Nassau Ballaz take over Hofstra

Hofstra head coach, Speedy Claxton, got a quick glimpse of the future of basketball this week after leading his team to a 86-77 victory over Hampton University — but the best basketball wasn’t played until after the game, when the Nassau Ballaz took over the court.

The Ballaz are a community based basketball program that has been serving children from all over Hempstead, Uniondale, and Roosevelt to teach them the game of basketball and help them succeed both on and off the court since its inception in 1992.

The program’s deeper mission is to help the players grow as individuals and members of the community. Ballaz program organizer and head coach, Darryl Burgess, said he wants to instill values such as discipline, respect, teamwork, and leadership in his players. One of his ways of accomplishing this mission is by exposing them to different environments and experiences they may not have had otherwise — such as playing at Hofstra in front of a former NBA player and division one coach in elementary school.

Burgess was able to set up the event through his friendship with family members of coach Claxton, who is originally from Hempstead.

“I knew his father, Steven Claxton, from years ago,” Burgess said, “we asked him if he could help get us on the court and he hooked everything up,” he explained. “I have to give credit to Antonia Guerra who contacted him for us.”

The experience was priceless not just for the children, but for the parents involved as well.

“I was on one of Darryl's first teams to ever be put together, and now 25 years later I have my son playing on the same team and being able to go to Hofstra and meet Speedy,” said Lesly Augustin, whose 10 year old son, Micaiah, now plays for the Ballaz.

“It was an amazing experience,” said Augustin, “to see my son running up and down at Hofstra was a full circle moment.”

Augustin explained that this experience not only allowed him to experience his son having fun on a stage that big, but his son has since been inspired himself to reach the division one level after playing on that court and seeing the stands.

“After the game my son said to me, ‘Dad, I want to play at Hofstra,’” said Augustin. “He was like, ‘this is what division one is like?’ And I told him yes, but explained that you have to work very hard to get here. Now he has an idea of what he needs to do and in order for him to get back onto this platform for himself and strive to be a division one athlete.”