Coach Sam Smith will host the ‘Sam Smith 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament’ at Whites Creek High School on Saturday April 16 at 7277 Old Hickory Blvd, Whites Creek, Tenn. 37189.
This much anticipated event is a fundraiser for the Nashville based Continental T-Belles Girls Track Club, Inc. Registration is game day at 7 am, CDT, with tip off at 9 am. Admission is $2 for ages up to 12, with 12 and over being $5.
Prizes will be awarded for each grand place winner division represented in the tournament.
Tennessee State University graduate and former teacher Coach Sam Smith celebrated 36 years of serving as the head coach of the Nashville based Continental T-Belles Girls Track Club in January. The success ratio for the girls who began training under Coach Smith’s guidance (as early as age eight) have on gone to college on full scholarships and includes those who haven’t. Programs such as this one can be literal life rafts for children and parents intending to survive the high statistics of life’s failures.
“I’ve only lost one girl to teenage pregnancy out of 36 years,” said Coach Smith.
The Continental T-Belles Track Club can trace its history to the ‘Tigerbelle Track Club Development Program,’ a summer track program started by the legendary Coach Ed Temple. The purpose of the original club was to provide track and field competition experience for young women, as sanctioned by the USA Track and Field Association.
The ‘Continental T-Belles Track Club’ is a non-profit club for young girls aged 8-18 years. It is the brainchild and direct sweat equity of Coach Sam Smith, who tirelessly has developed this elite track program to help give girls an opportunity to train for all of life’s disciplines. All roads for the T’Belles lead to a college scholarship, as they segue into well trained, often noted athletes.
It’s programs like these that put new meaning to the age-old adage: ‘It takes a village.’ Without the support of parents, grandparents or the girl’s guardians and the community at large, these touted successes would be much more difficult.
For more tournament information, contact the Continental T-Belles Track Club at P.O. Box 23904, Nashville, Tennessee 37202-3904. Call 615-800-9717 or 615-876-1222; or e-mail <tbellestrackclub@gmail.com>, or check out their newly revamped interactive website at <continentaltbellestrackclub.org>.
