Hofstra players hold clinic at Friedberg JCC

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The Hofstra men’s basketball team held a clinic for kids participating in the Barry and Florence Friedberg Jewish Community Center’s youth basketball league in Oceanside on Jan. 3.

The league has roughly 160 members from fourth to 12th grade, according to Larry Weissman, basketball coordinator at the JCC, and is expanding to accommodate younger children. About 70 kids from kindergarten to eighth grade met with seven Hofstra players last week to learn a few things and improve their game.

The Division I players and coaches gave the young players tips as they did various basketball drills during the free event. Hunter Sabety, a former Oceanside High School and JCC basketball league player was among the instructors, giving back to the league he came from.

“It was very touching,” Weissman said of Sabety’s willingness to return to the league he played in through high school. “It was great. He was so happy to come back and he was the focal point of it.”

Sabety played basketball and volleyball at OHS, earning All-Long Island accolades as a junior and All-State honors as a senior. He averaged 22 points, 14 rebounds and seven blocks per game as a senior — posting six triple-doubles that year — and was the runner-up for Conference Player of the Year. Sabety departed Oceanside in 2013 as the program's all-time leader in blocked shots.

The 6-foot-8 forward averaged nearly 15 points per game in two seasons at Tufts University in Massachusetts before transferring to Hofstra, where he sat out last year due to NCAA transfer rules.

Weissman said the university would send players on a monthly basis for more clinics. He added that Hofstra also invited kids in the youth league to attend one of their upcoming games.

“The kids had a great time; it was overwhelming,” Weissman said. “The fact that we could do something locally for our town, basketball-wise and for the community…all the parents were loving it.”