their academic futures in college and beyond and those building stood at the corner of West Chapel Hill Street
already in college finding out where their passion really and Buchanan Boulevard. The high-school students in the
lies as they discover the benefits of giving back and having Scholars to College program were six, seven and eight-
a positive impact on a community and its young people. year-olds with high academic potential who, because of
Of course, for this group of basketball lovers, it was a treat financial circumstance, struggled to keep pace with their
to walk on the floor of the Emily K Center gymnasium peers. Now they participate in a program every week that
which is the court from the 2001 National Championship is preparing them to be the first college students in their
Duke brought home from Minneapolis. After their first families. The youngest Pioneer Scholars were not yet
tours of the Emily K Center, coffee and breakfast, and even born, their now-proud parents unable to imagine the
some mingling with some of the rest of the long Duke- opportunities that their children would have because of
blue line, the guests were invited into the downstairs the Emily K Center programming, opportunities to Dream,
classroom to sign a card for Coach K that celebrated many Do, and Achieve that they, themselves, never had. Now
milestones: his 63rd birthday, his thousandth game, and these youngsters come to the EKC every day and work
his thirtieth year at an institution that had come to mean one-on-one with highly-qualified tutors and volunteers
home and family to him. devoted to seeing their dreams come true.
It was a day I loved being a part of because of all of The notes produced by those four guys and by all of
the great things there were to see. EKC students proud the guests at the Emily K that morning sent a message
to answer questions about the programming that is that meant the world to their sixty-three-year-old coach.
contributing so greatly to their academic success. Duke “Coach,” wrote Ryan Caldbeck, “I have always been proud
to have been associated with you and the Duke program,
but I haven’t been more proud than when I saw what you
have built here at the Emily K Center.” “Dear Coach,” Matt
Christensen penned, “Your professional success has been
so impressive…but more impressive to me is the way that
you’ve raised such a strong, united family and the way
that you’ve done so much for others around you, the Emily
K Center being just one example of that.” And so, the
coach’s players and managers got to see what he wanted
them to see: the beauty of the work that goes on inside the
building that bears his mother’s name, the commitment of
the amazing staff and volunteers, and that champions are
students explaining to Duke alums how working at the
Center has fueled a passion in them that will inform
their future careers. A talented and devoted staff given
the opportunity to talk about why they do what they do.
Kids and kids at heart alike taking a moment to pick up
a basketball, perhaps for the first time, perhaps for the
millionth, and shooting a maybe not yet perfected, maybe
a little rusty jumpshot on a court where champions were
once made. Successful, well-dressed, grown men seated
in tiny chairs, reflecting on when they grew from boys to
men at Duke.
Of those four former basketball players at that little made in those classrooms the same way they were made
table, Matt Christensen was the most recent graduate, on that court in 2001: through the passion, commitment,
having left Duke after graduating in 2002. A near-decade and hard work of a great team. Of the many wonderful
has gone by in a flash. But how neat it is to think about sights to see that morning, that was what the coach
the fact that, when he left Duke eight years ago, no wanted them to see most of all.
emilyk.org
Emily Krzyzewski Center > 904 W. C

hapel Hill Street > Durham, NC 27701 > T: 919.680.0308 > E: info@emilyk.org
DukeBluePlanet.com 57
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