Layla Penn KIds at Cambridge Basketball Lab’s practice in October 2025.
On a dreary Sunday afternoon, children in Kyrie Irving jerseys and Lakers uniforms ran through basketball drills in the Baldwin School gymnasium.
The hoops were lowered, making it easier for the kids to make shots. Coaches stood underneath the nets rebounding balls back to the children, smiling regardless of whether they went in.
Despite the occasional outbursts from kids trying to entertain their peers, the children put on their game faces when the Cambridge Basketball Lab coaches reentered the focus to a game of sharks and minnows, in which the kids try to dribble past the coaches without getting tagged.
“I love coaching the younger kids – they make me feel young again,” said Douglas Pinto, 37, first-year coach for the Cambridge Basketball Lab.
Kids participate in a drill at a Cambridge Basketball Lab practice in October 2025.The Cambridge Basketball Lab, a mentorship and skill development program, expanded to the elementary school level for six weeks this fall. Previously, the program offered practices year-round only for middle and high school students four nights a week.
In the new elementary school program, children in grades 2 through 5 can participate in basketball workouts. The coed practices take place on Sunday afternoons in two sessions – one for second and third graders, the other for fourth and fifth graders.
“The way they talk, the way they dance, they’re so funny, and it’s just fun to hang around these kids,” Pinto said.
A desire to make a difference
The Cambridge Basketball Lab was founded in 2023 by Matt Meyersohn, 44, a mentor and coach for the group, and a former volunteer basketball coach at Cambridge Rindge and Latin for the last 22 years.
Meyersohn had been diagnosed with stage three colon cancer in 2022 and went on medical leave. “For the first time in my adult life, I wasn’t working,” Meyersohn said.
Layla Penn Kids participate in a drill at a Cambridge Basketball Lab practice in October 2025.
During his recovery, Meyersohn said, he thought of ways he wanted to make an impact on the world and community. Kids would ask him if he would come and shoot balls with them, but he realized that gyms often weren’t available. So he went to the Cambridge school committee to ask how they could create opportunities for kids to practice basketball at no cost.
The Cambridge Basketball Lab was born, with funding and partnerships with organizations such as the Red Sox Foundation and the Boston Celtics Shamrock Foundation. The Cambridge recreation department helps cover staffing costs, to pay the coach mentors, and Cambridge Public Schools donates gym space.
Creating opportunities
The partners include Harvard University’s women’s basketball program, which has had five players become coach-mentors over the last two years. The team also invited 30 girls from the program to use the Harvard women’s basketball facilities for a private practice with the team.
After the success of the middle and high school program, Pinto said, Meyersohn pitched the idea to him to expand the practices to more age groups. He said there were not many opportunities for younger kids to play basketball, and parents were asking around for suggestions on where their kids could go.
This fall, elementary school students participate in basketball practices for six weeks. Although the Cambridge Basketball Lab practices are free of charge year round for middle and high school students, the six-week elementary program costs $30 for Cambridge residents and $60 for non-residents. The fee helps cover the cost of having more coaches at the elementary level.
“My son looks forward to coming every week.” Kanoe Williams.
The new elementary school program has been exciting for parents like Kanoe Williams, 42, who sits in the auditorium and watches her son, Rex, play.
“It has been so uplifting,” Williams said. “It’s really nice to come to a place that’s inclusive, that’s focused on helping all the kids gain skills and not coming into any conflictual competition with each other.”
Beyond Meyersohn and Pinto, the program has volunteer coach-mentors like Baileigh Sinaman-Daniel and C.J. Leonard, who are student-athletes at Lesley University, and Deondre Starling, who went to CRLS and was coached by Meyersohn. Starling now runs his own nonprofit, Scholars before Athletes, which mentors kids to focus on academics while developing athletic skills.
Williams said that she has so much respect for the volunteer coaches, and that Meyersohn is her son’s favorite coach.
“My son looks forward to coming every week,” Williams said.
This story is part of a partnership between Cambridge Day and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
