Each year, members of the Pine Crest High School basketball team from Miami, Florida, travel to a less fortunate country to assist the needy.

This year, buoyed by two players of Jamaican heritage in co-captains Traveon Henry and Keith Parkinson, the school has made Jamaica its destination.

In association with Insport, the school intends to donate 500 pairs of sneakers and other sporting gear to children in need, while playing a two-match series against St George’s College and Kingston College (KC).

The Sunday Observer caught up with the team at the semi-finals of the Southern Conference Schools basketball semi-finals and coach David Beckerman explained their mission in Jamaica.

“Each year we go on a trip and we try to visit different states or countries. We’ve been to St Thomas, New York, Ohio,” he said.

“This year my two co-captains, whose heritage are from Jamaica, developed a programme called ‘soles for souls’ which has as its objective to send 500 pairs of sneakers down here,” he said.

The school has joined forces with Insport, which will be responsible for distributing the equipment that will arrive in the island in two shipments, the first of which was held up at customs. The other is scheduled to be shipped two weeks later.

“We’ve already shipped 150 pairs and in a few weeks we hope to send the balance,” he said.

Jim Foster, the school’s athletics director, said although they are here to enjoy the basketball games and Jamaican hospitality, they are here mainly on a humantarian drive.

“These fellows came up with the idea to have a shoe drive and there are 200 pairs of brand new shoes that we intend to give to the poor and kids,” he explained.

He said the gesture is the school’s annual commitment is their way of trying to make the world a better place.

“We just want to help people and give kids an opportunity to see other people from around the world and if we can help them, then we do it; it’s our humanitarian effort,” he said.

Meanwhile, Henry and Parkinson, whose parents are from Jamaica, but who were born and raised in the United States, said their connection to the country was the main reason behind their request for a trip to the island this year.

Henry, whose mother is from Port Antonio, Portland, and whose father hails from Riversdale, St Catherine, said with basketball on the rise in Jamaica they thought it would be interesting to come here and play a few games while trying to help out.

“We said, ‘how about a shoe drive?’ and that sparked the idea and because everyone liked it, we just ran with it,” he recalled.

Parkinson, who initiated the idea to come to Jamaica, stressed that they had to find a way to help if they were going to make the trip.

“I was saying that if we are going to Jamaica we should try and help the people who are less fortunate… and I came up with the idea of trying to get 500 shoes, although this is an idea we try to do every year for different countries,” he said.

Both players would like to see the programme continue in Jamaica, and Beckerman suggested that a trip could be organised to bring a Jamaican school to the USA to play a few matches.

“We’d like to extend the opportunity so they can visit us next year as sometimes there are students who would like to come to the United States to play and you’ll never know what’ll happen,” he said.

But both Henry and Parkinson are also eagerly anticipating what it would be like to face a full-fledged Jamaican team, as the two are convinced that Jamaica has the best athletes in the world.

“I can’t wait to see how the players play and see how we compare to the athleticism, because we know Jamaica has the best athletes,” Henry stated.

According to Parkinson, whose parents are from St Ann: “I saw one guy jumping (referring to a semi-final game) and over in America he would get easy play over there… so it will be interesting,” he remarked.

In their first game, Pine Crest defeated KC, 81-48, with 21 points from Kelvin Cline and 15 points from Henry. Ramoy Hemmings topscored for KC with 16 points.

In the second match, Romas Marchikevious scored 20 points and 16 rebounds and Cline bagged 18 points as the visitors beat St George’s College, 90-63. Shavar Francis led the locals with 14 points.