Hoops at MRC, A Visit to SOMA
Wednesday, July 29, 2009Posted by
Reflindo
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Today, I visited Mission Recreation Center and watched a girls basketball camp organized by recreation director Oscar Jimenez. Oscar has coached some very successful girls basketball teams over the years, and one of his star players was local hoops legend Toni Russell.
Toni was a star at the University of San Francisco (USF), having graduated in 2006 as the school’s all-time leader in assists and steals. She currently plays professional ball in Europe and was a member of the Bay Tide team in this year’s San Francisco Bay Area Pro-Am Summer Basketball League.
Each summer for the past six years, Toni and her older brother, LyRyan, who also played at USF have volunteered their time to help coach the basketball camp. Toni is amazing; she’s truly a natural when it comes to coaching and interacting with the girls.
I played one-on-one with LyRyan and, unlike my experience with two 7-year-olds at Joe Lee, this time I didn't win.
Later in the day, I visited Gene Friend/SOMA Recreation Center and Victoria Manalo Draves Park in the city’s South of Market area. There is very little open space in this area of town, so the recreation center and park, which are less than a block away from each other, serve as the primary spots for many of the neighborhood kids to run and play.
The recreation center is a huge and lively complex that houses, among other things, a gymnasium and several programs for tots, school-age children, teens and young adults. The center is named in honor of Eugene Friend, a longtime civic leader and member of the Recreation and Park Commission who passed away in 2005.
Victoria Manalo Draves Park is a two-acre urban oasis that opened on the old Bessie Carmichael Elementary School site on Sherman Street in 2006. The park is named after Victoria Manalo Draves, the first woman in Olympic history to win gold medals in both springboard and platform diving events, when she did both in the 1948 Olympic Games. Ms. Manalo Draves was born in San Francisco to an English immigrant mother and a Filipino immigrant father and is seen as important role model to the hundreds of thousands of Asian and Pacific Islander American residents in the city.
Toni was a star at the University of San Francisco (USF), having graduated in 2006 as the school’s all-time leader in assists and steals. She currently plays professional ball in Europe and was a member of the Bay Tide team in this year’s San Francisco Bay Area Pro-Am Summer Basketball League.Each summer for the past six years, Toni and her older brother, LyRyan, who also played at USF have volunteered their time to help coach the basketball camp. Toni is amazing; she’s truly a natural when it comes to coaching and interacting with the girls.
I played one-on-one with LyRyan and, unlike my experience with two 7-year-olds at Joe Lee, this time I didn't win.
Later in the day, I visited Gene Friend/SOMA Recreation Center and Victoria Manalo Draves Park in the city’s South of Market area. There is very little open space in this area of town, so the recreation center and park, which are less than a block away from each other, serve as the primary spots for many of the neighborhood kids to run and play.The recreation center is a huge and lively complex that houses, among other things, a gymnasium and several programs for tots, school-age children, teens and young adults. The center is named in honor of Eugene Friend, a longtime civic leader and member of the Recreation and Park Commission who passed away in 2005.
Victoria Manalo Draves Park is a two-acre urban oasis that opened on the old Bessie Carmichael Elementary School site on Sherman Street in 2006. The park is named after Victoria Manalo Draves, the first woman in Olympic history to win gold medals in both springboard and platform diving events, when she did both in the 1948 Olympic Games. Ms. Manalo Draves was born in San Francisco to an English immigrant mother and a Filipino immigrant father and is seen as important role model to the hundreds of thousands of Asian and Pacific Islander American residents in the city.
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