The Garden City Basketball intramural program is open to boys in Grades 1-9 and girls in Grades 1-7 and is held in the St. Paul's Field House. The season will begin in mid-November and run through March 2007.

Register online at www.gardencitybasketball.org for the upcoming 2006-2007 season. The registration fee is $50. Paper applications may be obtained from the website, St. Paul's-Cluett Hall and/or the Garden City Recreation Office.

Garden City Basketball was created to provide the youth of Garden City with an organization that is solely dedicated to the sport of basketball. Garden City Basketball is a brand new New York State non-profit tax-exempt organization. For the coming season it is a member of the AAU, USA Basketball, the Junior NBA and the Junior WNBA. Membership and acceptance of these world-class basketball organizations demonstrates a commitment to following their philosophy, principles, values and the mission of promoting basketball for the children of Garden City.

John Skramko, Garden City Basketball founder and president, and his family have been residents of Garden City since 1991. He has a long track record of volunteering in the Village of Garden City and has been involved with basketball most of his life. Some of his volunteer activities include: being responsible for building and running the GCAA basketball program for the last six years as well as coordinating different age groups, coaching numerous teams and running the second-grade clinic each year; co-head of GCAA boys fall soccer for three years, as well as coordinating grades and coaching numerous teams; GCAA board member for six years and treasurer for three years; managed both of his sons' Little League teams for a total of 14 seasons and over 200 games; is currently the Garden City Centennials Girls K soccer coordinator and a coach; is a director for the Estates Property Owners Association; and is a member of Island Garden Basketball's Advisory Board.

John has recently left the board of the GCAA. He is now dedicated to launching this new organization, Garden City Basketball. There are improvements that Garden City Basketball would like to make to youth basketball in the village that are more easily done in a new and dedicated to basketball-only environment, he said.

Under the leadership of Skramko, Garden City Basketball will conduct clinics for first- and second-grade boys and girls, provide special events and clinics led by professionals, boys intramurals for Grades 3-9, girls intramurals for Grades 3-7 and boys/girls travel.

The Garden City Basketball website has been designed to make it easy to communicate, participate and administer the program. Online registration, tools for coordinators, websites for teams, court-time availability and practice time are all available on the web, as is playbook software for coaches and much more on the horizon.

Garden City Basketball has obtained the necessary insurance for the league and discussed space allocations with the Garden City Recreation Department. The recreation department's allocation of space in St. Paul's is based upon enrollment. The target game day for Grades 1-6 boys/girls is Saturdays at St. Paul's. The target game day for Grade 7-9 boys is Friday nights. Actual dates/times for Garden City Basketball cannot be established until the Recreation Department formally assigns time/space sometime in October. Once time is determined, dates/times will be posted in the Garden City Life, sent out via email blast and posted at www.gardencitybasketball.org.

"Fortunately there are many choices for basketball in the village. We are totally comfortable with participation in multiple organizations and hold no animosity towards the very personal choices that are made by participants in different programs," Skramko said. "Obviously...make your own informed decision as to what you'd like to do. We look forward to you and your child being a part of the Garden City Basketball program. We hope that this helps to clear up any possible confusion and provides additional background with what is going on with youth basketball in our Village of Garden City."

Questions? Email jskramko@optonline.net or call 746-9659.