OUR STORY

Steady Buckets was born in 2010 as a collaboration between two men who shared a mission to bring quality basketball training to the youth of lower Manhattan. As a young player growing up in Greenwich Village in the 1990's, Macky Bergman was constantly disappointed with the lack of basketball skills training available locally. Notwithstanding, he managed to become captain of his high school team, then lettered all four years at the University of Rochester.  He was training NBA and Division I talent at the Sports University in Fairfield, New Jersey as well as serving part-time as a coach at a middle school in the Village. Macky remained deeply disenchanted with the noticeable lack of skills training the kids were receiving and decided that it was time he did something about it. The concept of Steady Buckets started as a single after-school activity at the local YMCA on Monday afternoons. Three kids showed up at that inaugural session in January 2010, but that was about to radically change.

In April 2010, Macky was introduced to Barry Weiss, a local attorney, whose 12 year old son participated in a middle school basketball tournament run by Macky at Sara Roosevelt Park, next to the YMCA. Weiss, a high school player and lifetime basketball junkie, was also discontent with the lack of quality skills training in the neighborhood for his son. Macky and Barry learned that they grew up blocks from each other, a generation apart, and that Barry had played ball in the same gyms and blacktops that Macky roamed 20 years later. By the day of the championship game in late June, the two men had forged a bond, and the seed that would become Team Steady Buckets was planted. However, the two men’s vision was far grander than teaching basketball skills; they wanted to use basketball as the hook to prepare young men and women for success off, as well as on, the court.

Today, Steady Buckets is stronger than ever, growing in both the number of youth we serve and the amount of programing we provide. Our team is more dedicated than ever to provide our community the best youth sports programming in the city!