July 28, 2004
University of New Mexico men’s basketball players Alfred Neale and Bambale Osby are set to travel to the Dominican Republic, August 2-6, with the SCORE All-Stars for a series of exhibition games against leading Dominican club teams and the national team. Other team members include Marcus Campbell of Mississippi State, Michael Joiner of Florida State, Tre Kelly and Brandon Wallace of South Carolina, Shaun Holtz of Ole Miss and Lewis Monroe of Indiana.
“We are delighted to have these young men on our team. They are among the nation’s finest, not only on the court but off,” said Phil Waldrep, president of Phil Waldrep Ministries who is serving as the co-director of the trip with Ron Bishop, president of SCORE International.
The team will play San Lazaro Monday night, San Carlos Tuesday night and Mauricio Baez Wednesday night. The All-stars will play the Dominican Republic’s national team Thursday night in the Sports Palace in Santo Domingo, the country’s 10,000 seat arena and home of the Pan American games.
The team will also be involved in humanitarian efforts during the week. Monday the team will assist an orphanage located in a poor area with food and games. The team will lead a “Feed the Village” effort Tuesday by taking food into a village of Haitian refugees, many on the verge of starvation.
“It does your heart good to see basketball players who have a desire to make a difference in the world,” said Tommy Kyle who will coach the team.
A high school team of all-stars will play prior to the college games each night. Osby, along with incoming freshmen Charles Rhodes of Mississippi State will play with the high school teams.
SCORE International is a non-profit ministry based in Chattanooga, Tennessee that leads sports teams to do ministry projects while playing international teams. Phil Waldrep Ministries is a non-profit evangelical ministry based in Trinity, Alabama that seeks to share the gospel by every means, traditional and non-traditional. More information on the two organizations is available on their websites www.scoreinternational.org and www.philwaldrep.org.