MIRAMAR--Former professional basketball player John Kee has been hired as the city's first athletic coordinator.

Kee, 32, started this month and will coordinate the city's youth sports organizations and oversee its leagues. He reports to Tim Kennett, assistant director of community services.

Kennett had been the contact for the four major sports organizations in the city: the Miramar Optimist Club, the Miramar Lions, the Police Athletic League and the Southwest Broward Junior Athletic Association. Now Kee will be in charge of lining up those groups' requests for field space at city parks and fitting them into a master schedule.

"We've been trying for years to get this position," said Lowell Borges, Miramar's community services director. "It's something that's necessary as our city grows."

Kennett said Kee has an "ideal" background for the job.

"As we're listing names of people he needs to know or contacts he needs to make, many of them are people he already knows," Kennett said. "We wanted someone who could hit the ground running."

Kee moved to Broward County from Key West when he was in high school, starred on the Dillard High basketball teams from 1988 to 1990, and was on the all-Broward second team his senior year. He went on to play college basketball, at Stetson University in DeLand and St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, before playing professionally in Malaysia and Indonesia for two years.

He has worked as a paid staff member at The Starting Place in Hollywood and Cannon Point Youth Academy in Lauderhill, and spent the past few years teaching at Sunrise Middle School in Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs Charter School.

"I enjoy working with kids, and athletics is my heart," Kee said. "It's good to have a position where you can give something back and share your expertise."

Among Kee's first objectives is organizing a youth football skills clinic for children ages 5 through 15.

The clinic is set for April 10 at Forzano Park. Miami Dolphins kick returner Sam Simmons, other current and former pro players and high school coaches will be teaching football fundamentals in rotating stations.

(source) Sun Sentinel (Nick Sortal) 3-24-04