Hey everyone

This morning, as is the case every Tuesday, I had arranged for a full day of coaching over at St. Colm's in Twinbrook. Unfortunately, because of what is rapidly becoming a major news story, the school was forced to evacuate its students once again because of witnessing their 5th bomb scare in the past two weeks. Speculation regarding the responsible party/parties is unnecessary and unproductive at this point; for me, the only real talking point is that once again the kids are removed from their school, their teachers, their activities, their friends. Once again, the perpetrators have laid siege to the idea that a school is meant to be a sanctuary: a safe, respected, trusting, reassuring place for young folks that often have much less security and reliability in their lives outside those school walls.

The teachers and administration at St. Colm's have done a tremendous job in developing that kind of community feeling at their school. During all the time I've spent there, the students have been friendly, welcoming, and well-behaved in their interactions with their teachers and amongst one another. Simply put, there is a great, warm vibe exuded by everyone that passes through the school's front door. These bomb threats will not overcome all that St. Colm's stands for. What the threats do is injure and make life more difficult for innocent kids, kids guiltless of any potential blame for any potential grievance that the perpetrators might seek justification for their actions from. It might sound like a cliche, but in this case, it truly is the kids who suffer.

For our program, the end result is another week without a proper training session for the kids, without a week in the gym to build up relationships and trust and a fun environment. However, while we sat in the auditorium provided by St. Mark's Primary School as a safe-house, awaiting news and a decision for the rest of the day, I was able to talk to a bunch of new students that I had not encountered in my PE classes. In them, I found an untapped market enthusiastic to participate in our growing basketball program. As a result, I anticipate attendance will be higher than ever when we return to our normal routine after the Mid-term break next week. If there is a positive that could be taken from these troubling past few weeks, that certainly would be it. We will not relent in working for the goals our program stands for just as St. Colm's will not relent in working to protect what it stands for.

I did a few interviews with different radio and TV stations this morning, speaking to many of the points I have written above. Hopefully,we will be able to locate them in the appropriate digital format and link you to them here on our website.

Take care

- Colin

Welcome to the Full Court Peace Coaches' Blog, where you can read about our daily work uniting Catholics and Protestants through basketball in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Hey everybody, it's Colin here just keeping you up to date on the moving and shaking out here in Belfast. Tuesday offered a bit of a shock but also perhaps a necessary dose of reality regarding the neighborhoods and culture we are immersed in. I was scheduled for a full day over at St. Colm's in Twinbrook, leading a few girls' PE classes in the morning before coaching two groups of guys in the afternoon. Unfortunately, a bomb scare at the school through a wrench in our plans. The majority of our expected participants headed home in the wake of the threat on the school, and so we were forced to cancel the scheduled training sessions and wait for next week .

I know bomb scares happen everywhere, they tend to be a bit of a copycat crime, and sometimes can get rolling with a bit of inertia, one happening after another after another. Such a series of events transpired at my own school in New York when I was a younger lad. We'd go through the motions of evacuation, reallocation, etc, but I can't say there was a real imminent feeling of fear or danger.

Even though its ten years since the end of official paramilitary violence here in Northern Ireland, the mind-states and reactions of people are nevertheless inherently influenced by that history and their personal memories of it. For that reason, I think there was certainly something a bit more edgy to the bomb scare at St. Colm's (for me at least), a response conditioned by the past to take all this just a bit more seriously. Times have changed, but 1998 really wasn't that long ago. Losing the time with the kids at St. Colm's this week was unfortunate, but it did bring the emotional climate of people here more clearly into the foreground.

On a more positive note, the sessions at St. Joe's and Dunmurry went very well on Wednesday and Thursday. Attendance was great again (23 kids afterschool at St. Joe's Wednesday!), and, as is the case at all the schools, I'm always met with such an invigorating energy when I go to coach that I can't help but leave with a kick in my shin-splint, occasionally tendinitis suffering step.

I'll be back to post soon.

- Colin

Welcome back to the Full Court Peace Coaches' Blog, where you can read up on the progress of our day to day operations over in Belfast.

Hey all, Colin checking in again.

Last week finished up really well with great sessions at St. Colm's, Dunmurry, and St. Joe's. The enthusiasm of the students at St. Joe's in particular is really pretty staggering, definitely something I wasn't expecting here in Northern Ireland. For the Wednesday afternoon training (dealing with the older students that will compose our cross-community team), over twenty kids showed up, wearing their freshest Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Allen Iverson gear. Bolstered by the big Filipino presence at the school (basketball is the national sport of the Philippines), the skill development and interest in the game was a very welcome surprise.

