'Community first' - Sussex club's mission to grow 3x3

Elite Sports Coaching CIC (ESC) in Sussex has made a commitment to running basketball events throughout the year, especially during the school holidays. 

Its mission is to offer engaging basketball programmes that help young people with their personal development. 

The Worthing based club runs events in both the 5v5 and 3x3 formats of the game. 

"We have been running events since last summer, starting with our summer league throughout the off season," said Co-founder and Project Director Gary Nicholson.

"We had over 130 players from u12 to u19 coming from as far away as south London [to compete]."

Since then, the club has been running regular 3x3 tournaments, supported by GB 3x3 star and NBL1 Newcastle Knights forward Hafeez Abdul, who is also the co-founder of ESC.

Showcases have included Halloween and Christmas 3x3 tournaments and their next events are the Sussex Jam Valentine's 3x3 on the 21 February and an Easter 3x3 showcase on the 12 April.  

"We are slowly growing and have recently received funding from the Worthing Community Chest, as well as sponsorship from local companies. We pride ourselves in prioritising the players, of all ages, giving free giveaways, t-shirts, socks etc, and working with our sponsors.  It has a great impact on the local youth players, firstly they play consistently during the summer period, and secondly, they're playing competitive 3x3 on a regular basis," added Nicholson. 

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