Instead of watching Steph Curry and LeBron James during their pre-Game Three warmups, the LeagueApps team was hustling on their own home court on Wednesday night hosting some of their partners. The anticipation of talking youth basketball combined with the buzz of the NBA Finals made it incredibly hard for us to contain our excitement. Luckily, our guests were able to match our enthusiasm.

Throughout the year, we host multiple partner events to build relationships, network, discuss industry relevant news, and promote some cool new tools we develop. It just so happened that Wednesday night’s event was attended by all youth basketball organizers. This juicy caveat made it incredibly easy for everyone to develop an immediate relationship and engage each other about the state of youth basketball.

The bulk of our event was spearheaded by our roundtable discussion around some of the challenges that basketball organizers face on a regular basis. Led by Dom Oliveto of the Jr. NBA, the conversation centered around expanding reach through social media, finding the right coaches, and the ever expanding availability of resources gap between inner-city and other leagues.

In addition to our Jr. NBA partners, Michael Collins of Basketball City, Beth Tapp of Slam City, Walter Colon of the New York Knicks, Abner Neufeld of the Brooklyn Nets, Todd Francis of NYC Zoom League, and the NBA’s Ryan Boyd and Kevin Kettl attended the event. Jonathan Cramer of Momentum Worldwide also stopped by to add to the conversation.

The event didn’t stop after Cleveland’s blowout. Breakaway Hoops, one of the top youth basketball training programs in the New England and mid-Atlantic regions, officially became a LeagueApps partner on Wednesday morning. Represented at Youth Partner Day by Wilky Colin, Breakaway Hoops is excited to work with LeagueApps and eager to help raise awareness for fundamental basketball. We couldn’t be more thrilled to bring them on.

All in all, it was a wonderful night at LeagueApps headquarters and a great way to launch the second half of 2016. We’re hoping you can be a part of the next partner event!