Westchester Monarchs Sign Rupel

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my friend Benny Rupel was rocking k1x gear and some Shirts & Skins shorts that found its way to him from the SLAM Dome in a recent semi pro tryout. Well, Benny did in fact make the 12-man roster and is now a member of the Westchester Monarchs of the National Professional Basketball League, a union of weekend warriors playing for just about gas money. If you're in Elmira, NY, Rockland County, NY, Westchester, NY, Alexandria, VA or Maryland, the NPBL might be worth a look.

This photo was taken from the Monarch's website.

SLAM & CAPUTO PRESENT...S K I L L Z

Last week, SLAM in-house video wiz, Matt Sheridan, and I took a ride up to ritzy Fairfield County to produce a ball handling video for SLAM Online. Fairfield U Assistant Coach, Aki Collins, is a cool cat and was happy to have two of his junior guards, Jon Han and Herbie Allen, break down some basic ball handling drills for our audience.

While Matt and I were going over the film after the shoot, Ben Osborne brought the fact that SLAM, the magazine, once featured a section called "Skillz" to my attention. I hadn't exactly ironed out a name for the series yet. I was leaning toward "Drill Tips," for some perverse reason. I think it's best to go with "Skillz" because it was already a part of the magazine. With the addition of the video element, it's totally just a fresh take on an old trick.

I've got some other teams lined up to lend us a hand in the development of these flicks. It's cool beacause, since the videos are free in both cost of viewing and of a sponsor (i.e. Strength Shoes or Wonder Rim) everyone with access to a computer can benefit from checking out these drills. See you in the park.