Jr. NBA Skills challenge in Selma Sat.

Published 7:47 pm Thursday, February 16, 2017

Local athletes will get a chance to show off their dribbling and passing ability Saturday in Selma during the Jr. NBA Skills Challenge presented by Verizon.

The challenge is free to boys and girls 14 and under and will take place from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at Selma High School. Age is determined as of June 30, 2017, and a copy of a birth certificate is required to participate.

“It’s a skills competition and what they will be doing is specific skills, like shooting, dribbling, blocking shots and stuff like that, and they’ll be graded on it,” said Det. Dorothy Cowan, with the Selma PAL Center who is helping to organize the challenge.

Email newsletter signup

Cowan said this the local competition, but the winners will move on to the regional competition. From there, winners will have a chance to participate in the national competition.

She’s taken applications to all of the schools so that local athletes could find out about the competition. Registration will also be accepted Saturday morning.

“Most of the time you are competing on the team and it’s a team effort, so when the team wins everybody wins,” Cowan said. “In this situation, you are competing against each other and it’s a little bit [different] because you are competing against yourself.”