The guys over at St. Colm's were all motivated and engaging throughout their Wednesday training session, pushing themselves and having fun through out. They are really a great group and I can't wait to work with them again tomorrow.

Last Thursday I coached a PE class over at Dunmurry in the early afternoon and was again met with great energy, effort, and quickly evolving basketball skill-sets. It's genuinely been fun to watch the progress of the kids in their ball handling, shooting, footwork, and understanding of the game, especially since I've only been working with them for a few weeks. To see such concrete improvements from one week to the next is one of the biggest rewards out here.

After finishing there I took an after-school session of younger students at St. Joe's, their passion for basketball no less than their more senior counterparts. It'll be nice to establish a system of continuity at St. Joe's, where the Full Court Peace program can reach kids of different ages and develop relationships at a younger age.

Today, the kids at Orangefield kicked off the week the right way with their usual smiling, joking ways and attentive work out on the court.

We also welcomed TJ home today. Good things all around.

I'll be back later this week.

Welcome to the Full Court Peace Coaches' Blog, where you can read about our daily work uniting Catholics and Protestants through basketball in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Hey Everyone

This is Colin checking in again. I had another positive session over at Orangefield High School this morning. Working with Patrick Whyte's PE class again, we went through our routine of stationary ball-handling, passing and pivot-foot work, a little bit of shooting fundamentals, and then closed the class with a 3 man weave/2 v. 1 drill that the kids responded to quite well. Despite being an entirely new and foreign concept, they quickly made sense of the demands of the drill and were running through the patterns with renewed confidence.

Also, after completing our fourth PE class with the kids at Orangefield, I approached the group about commencing with the next stage of our program, moving the sessions to after-school. They responded enthusiastically, so once we can hammer out any scheduling issues we will be taking that step forward. It won't be too long now until we have the kids of Orangefield and St. Joe's sharing the court together.


- Colin

Welcome to the Full Court Peace Coaches' Blog, where you can read about our daily work uniting Catholics and Protestants through basketball in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Hey everybody, this is Colin Powers checking in for the first time. I'll be posting here as often as possible, detailing the progress and problems we've witnessed, as well as the hopes we have for the days to come.

I arrived here in Belfast on September 4th, fresh off a summer coaching with the Teache's Hoops Basketball program, featuring some of Westchester, New York's finest basketball instructors (including coach Chris Ward, Terry Teachout, and New York Knick fan favorite, David Lee). The infrastructure for this year's Full Court Peace project had already been laid down by Mike and TJ, and I immediately went about setting up a schedule for meeting with teachers and administrators at the four schools collaborating with us this year. Following Mike's example from 2006, we decided to focus on some of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods of Belfast, pairing Orangefield High School (Protestant) with St. Joseph's College (Catholic) while adding two new institutions to the fold: Dunmurry High School (Protestant) and St. Colm's of Twinbrook (Catholic). Everyone I met at the schools welcomed our mission warmly and enthusiastically, and I would like to individually thank Patrick Whyte, Darren Whyte, Mark Watson, and Diane Brennan at this point for their great support.

By the week of September 15, I was leading PE classes at Orangefield and St. Colm's with another one of our coaches on the ground, Dave Tierney. I can't speak enough about Dave's infectious energy, fun-loving spirit, and trained basketball mind in engaging with the kids. We had very positive sessions at both those schools, and after hammering out some scheduling issues, we began our work at Dunmurry High School the next week.

Once again, the kids were excited and active as we took them through some of the fundamental skills of the game and got them running up and down through an assortment of games. Though at this time, the skill level of the kids is somewhat rudimentary because of a lack of exposure to the game of basketball, they have listened well and done their best to implement our instruction. Dave and I have had to reach back into the old bag of coaching tricks, recalling some of the more basic tenets of the game as we build these kids' skills from the ground floor up, but through out all our time thus far, the energy and willingness of the kids to learn has made this process much easier.

The only hiccup we've encountered up to this point has been at St. Joseph's, where summer construction on the basketball hall had not been completely finished by the beginning of the school year. Nonetheless, the gym was just reopened this week, and because Mike and TJ had already built so many relationships with teachers and students at the school during their two years of work there, we have been able to slide right back into the routine. Dave and I start tomorrow with an after-school training session, thanks in great part to the efforts of Darren Whyte.

I'll check back in next week as we move forward and prepare for the integration of the different schools and the selection and formation of our two teams (Orangefield/St. Joe's and Dunmurry/St. Colm's).

Take care

Colin