Crossroads travel basketball tryouts coming up

By Laurie Gordon

Cornell Thomas is an inspiration, motivator, role-model and coach. When it comes to the sport of basketball, he knows the game inside and out, and when it comes to inspiring kids to do and be their best, both on and off the court, he's an ace. Thomas is the owner and founder of Crossroads Basketball, and this spring season is about to get under way with a new addition of a fundamentals and skills component.

This is Crossroads's 11th year being involved with AAU basketball and its programs are for kids in grades four through 11, including boys and girls. Practices are held at either Lafayette Middle School or Sussex Tech High School.

"We aren't about trophies and T-shirts," Thomas said, "We are about development, on and off the court. We hold our kids accountable to a certain standard. Our kids play hard and play for each other. The on court lessons they learn through their success and failure are also applicable in everyday life."

This year, for the first time, Crossroads is offering two separate programs. "Crossroads Basketball will be just like it has been in the past, we will travel and look for tough competition inside and outside of NJ to push our players," Thomas said, "The new addition is our "Crossroads" program which is for players not quite ready for the rigors of AAU, or those that need some fine tuning on the fundamentals. This group will not travel as much and will be focused on more skill development and less game."

Thomas loves teaching kids all of the aspects of the game of basketball, but his underlying goal is that they go away from his programs not only with increased skills and knowledge of the game but some life lessons a well. "Our programs and summer camps are designed to make kids better players and people by the end. I believe that basketball mirrors life in terms of kids learning how to fight through adversity, work with others, get over mistakes, and to get the word can't out of their vocabulary," Thomas said. Thomas practice what he preaches and is one of the most positive, up-beat people around. He's even written a book about this called The Power of Positivity.

Crossroads Basketball specializes in teaching the fundamentals of basketball and bringing out the best in its athletes. Tryouts will be held February 21 and 28 at Lafayette Middle School. Information and times are listed at www.crosssroadsbasketball.com

Cornell Thomas, holding a ball, gets his young players moving.