Catching Up with "Get Sponsored" Winner Miles Davis Academy

by Matt Stallknecht, POINT 3 Basketball

Last fall, we announced our second-ever “Get Sponsored” contest winner: the Miles Davis Magnet Academy.

Miles Davis Academy is a magnet school on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. The school has just over 300 students grades K-8 and serves as an alternative to the city’s public school system. The school has a special lottery system that determines student eligibility to enroll at the school, and the curriculum is highly rigorous academically, with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) fields being taught and promoted heavily to students.

The school’s 7^th and 8^th grade basketball team, coached by Emmanuel Crosby, has been rocking our POINT 3 gear for the past few months, and we’ve been following their progress all along the way.

We recently caught up with Coach Crosby to get an update on how the team is looking heading into the final stretch of the season.

POINT 3: How has the winter portion of the season gone for you so far?

Crosby: I’d say so far it is going ok. We haven’t quite lived up to our personal expectations. We finished 4^th in our league last season and we’re probably not going to be able to reach that this year. We lost a lot of 8^th graders so that played a big role.

POINT 3: How are you guys liking the POINT 3 gear so far?

Crosby: It’s been awesome, man. The kids have worn POINT 3 gear to every game. They even wear it around the school! The kids love the gear and it’s been awesome to represent POINT 3 so far. The uniforms have held up really well too. Even after the kids have worn them game after game, they still look brand new.

POINT 3: Have other schools taken notice of the new gear?

Crosby: We have the best uniforms in the city. Whenever we travel to another school, we're getting comments like, "where did you guys get those, you must be rich!" Schools think we're wealthy now, so I’d definitely say they’ve taken notice!

POINT 3: What is next for the team, and what are your expectations for the spring season?

Crosby: We’ve got four more games left in the current season, and then post-season tournaments after that. Those tournaments are important for us because it’s an opportunity for high schools to recruit, and that’s big for the kids.

As for our expectations, we feel like the team is really starting to come together and we’re optimistic about the upcoming games. We kind of lost our way a bit around Christmas, but since the start of February we've been turning things around and we think we’ll be able to carry that momentum into the post-season.

Good luck to the Mustangs and we’re happy to have them a part of the POINT 3 family!

To learn more about the Miles Davis Magnet Academy, check out http://milesdavismagnet.org/.