Bringing the Joy of Basketball to All

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Amanda Frost and Tomora Young (Coach Teeigh), owners of Fusion School of Basketball in Red Bank, have been teaching basketball skills and techniques to kids since 2010. Judy O’Gorman Alvarez

By Judy O’Gorman Alvarez

RED BANK – As Women’s History Month and March Madness wrap up, a basketball program, created and run by women in Red Bank, is thriving.

Fusion School of Basketball, a small but impressive program for budding basketball enthusiasts, teaches hoops tips and techniques, as well as the lessons of sportsmanship, to youth in the community.

“We get to do what we love every day,” said Amanda Frost, Fusion owner and director.

Frost and her partner – in business and in life – Tomora Young, a two-time Hall of Famer, have been teaching dribbling and defense for years, through their Fusion School of Basketball, Red Bank Recreation program and the Red Bank schools.

Frost and Young started Fusion, a nonprofit AAU organization, in 2010; now the program boasts more than 1,000 participants. It offers individual training, year-round programs, skills and drills, fundamental clinics, travel teams, camps, fitness training and more. Last year’s outdoor summer league, held at Count Basie Park, registered more than 200 players.

Fusion teaches the youngest of aspiring basketeers – even 3- and 4-year-olds – through high schoolers. Birthday parties, too, are a popular draw. “The glow-in-the-dark theme is really big now,” said Frost.

The program offers scholarships and discounts to every child interested in playing basketball. Fundraisers, including sales of promotional items, help offset costs. Judy O’Gorman Alvarez

“This is a family environment,” Frost said. “I take pride in knowing every child that comes in the door. We care deeply about each kid in our program.”

They make it a point to know the parents and whoever is picking up and dropping off students. “We know who needs a ride.”

That’s the way the community works, Frost points out. At one time she and Young were the ones needing a ride to and from basketball practice.

Frost and Young are home-grown locals, both raised in Red Bank. “Our families have long-standing roots in the area. We grew up as family friends.”

At the end of every workout, every game, they bring kids together reciting the catchphrase: “Fusion on three, family on six.”

“We treat each other with respect,” Frost said. “And we expect the same in return.”

They’ve garnered respect from many parents when they learn the duo spends 12 hours a week coaching 150-200 student athletes through Red Bank Recreation, December through March, on a volunteer basis. They are in their seventh year running the program.

New Digs

Fusion School of Basketball recently celebrated its first year in a new space on Drs. James Parker Boulevard, formerly the Detour Gallery’s warehouse space. The compact facility Frost and Young have created is bright and welcoming and filled with new equipment and unique details, including a mat at the gym entrance for wiping feet (“all the moms want this in their houses,” Frost said).

“We wanted to make it comfortable, light, clean and airy,” Frost said. “We’ve been in rec places that were dirty and stuffy. We wanted a fresh different look. We wanted to make it a safe and intimate setting.”

The facility is a lifetime dream for the duo, one they achieved with hard work, family support and fundraising efforts. One generous family that started with Fusion 12 years ago and still has a child active in the program, donated the gym’s flooring, a $10,000 gift.

The framed accolades in Fusion’s lobby boast both women’s success.

Fusion offers fitness training as well as year-round programs, skills and drills, fundamental clinics, travel teams, camps and more. Judy O’Gorman Alvarez

“Coach Frost” started playing basketball with Red Bank Recreation and went on to play basketball at the high school level, first at Red Bank Regional and then when she moved to Howell. She earned a scholarship to compete at the Division II collegiate level at Georgian Court University before beginning her coaching career in 2005.

“When I moved to Howell it was a bigger school, new surroundings,” she said. “And I never was coached or taught how to shoot until college.”

“I think about the best coach I ever had,” Frost said, “and how I thought she hated me because she rode me so hard.”

She later learned that wasn’t so. “She instilled in me discipline.”

Young, or “Coach Teeigh,” got her start playing basketball in the Red Bank Borough School system and is still the third all-time leading scorer in Red Bank Regional history. 

Among longtime Red Bank residents who frequented the borough’s East Side Park, it’s hard to find someone who did not shoot hoops with or against Young. 

She went on to play four years of college basketball for Rutgers University under Hall of Fame Coach C. Vivian Stringer and still sits atop the single-season record list in three categories. She was inducted into the Rutgers University Basketball Hall of Fame in 2007 and into the Red Bank Regional Athletics Hall of Fame in 2017. 

Young credits the coaches she has had along the way, through the Red Bank middle and high schools and especially Coach Stringer at Rutgers. 

Women’s Month

Among the 1,000 students in the program, Frost said, 80 percent are boys. So throughout the month of March they’ve been promoting awareness of women’s sports and women in general. “Ladies,” Frost said, “girls rule the world. Come to the gym, see what we can do.”

In Fusion’s clinics, they found the ratio of boys to girls among the younger grades in the clinic is equal. But as the youngsters age into middle school, Frost said, many girls go on to other interests. “Then we work with boys a lot,” she said. “I think they respond to our style. We’re disciplined.”

Although many of their students hope their prowess on the court will take them far, Frost and Young put a high value on academic success, reviewing report cards regularly. “We look at the comments teachers make,” Frost said. Being in this program is “a privilege.”

“Not all go on to play basketball,” she said, adding proudly, “a lot get academic scholarships.”

Saint John Vianney High School senior Madison St. Rose, one of Fusion School of Basketball’s star players, will be attending Princeton University on an academic scholarship in the fall. Patrick Olivero

Madison St. Rose, a senior at Saint John Vianney High School, has been working with Frost and Young since fourth grade. “My mom didn’t know much about basketball, but she saw that I was very passionate for this sport.” Madison and her brother joined the program. “I really got to develop my skill set and really find out what type of player I am.”

Madison, who is 2022 NJ Gatorade Player of the Year, will be attending Princeton University on an academic scholarship.

“I just felt like I had a special connection with both Coach Frost and Coach Teeigh,” she said. “I felt like they were always pushing me to my limits. Like there were times when I didn’t feel like challenging myself, but they made sure that I was not always comfortable and I was trying stuff that I normally wouldn’t do. Or they really tried to pull out my athleticism to make me the best player that I could be.”

“We wanted this to be a place open to the community,” said Young. “I grew up playing ball at East Side Park, since I was 8 years old. I wanted to create a place where kids can feel confident, learn the game and not be afraid to ask questions.”

“I want to teach students how to love the actual game,” she said. “and play it like it’s their own.”

Whether they’re coaching a Red Bank rec program or offering private lessons, Frost and Young want to make sure every young person who wants to play basketball has the opportunity.

At Fusion, they offer Red Bank residents a discount to the program. Scholarships are available; in return, participants offer their services as junior coaches.

“Every kid has the right to play basketball, no matter what the obstacles,” Frost said.

For information, visit fusionschoolofbasketball.com.

The article originally appeared in the March 31 – April 6, 2022 print edition of The Two River Times.