Catalina Basketball Trip

Hello everyone! I am not one to ask for money, but our varsity basketball team was invited to play our winter tournament in Detroit, MI at East Point High School this year. The hotels, tournament fees and food has all been covered at this point, leaving us with only travel costs. To limit costs of the trip, we can unfortunately only bring 10 players at this goal, with the coaches buying their own flights (10 players x $340 per ticket). This is an opportunity we would like to provide for our student-athletes for a number of reasons. The first reason being that we have 7 seniors and want them to have a very unique experience in their last year. Since we took over Catalina's basketball program in 2016, Coach Tann and myself have worked to give our student athletes experiences that they can cherish for a lifetime, while teaching them to set goals, be ambitious, be limitless with their possibilities, fear their comfort zone, and mostly experience the world ready to learn. As a Title I school, we rely heavily on fundraising as we are a low-income school. With most of our kids never having been on a plane or the opportunity to leave Arizona, it is an experience that we are working hard to give them. Prior to realizing this opportunity, we have used much of our funds from the school, fund-raising and out of pocket on new uniforms, travel suits, tournament fees, shoes and basketballs. We want our students to have the same opportunities (and hopefully a very unique one) as non-Title I schools experience.  We had a really strong season last year, having qualified for the state tournament and have very high expectations for this season. Our students work hard to maintain our expectations on the court and in the classrooms, having a team GPA of 3.1 over the last two years. We want to reward them in their last year with something that they would have never imagined as part of their time in high school basketball.

Planned Itinerary:
Dec. 26th flight to Chicago,IL
*Breakfast and practice at Lane Tech HS where Coach Tann attended
*Visit Science and Technology Museum
*Tour the Navy Pier
Dec. 27th drive to Detroit, MI
*Visit Hitsville USA Motown Music Museum
*Evening tournament games
Dec. 28th
*Tour the Ford auto plant
*Evening tournament games 

It would mean the world to our kids to experience this as a team and a chance to build basketball relationships, play against different competition, build a lasting bond among themselves, and to explore a different part of the country.

If it is within your ability to make a donation towards our program so that we can share a life time experience with our student-athletes, we would be forever grateful. 

Thank you so much,

Coach Obie K. Tann Sr.
Coach Chris Stallkamp
Coach John Priest