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Sports Interview Of The Week – James Simmons

June 28, 2016 Posted by Matt Pencek Featured Sports, Sports Interview Of The Week

Delmarva will host the Amateur Athletic Union’s 8 and under basketball championship next week at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center in Salisbury.  James Simmons is the assistant tourism manager for Wicomico County Recreation, Parks, and Tourism.  In the lead-up to the tournament, Simmons provides some insight on the event:

Pencek: What is the overall range for this tournament?

Simmons: We have about 24 – 30 teams from all over the country that are qualifying to come here to Salisbury and we are really hoping to get this one under our belts and then we can grow into other age groups larger events and really make an impact on the community similar to what the softball world series does.

Pencek: Were you able to learn from the AAU’s side what was the appeal with choice of Salisbury?

Simmons: One of the things we really harp on when we go after events to bring here whether it’s this one or anything is we’ve got a really centralized pool to a lot of major cities.  We are pretty much two and a half hours from a huge percentage of the U.S. population.  Being within a quiet area but close enough to a resort town like Ocean City with all that it has to offer.  Add to that all that is in Wicomico County, it was a great venue for what they were looking for to host the tournament.  We also handle all the housing for the AAU.  There is a lot of coordination that goes into to make this a great experience for the participants.

Pencek: Those participants are fairly young.  Is there a track record of those who participate in this event and where they end up in a few years?

Simmons: It’s hard to tell with this division because it has not been around very long.  This is the youngest age the AAU has.  As far as neat things to look out for during this event, former Maryland Terrapin and NBA player Juan Dixon, his son will be in the event.  Also Bino Ranson who is an assistant at Maryland, his son is on the same team.

Pencek: Looping back to a point you made.  Depending of the level of success of this event, will it open the door to high level of competition?

Simmons: We’ve never hosted an AAU National Championship.  This is our first one and we are really looking to do this one well.  We want to exceed their expectations and if we do that we are definitely going to continue to look into growing that base.  It could be an older age or a girls division.

Tags: aau basketballInterview of the WeekJames SimmonsSportswboc sportswicomico civic centerWicomico CountyWicomico Youth & Civic Center
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About Matt Pencek

Matt joined WBOC in October 2015 as a Sports Broadcast Journalist. He is a native of Tunkhannock, Pennsylvania. Matt graduated from Penn State where he received a bachelor’s degree in journalism. He started his broadcast career as the news/sports director of WEMR AM 1460 in his hometown of Tunkhannock. Matt held that same position for WALI/WROG radio in Cumberland, MD. His first television position was as the weekend sports anchor at WHAG-TV in Hagerstown, MD where he eventually became the Sports Director. Matt then moved to Florence, SC to become a sports reporter/anchor for WPDE-TV In 2011 along with his brother David, Matt co-authored The Great Book of Penn State Sports Lists. From 2012 – 2015 he was the lead radio play-by-play voice for The Friday Night High School Football Game of the Week for DE FOX Sports 1290 in Wilmington, DE. The last 2 years at the radio station Matt was the studio host during the University of Delaware Football radio broadcasts. He has also called the action for the both the Blue Hens men’s and women’s basketball teams. Outside of work, Matt is married to his wife Shannon and has two sons; Jack and Connor. E-mail Matt Pencek at mpencek@wboc.com and follow him on Twitter @mattpencek_wboc. Check out all stories by Matt.

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