East Orange Recreation boys seventh- and eighth-grade boys basketball players line up as they hold copies of the book, ‘The Power of Discipline: How to Achieve Self Control and Mental Toughness to Achieve Your Goals.’ The players practice a pre-game ritual of reading a book.
EAST ORANGE, NJ — To Asante’ Ward, reading is very important.
That’s why Ward, who is the head coach of the East Orange Recreation seventh-eighth grade boys basketball team, makes sure that his players read a book as a pre-game ritual.
Ward frequently assigns a book to read for each of his 16 players on the squad. The players recently were reading “The Power of Discipline: How to Achieve Self Control and Mental Toughness to Achieve Your Goals”, by Daniel Walter.
“I’m a big advocate for reading,” said Ward, a 2016 Cicely Tyson School graduate and a William Paterson University graduate with a bachelor’s degree in sports management and minors in business administration and professional sales. “The benefits are beyond what they can see at the current moment. It will help them with their vocabulary so that they can have much better verbiage. It will help them understand the English language, which is very important because if they progress into their adult years and are not able to comprehend a contract or important document, they will be labeled as incompetent. So I want to make sure they have a better foundation in that regard.
“And also to calm their mind. They spend a lot of time on social media or any type of technology where their mind is active, so (reading) stabilizes their mind and utilizes their inner voice more.”
Most of the players on the team were on last year’s sixth-grade squad that won an Essex County-based league championship.
The seventh-eighth grade team is hoping to make a similar strong run at the league championship this season.
Ward has been coaching for several years and said he loves it.
“I enjoy it,” he said about coaching. “I can definitely say it’s a passion that I can say, when I go to work, I don’t feel like it’s work.”
Photos Courtesy of Daria Crooms
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