ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Allentown’s own Tyrese Martin came back to his hometown for a one-day basketball camp for kids. The NBA draft pick will play for the Atlanta Hawks this upcoming season. But Friday night was all about shooting hoops and running drills with some future basketball stars.
Martin was chosen 51st overall by the Golden State Warriors and then traded to the Hawks. He came back to his home city, Allentown, Friday night to help kids shoot hoops and hone skills. The one-day basketball camp for kids between fourth and eighth grades was free to join.
“Just trying to impact the next kid, you know, give them hope or belief that they can achieve anything,” Martin said.
Some 255 young hoopsters and 25 volunteer coaches joined Martin in basketball drills spanning two gyms inside Memorial Hall at Muhlenberg College.
“It’s amazing, it’s good to get some work in. And meet an NBA player, that’s pretty cool,” Jasmine Donello, 13, in the Nazareth Area School District, said.
Once a William Allen High canary, Martin is spreading his wings and will debut as an Atlanta Hawk this upcoming season. Many kids at the clinic took notice.
“It like proves that if I would work hard enough, I can get to the WNBA,” Donello said.
“I feel like it’s definitely something we could end up doing,” Arianna Rosario, 12, in the Allentown School District, said.
For some, like Marc Macias, 14, in the Lehighton Area School District, it hit even closer to home.
“He lived next to me for about 10 years,” Macias said. “It’s crazy to see someone who grew up in the same environment as me achieve so much, especially at that time. I’m honestly, just proud of him.”
And that’s the whole point of the Impact Athlete Program, started by the Lehigh Valley Health Network: connecting role models with the community.
“Showing kids that seeing is believing,” Steve Hultgren, director of sports initiatives at the Lehigh Valley Health Network, said. “…they walk the same walk that they’re doing, and that they can someday be in those shoes.”
Martin himself says he never had that figure in his life.
“Definitely want to be able to change that narrative, you know,” he said, “and be that public figure for the kids so they can never say that they didn’t have anybody.”
“Understanding where Tyrese is from, his background and the adversity he’s faced in his life to be where he is,” Hultgren said.
Martin’s mom and sister were there as well, taking front-row seats to his service.
“He came from a kid you know, not really having as much as many do here in Allentown,” Martin’s mom, Pamela Rynearson, said. “Moms struggling, I know I did. But, you know, sports is what keeps these kids off the streets.”
Rynearson says she’s helping put together the first Tyrese Martin Day. That will be next June 24.
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