her upcoming free camp. The interest was there. Over 25 students RSVP’d for the event. Alison was elated.
“Doing basketball camps was a way for me to combine my passions. Basketball was my life for a really long time and now chiropractic is my life,” Scarbrough said. “It felt really authentic and exciting for me to be able to teach basketball and relate it to chiropractic.”
Accompanied by two other coaches, Scarbrough led the participants as they worked on offensive drills like dribbling, passing and shooting for three hours at the Life West gymnasium.
“I started it off with asking what their goals were, because it gave them permission to be themselves straight from the get-go,” Scarbrough said. “They are all so different, but I knew how to connect to these kids based on their goals.”
Scarbrough believes that creating and leading basketball camps is a natural extension of her talents and interests. She sees projects like this as a way to develop her leadership skills and her ability to help other people find value in chiropractic.
“It was a lot of work and I loved it. For me it was a win-win because I got to play basketball and teach basketball to kids,” Scarbrough said. “Also – I see the potential of having families coming in for chiropractic care – which is awesome for me.”
Scarbrough is so excited that she already has plans for another basketball camp in the works.
