We started One Voice Basketball because we want every kid to experience the joy and satisfaction of being a part of something bigger than themselves. We want kids to experience the satisfaction that comes from investing in their own personal growth and sacrificing so that others can grow as well. Participating on a true team is a life changing experience – one that shares a commitment to a common purpose, brings together the complementary skills of all the participants, works towards shared goals and demands accountability to those commitments. Teams are like families – they connect us to others and to a larger purpose. Basketball, when played correctly, is a beautiful game and offers one of the best vehicles for individual expression in a team context.

We continue to run One Voice because the Voorhees girls’ basketball program has a unique history that should be sustained for girls in the years to come. It’s tied to the history of our communities as sisters, cousins, neighbors, babysitters and now even aunts and moms played in the program in years past. Many of today’s players grew up watching these players perform. We do it because we love the game of basketball and the opportunities it presents for learning lifelong lessons – committing to work hard for yourself and others, working through frustration and failure, stretching your perceived limits (and finding out you can do more than you think you can do) and learning to trust – people and processes. We do it because others did it for us and gave each of us a gift that cannot be easily repaid. We want to give back because they gave to us.

Basketball is the activity but it is also the medium for learning about ourselves in a larger context. Through the basketball experience we learn about commitment – to ourselves and others – we learn about perseverance, humility, and vulnerability – accepting that we all have something to learn, that we often learn by falling short and that people who truly care will tell us what we need to hear – even if we don’t want to hear it.

Our program aims to teach skills – technical skills like shooting and dribbling. Equally important, we aim to teach team skills like finding common purpose and finding our voice when our teammates fail to work towards that common purpose. Effective teams require leadership. Leadership in the team context is not much different than leadership in business or other walks of life. Leadership is shared by coaches and players. Leaders have to be able to build trust, understand teammates strengths and areas for improvement so they can be resources to them, and be skillful at developing relationships that foster personal and team growth. Team leaders must have the courage to handle conflict as it arises and to make sound decisions related to team matters.



THANKS to Rob Peterman for his work on developing this website and to Steve Pasqualone for his photos of players from the 2020 -2021 and 2021-2022 seasons.