Center Grove Boys Basketball coach Zach Hahn (left) and parent of four Billy Bemis (right) worked together to help incubate and form the Center Grove Hardwood Club.
Center Grove Hardwood Club
EXT ENDING SUPPORT B E YOND T H E COU RT
Writer / Suzanne Huntzinger Photographer / Brian Brosmer
the program used whatever budget the department had available for their needs.
Basketballs rain down from the sky and bounce to the court, new uniforms and new shoes appear in each player’s locker, and new equipment magically appears in the athletic office. Santa can’t come every day to the basketball court, but the Center Grove Hardwood Club tries to make it happen as much as possible.
The athletic department held fundraisers and did their best to stretch the budget however they could. But Coach Zach Hahn, a former all-star from Butler University, had bigger ideas. Hahn, in his rookie coaching job at Center Grove, recognized the basketball program needed support and fundraising assistance to grow. He suggested one cohesive body could handle those needs for the entire program.
The Center Grove Hardwood Club, founded in September 2014, was the slam-dunk solution to provide funding and support to Center Grove’s basketball program from youth programs to varsity. The athletic department previously funded Center Grove’s basketball program, and
That’s when Billy Bemis, self-professed basketball junkie and Center Grove parent of four, became involved. Bemis reached out to other Center Grove parents and established the Center Grove Hardwood
Club and became its president. The club’s mission is “to provide the proper funding, leadership and support to the Center Grove Boys Basketball program in order to facilitate state-championship-quality teams on an annual basis and generate a winning atmosphere surrounding the entire program, both on and off the court.” With that, the members quickly secured the sponsorship of Indy Honda and Aldi Foods. But the winning shot was the creation of Hardwood Club membership levels. The club solicited memberships at the $25, $100, $250 and $500 levels, as well as sponsorships. “The CG Basketball program was once a separated and divided program at all levels,
atCenterGrove.com / MARCH 2017 / CENTER GROVE COMMUNITY MAGAZINE / 25