I spent this morning at the Youth Education through Sports (YES) clinics, as hundreds of San Antonio children spent a few hours at Trinity University, Sam Houston State and a couple of other locales to hone basketball, leadership and teamwork skills. Similar clinics were also held this morning in Tampa.

A number of head and assistant college coaches volunteered their time to work with the 10-16-year-olds, including St. John's head men's coach Norman Roberts. I first met Coach Roberts about 17 years ago, when I was 8-years-old and a participant at his basketball camp at Queens College (New York). Nearly two decades later, he's still spending his free time teaching the game to children. During today's clinic, I chatted with Coach Roberts about his participation (listen to podcast).

While boys and girls gleaned as much information as they could from the college coaches, they also had the opportunity to interact with student-athletes from a number of sports, as basketball, baseball, soccer and volleyball players tutored participants during the sessions. I spoke with Trinity (Texas) freshman Sam Dworkin about spending his Saturday morning working at the clinic (listen to podcast). It seemed as if there was no place he'd rather be.

At Hoop City, Special Olympians played five-on-five with coaches after competing in drills. Before showing off his game in the scrimmage, Rhode Island head coach Jim Baron discussed why he has spends every year volunteering at YES clinics (listen to podcast).

The YES clinics are held each April at the Final Four, and they're a life-changing experience local kids won't want to miss.