This article has been taken from the New Haven Register, Thursday, July 15, 1999, written by Scott Ferrari
Starters program at 10 mature beyond its years
Don’t cry for the Connecticut Starters basketball program.
While StarterCorp. of New Haven, the athletic clothing manufacturer, was sold Wednesday to a five-store consortium for $46 million, the Starters are on solid ground.
The Starters, an Amateur Athletic Union-affiliated age-group basketball program for girls and boys, used to be funded by Starter Corp. The program, in fact, still uses the Starter logo with its name.
But the financial relationship between the two ended three summers ago. That hasn’t slowed the Starters. The girls’ program has approximately 240 players on 20 travel teams encompassing ages 10-16 and raise its own money to operate.
The Starters have come along way in 10 years. And they haven’t missed a beat on the court without Starter’s dollars.
This spring, the group won state AAU championships in three age groups: 11-under, 12-under and 16-under. The 16-year-old team went 4-3 at the national tournament, finishing ninth out of 71 teams. Currently, the 15-year-old team is competing in the nationals at Oklahoma City, Okla. The 14- and 12-year-old teams leave for national competition today.
Lately, there’s been some concern and confusion that the program could be threatened by the problems at Starter Corp.
That’s not the case, though.
"We were at a tournanment a few weeks ago and some people from Kansas asked us what we were going to do now that Starter was going bankrupt," said Starters director Joe Ticotsky, also the girls’ basketball coach at Cheshire High. "We posted something on our website so people would not think we are folding."
It’s possible the group may eventually have to change its name and drop the use of the Starter logo.
That’s fine.
It was nice having the Starter name to legitimize the program back when it began in 1988.
But the Connecticut Starters have made their own name and carved their own niche now.