Portland school basketball program loses uniforms, gear after break-in

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - The Ivy School just began its basketball program this school year, but it now finds itself scrambling for supplies.

The program consists of two teams: a coed middle school team, and a coed elementary school team.

One of the coaches, who also works as a teaching assistant at the school, says overnight Thursday of last week, the program suddenly was without practice gear and uniforms when someone broke into a car belonging to one of his family members carrying the supplies, and took all of it.

“We had a game the next day, so we had no shirts, no jerseys, no basketballs, nothing in the game,” said Coach Adrian Bell.

Clemence Sazdinoff is one of the student team managers, and worked hard making some of the uniforms for the season.

“I made around 12 of them,” said Sazdinoff. “So, I felt kind of sad that my brother is on the team and he wasn’t going to have a jersey to play.”

SEE ALSO: Man gets 6 years after exposing himself to 12-year-old in Beaverton

Other students shared the same sentiments, and are wondering why someone would go out of their way to break into a car and take all the basketball gear.

“They put all time and care into them (uniforms),” said student and team member Jaxen Chin.  “So like, why would you take a kid’s jersey?”

For the coaches, they have seen on and off the court the benefit the new basketball program has brought to the Ivy School, and are determined to not let this setback take the positive experience away from the students.

“Just being a part of a team, learning how to be around people you might not talk to everyday at school, especially because a lot of these kids haven’t been a part of anything with COVID and all that,” said Myles Washington, coach and Ivy School teaching assistant.

According to the school’s website, the Ivy School is a publicly-funded Montessori charter school and is tuition free for families.

One parent says us because the school doesn’t receive the same funding levels as public schools, there is next to no budget for athletic programs.

“We have no budget to recover any of this, so this is all community-based,” said Resa Tufts, whose child is in the basketball program. “Our PTA even had an emergency meeting to try and raise some funds to contribute to this as well.”

To help out the Ivy School’s basketball program rebuild and expand, donations can be accepted here.

Copyright 2023 KPTV-KPDX. All rights reserved.