The Mt Airy COGIC Basketball Program began in 1988 with a small group of volunteers headed by Men’s Fellowship Director Bro. Richard Lewis who wanted to provide a recreational outlet for the young men of the church. A group of boys with the assistance of some men in the church played with other churches and practiced periodically.

Around 1994, the program began to stabilize and players were divided into two age groups. There were no tryouts at that time and Coach Ken Sadler (Coach Ken) entered the teams in highly competitive league play with the formidable Positive Image Basketball League. These were very humble beginnings for the basketball program! Both teams went winless in their first big step toward organized basketball. Players who remained with the program continued to work hard and even though the teams had no dedicated practice locations, they would find space outside and in non-air-conditioned and non-heated facilities to work on being more competitive
and structured.

By 1997, a team of 14-year-olds who continued to work hard and stay committed, shocked the city by winning the formidable Positive Image 14 and Under Championship (Coach Ken and Coach Jeff Thompson). Mt Airy Basketball was now on the map!  That summer, the players and coaches sold water ice for weeks and held a garage sale to raise money to take a
middle school team headed by Coach Ken and Coach Jeff and high school team headed by Coach Johnnie Perry to the Bahamas to play in a tournament. It was a memorable trip and experience that the youth who would not forget. That middle school team stayed together and as
15-year-olds won the coveted Citywide Department of Recreation 16 & Under Championship in1998 ( Coach Ken and Coach Jeff).The program continued to grow and more teams were added to participate in league play in the city year-round including Northwest Basketball Association, Christian Youth Basketball Association, neighborhood summer leagues and tournaments.

More volunteers within Mt Airy Church stepped up to assist with the growing program and more travel teams were formed.  In 2005, the Family Life Center opened and took the program to another level. In the inaugural year of the facility, there were four travel teams up and running and PEACE ON THE STREETS SUMMER LEAGUE was formed by Coach Ken to provide an additional safe space for youth of the community in the midst of a staggering homicide and crime wave that hit the city that summer.  Mt Airy also became a part of the Suburban Basketball League (later becoming the Inter-County Basketball Association) which was the only league that allowed teams to host games in their own facility.  A team headed by
Coach John Clark and Coach Charles Cannon was the first team entered into this inter-county play with a group of talented and raw, but dedicated youth who were committed. This team stayed together along with others that were formed after it to begin to make an impact in league and tournament play in and around the city and was the beginning of a new chapter for Mt Airy Basketball’s history.

In 2012, Mt Airy captured the Inter-County Basketball Association 7 th grade Division 3 Championship (Coach Kyree Terrell) and in 2016 Mt Airy’s 15u Team won the junior varsity age group in the ICBA (Coach Bernard Farrell).  In March 2017, the Mt. Airy 5 th grade team won the program’s first ICBA Division I championship (Coach Ken and Coach Andrew Nelson). In 2018, Mt Airy’s 3 rd grade team (Coach Charles and Coach Maurice Stricklan) and 9u teams (Coach Bernard and Coach Mike Sanchez) won mixed division championships. In 2019, Mt Airy’s 7 th grade team captured the programs second Division I ICBA championship (Coach Ken and Coach Nelson).

One of the most popular segments of the Mt Airy Basketball Program is the Future Phenom Pee Wee program organized in 2009 by Coach Ken with the assistance of Coach Dwight King and Sis. Lydia McAliley. This program involves forty-four to forty-eight youth and runs twice a year for eight weeks. This segment teaches youth between the ages of five and nine fundamentals of the game. Many of the youth from this program have gone on to play in the travel team and summer league programs.

Since its inception, many of the youth from Mt Airy Basketball have been recruited to play in private schools and college with scholarships and been selected for all Public League/Area. Additionally, the program has been blessed to see players make NBA rosters!

In all three components of the program combined, as many as 235 participants played annually under the Mt Airy Basketball umbrella! The program could not be sustained if it were not for the dedication of the coaches, administrators, Team Moms, scorekeepers, youth volunteers, numerous men and women who have poured in countless hours of hard work all year round to provide structure and instill discipline and personal responsibility in the youth who are a part of Mt Airy Basketball!