Varsity and JV basketball teams develop endurance and perfect plays through dedicated practice each week in the gymnasium. On the same campus, second-graders look up to those athletes, envisioning a time when they will play basketball for Jackson Academy. An early way that second graders get a feel for the sport is through Little Dribblers.
This morning, the Little Dribblers took the court in an impressive and entertaining performance of ball-handling skills, timing, and working together. Their performance raised spirits for Jackson Academy basketball teams leading into the JA-Prep game at home tonight.
Little Dribblers started under Deborah Friday’s leadership in 1984, when she taught elementary physical education with Carol Branning. Friday, a former basketball player at the University of Alabama, had seen a group called the Bama Bouncers at her college games. Once at J.A., she formed Little Dribblers. “After a couple years of teaching, I decided that second graders were the best grade to use as the performers, for several reasons. One, they were young enough to make mistakes and not get upset about it, and two, they were working on sequencing skills in second grade, and that’s what we would be doing with our skills in Little Dribblers,” she said.
Little Dribblers has made its mark, with other schools using the model. The program was further incorporated into the second-grade curriculum under the late Sharon Clark, who led the program for 29 years until her retirement. “Students all remember the music from their Little Dribbler year, ” said Clark in a 2018 interview.
Today, Little Dribblers is one of the highlights of second grade. Aimee Odom said the second graders practice each day during P.E. with time for play incorporated. Little Dribblers typically perform a different routine at each performance.
For game times, visit goraiders.org.
