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NCAA Middle School Madness Program Unveils WinnersFor Immediate Release
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Contact(s)
Rick Nixon
Associate Director of the Division I Women's Basketball Championship
317/917-6539
SAN ANTONIO---Before the NCAA crowns its national champion April 6 at the Alamodome, the NCAA announced winners of a different kind today. Rather than dribbling and defense, these top performers of the NCAA Middle School Madness program used writing and artistic expression to capture the title.
The 2010 NCAA Middle School Madness program brought the excitement of the Women’s Final Four as a stimulating teaching and learning opportunity into middle school classrooms.
Created in 1999, the program incorporates a curriculum for teachers, along with an individual essay contest for students and a school-wide mural contest. The NCAA-developed curriculum ties academic disciplines in the primary school subjects into the sport of basketball. The contests, developed for students in grades 6-8, center on the “What is the Power of a Dream – of setting goals and working to achieve those goals?”
The four winners of the essay contest are seventh graders Brandon Castillo, Longfellow Middle School; Brianna Salinas, Whittier Academy; Valeria Villa, Gus Garcia Middle School and eighth-grader Daniel Adrian Elizondo, Robert C. Zamora Middle School. The mural contest school winner is José M. Lopez Middle School.
Each essay winner receives a laptop computer provided by the NCAA. José M. Lopez Middle School will receive two computers and every one of its students will receive an NCAA cinch bag. The murals and essays will be displayed at Tourney Town® Refreshed by Coca-Cola Zero®, as well as around the city of San Antonio during Women’s Final Four weekend, April 2-6.
“The response to the Middle School Madness program was outstanding again this year,” said Sue Donohoe, NCAA vice president of Division I women’s basketball. “The Women’s Final Four showcases the ‘best of the best’ in women’s college basketball. The Middle School Madness program is able to bring these same qualities to life in essays and murals. We believe this is one way for the NCAA to leave a lasting legacy in San Antonio.”
A total of 18 San Antonio middle schools participated in the program with each receiving a cash honorarium for school supplies and physical education equipment, Wilson basketballs and a basketball rack. Each of the students that participated and their respective teachers also received a participation gift.
Participating San Antonio middle schools included Omar Bradley Middle School, Brentwood Middle School, Connell Middle School, Dwight Middle School, Gus Garcia Middle School, Bernard Harris Middle School, Irving Academy of Performing Arts, Kingsborough Middle School, Leal Middle School, Longfellow Middle School, José M. Lopez Middle School, Rhodes Middle School, Truman Middle School, Mark Twain Middle School, Whittier Health Science Academy, E.T. Wrenn Middle School, Young Women’s Leadership Academy and Robert C. Zamora Middle School.
About the NCAA and Division I Women’s Basketball
The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletic opportunities for more than 400,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 54,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships in Divisions I, II and III sports. Visit www.ncaa.org and www.ncaa.com for more details about the Association, its goals and members and corporate partnerships that help support programs for student-athletes. The NCAA is proud to have the following elite companies as official Corporate Champions – AT&T, Capital One and Coca-Cola – and the following elite companies as official Corporate Partners – Enterprise, The Hartford, Hershey’s, LG, Lowe’s, Planters, State Farm and UPS.
NCAA women’s basketball is characterized by strong fundamentals, high quality of play, sportsmanship, role model student-athletes and family oriented entertainment. The latest NCAA Graduation Success Rate figures show 83 percent of NCAA Division I women’s basketball players graduate. In terms of the NCAA Academic Progress Rate, which measures term-by-term academic success, the overall score is 962, well above the NCAA benchmark of 925.
For the latest news in regard to the Women’s Final Four, visit www.ncaa.com/finalfour.
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