Upward Basketball makes Oskaloosa debut

Upward Sports Basketball began practice recently with a large youth turnout

Upward sports started this year with some help from Oskaloosa Nazarene Church. The youth basketball program is for kids from 1st grade to 6th grade.

Al Carlson, Director of the program stated the purpose of the league is to teach the right way to play the game. Carlson said it includes sportsmanship, attitudes and some biblical training on how we should behave when interacting with others.

Nationwide, Upward Sports has 500,000 kids involved in the program, with the local Nazarene Church helping to sponsor the program, and many of the volunteers that are helping are from the local church as well.

Carlson said that “it’s open to any kid in the community, we want as much involvement as we can.”

Carlson also said that there are other communities, in the State of Iowa as well, that use the program as part of their cities recreating programs.

Next year after the completion of the new facility, the Nazarene Church will be able to provide even more space for the program, but they wanted to take the opportunity this year to get the program started Carlson said on the choice to start the program this year.

“Eventually, when we get more established, get more of the skill sets down, we will have games on Saturday mornings” Carlson said on upcoming play in early February. He stated that the games will really be teaching games, with the ability to just get out and play with being able to learn the fundamentals of the game. For now, games will be played amongst others in town.

I asked Carlson if there was still room for new participants to join. “Oh sure, we would love to have any kid that would like to come out and be a part of this.”

There is a cost to participate, but scholarships are available from the Nazarene Church. If you are interested, contact them at 641.673.3417 and they can give you better details of times, events and costs involved for participation.