Here's one of the local newspapers interviewing Chad in Peach Jam games go online:
"Riverview Park Activities Center is the place to be for basketball fans this week with the Peach Jam under way, but Chad Cook has helped create a long-distance option to help hoops boosters keep up with the action.
Nike's massive tournament in North Augusta is having all of its games provided live on the Internet, by way of Augusta Basketball Report, Cook's organization. The blue-chip action, from start to finish, is to be on www.augustabasketball.com.
Cook, the report's editor and founder, established it this year, keeping up with CSRA high-school basketball and looking to expand the scope. The Peach Jam, as the high point of Nike's Elite Youth Basketball League season, is providing a chance.
Highlight packages from various contests, in the two- to three-minute range, are also among this week's offerings.
"Every session, we'll pick a feature and tell a story," Cook said
Focal points, he noted, are not restricted to absolutely top-notch players.
"It might be about a kid that someone might not notice if someone didn't point him out," Cook said.
"For instance, Matt Howard is from Columbia, South Carolina, and he's a fine, fine player and does great things on the court, but he's not one of your maybe top five or six players in the nation."
"He's being recruited heavily by Harvard - fine student, exciting basketball player - and so stories like that are the stories we like to tell."
Cook, who played for Westminster Schools and went on to compete for Augusta State and South Carolina State, also commented on Augusta Basketball Report's origins.
"When the high-school season ended, the AAU season began, and the Augusta area has great basketball tournaments hosted here, so we did the same kind of coverage at those events that we did in the high-school regular season and state playoffs.
"We did it well enough that people noticed, and a group called iHigh.com was chosen by Nike to 'livestream' the Peach Jam games," Cook said.
Representatives of iHigh, described in its promotional material as a global youth network, asked Cook's organization to get on board for this week's festivities in North Augusta.
Under the arrangement, iHigh has one representative at the Peach Jam, while Cook has 25 workers helping provide live footage and archived material.
"I think it adds a great twist to the tournament," said Rick Meyer, North Augusta's interim director of parks, recreation and leisure services. Meyer cited the example of a coach who was not able to attend Wednesday's action but still managed, via computer, to watch a game that included a player of particular recruiting interest.
Cook, who stands 6-foot-4 and coaches a "very good" team composed of home-school students, noted that his work crew includes five of his players and three others are among his former players.
"A third of the guys have played for me, and so I have no problem telling them what to do and yelling at them and just getting all over them," he said, with a grin.""
Chad Cook, editor and founder of the Augusta Basketball Report, is helping put all of the Peach Jam games onto the internet live this week, at www.augustabasketball.com."
My Take.
If you enjoy watching tomorrow's stars and today's young people play great basketball, check out the action sometime during the next few hours, days or weeks.
Thanks. Bob.
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