20th Anniversary of MRR and Kids Unlimited basketball clinics

This year marked the 20th year of the Medford Rogue Rotary Club – Kids Unlimited basketball clinics. Skills clinics and basketball games were held on six Saturdays in February, March and April of 2025 with a total of 125 boys and girls from grades 1 – 3 attending. The boys and girls participated in separate 90-minute clinics.

The clinics were led by Tom Cole, Executive Director of Kids Unlimited and the head coach of the South Medford High School girls’ basketball team.  The South Medford Lady Panthers taught the skills and coached the games. Several Medford Rogue Rotary Club members participated in the clinics and games as coaches and referees.

There was also a separate clinic for the parents teaching them drills to use at home to continue development of these basketball skills.  At the parents’ clinic each student participant received a basketball and t-shirt donated by Medford Rogue Rotary.

Additional coaching was provided by Yaremi Mejia, Assistant Coach of the South Medford Lady Panthers and Hannah Washington, the Ashland High School girls Junior Varsity basketball team. Yaremi Mejia was one of the participants from the very first year of this program!  Coach Mejia remarked that her participation in the Rotary-KU basketball program changed the course of her life.  She got her start playing basketball in the KU-Rotary basketball program and went on to play on a state championship basketball team from South Medford and also played collegiately for both Portland State and Southern Oregon University.  Yeremi earned a Masters Degree from Eastern New Mexico State University while serving as an assistant coach for the ENMSU women’s basketball team.  Yaremi feels that the clinic not only taught her valuable basketball skills, but she also learned from the core principles stressed during the clinics:  Having a BELIEF in oneself, making a COMMITMENT to a goal, and knowing that it takes HARD WORK to achieve that goal.