When the men’s basketball team hosted Texas-Pan American, a 70-63 overtime victory, screams were at a higher pitch that night. That was due to all of the elementary school students in attendance. They were there because they earned free admission into the game for their accomplishments in the Readers as Leaders program.
Led by Idaho basketball coach Don Verlin, Readers as Leaders is a program in which the men’s basketball team goes to various elementary schools around Latah County, promoting the importance of reading.
“For anybody wanting to improve in something, it’s got to be fun,” Verlin said. “We try to explain to them what the benefits of reading are … and we just use our basketball team as role models and show they were once in the same place as these kids were.”
Readers as Leaders started in 2008, when Verlin and assistant coach and Moscow native, Chris Helbling, were trying to find ways to get the program more involved in the community.
“We were trying to figure out a community service thing to do,” Verlin said. “To get kids involved and get them involved in Vandal basketball and what a good thing it is. So with Chris, myself and Jodi Donaldson, we put our heads together and came up with this reading program that would give kids an incentive to read.”
The program started out with only two schools participating. Now the program covers over 15 schools and over 2,500 students, covering almost all of Latah County.
While the focus is on Latah County students, Readers as Leaders garnered national recognition. This past weekend at the NCAA Final Four in Dallas, Verlin was awarded the Literacy Champion Award, given to him by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.
“Obviously it’s a great honor and we are really humbled,” Verlin said. “To think about starting this program six years ago and seeing it grow as much as it has grown and how big it has become, I’m really proud. It’s such a prestigious award.”
The Literacy Champion Award is given to a coach who has promoted the importance of reading, writing and technological skills to children, using their program, the student-athletes and the game of basketball.
Notable winners of the award include then-Kentucky coach Tubby Smith in 2005 and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski in 2000.
Verlin was quick to deflect the accolades. He said that he only played a small role in the program’s success.
“A lot of credit needs to go to the principals and the teachers who involve themselves in the program,” Verlin said. “That’s where all the credit really needs to be given, it doesn’t need to be given to me.”
The man that keeps the program moving forward and a big reason for the rapid growth is Dr. Michael Pickard, who is an orthodontist in Pullman.
“He’s obviously been very vital,” Verlin said. “When we started, we just had a couple of elementary schools and we didn’t know how big it would grow. Dr. Pickard has been the catalyst and he’s kind of taken the ball and ran with it.”
If an elementary school student achieves their reading goal, one of the prizes is for them to be recognized at halftime at one of the last home games of the season.
This season that was the UTPA game. At halftime, countless kids wearing their Readers as Leaders t-shirts flooded the Cowan Spectrum court. They were recognized for their achievements in the program, with some even won a laptop or Kindle.
“The one thing I love to see, is the kids in the community wearing their T-shirts,” Verlin said. “Where on the front it says ‘Readers as Leaders’ and on the back it says ‘Vandal basketball.’ I don’t think it can get any better than that.”
Korbin McDonald can be reached at [email protected]