New basketball academy comes to Carson

Carson City has its newest youth basketball venture with Rise 8 Basketball Academy getting its start.

The non-profit youth organization is run by a collection of Carson High and Dayton basketball staff members, including Senator boys head coach Ty Golden.

Golden wanted to start the organization to develop youth talent around the area with skills clinics, tournaments and competitive basketball for the local middle school and high school ranks.

“You look around Northern Nevada and the most successful basketball programs are often in areas where they have very successful youth programs,” said Golden, who is the founder and executive director of the academy. “In wanting to be competitive with Northern Nevada basketball, but also wanting to pass along a lot of the lessons we’ve learned through the game of basketball and things that have benefitted us through our lives.”

The programs’ expectations are related to four core values – character, resilience, competitive spirit and teamwork.

BACKGROUND

The Rise 8 Basketball Academy name comes from a Japanese proverb “fall down seven times, stand up eight.”

The father of Golden’s wife, Sam, would share Japanese traditions with Sam and Ty and the name of the new academy was etched in and around the lessons he passed on before he lost his life to cancer a few years ago.

“Some of those lessons he passed on, and that overall mindset of resilience and dealing with adversity. This was a cool way to honor him, while also teaching that lesson about resilience and providing something for youth basketball in the Carson City area,” said Ty Golden.

The Rise 8 Basketball Academy will host skill clinics for both boys and girls, focusing on fundamentals and defensive basics.

Those clinics will be held weekly, starting Thursday, March 9 and will be twice a week with clinics held on Thursdays (6-7:30 p.m.) and Saturdays (9-10:30 a.m.).

As of now, clinics are set up for both March and April with registration at $90/month.

Skills clinics are open to players from second to eighth grade.

“This is open to anybody. We’ve had interest from people barely picking up the game because they’re really young, to even some middle school,” said Golden. “The skills clinics will be pretty individually focused.”

TRAVEL TEAM BREAKDOWN

Rise 8 Academy also will feature a travel team at both the middle school and high school levels.

For sixth through eighth graders, the total cost of the three-month academy is $450 which will cover entry into six tournaments, twice weekly practices, a jersey and warm-up apparel.

Middle school tryouts will be held Saturday, March 4.

“There’s no cost for tryouts,” said Golden. “We will figure out pricing and charges after that based on who makes the team and who is just going to do skills clinics.”

The middle school tournament schedule begins March 18-19 at the Reno Classic and will run through the last tournament June 10-11.

“It’ll give families a little bit of time to enjoy their summer before we ramp things back up with maybe a camp to lead into the school year,” said Golden. “We will play that by ear and see what everyone is interested in.”

High school pricing runs at $400 and includes the cost of two practices a week as well as a minimum of six tournaments.

Practices at the high school level are expected to begin in early April and run through mid-July.

“We’re excited to serve the community and help people out through the game of basketball,” said Golden. “Also, make our teams more competitive in the future based around gaining experience.”

For information, go to www.rise8basketball.com or email rise8basketball@gmail.com.