12th Annual Neutral Zone Golf Classic approaching and more community briefs

The Neutral Zone, downtown Ann Arbor’s teen center, will hold the 12th Annual Neutral Zone Golf Classic charity tournament on Thursday, July 25 at the University of Michigan Golf Course.

The golf tournament is a four-person scramble format with a 9 a.m. shotgun start. Participants can sign up as individuals to be added or with a team. Along with 18 holes of golf, door prizes and raffle tickets, breakfast, lunch and dinner with unlimited beverages throughout the day are provided. All benefits from the outing go toward sponsoring programs at the Neutral Zone, which has 2,000 teen visits each month.

The Neutral Zone aims to provide teens with facilities and resources to pursue interests in music, literary arts, visual arts, education and leadership as well as space for tutoring, recreation and other programs.

Registration information can be found at at www.Neutral-Zone.org or by calling 734-769-1427.

Ypsilanti Community Schools joins Scholar-Baller program

The newly formed Ypsilanti Community Schools district will participate in the Scholar-Baller program during the 2013-14 school year, the district announced earlier this week. The Scholar-Baller program aims to recognize scholar athletes who excel in academics.

The mission of Scholar-Baller is to implement incentive-based programs at the middle school, high school and college levels to help bridge the gap between education, sport and popular culture.

“This is one of the programs that we plan to take advantage of to showcase our scholar athletes,” newly hired YCS athletic director Lamanzer Williams said in a release. “When our athletes take the field or court we want the community to see the visual recognition that our athletes are striving to be exceptional on and off the field.”

The Ypsilanti Community Schools district was formed from the combination of Ypsilanti and Willow Run districts. For information on the Scholar-Baller program, visit www.ScholarBaller.org.

Girls basketball camp begins Monday at Pioneer High School

There will be a basketball camp for girls at Pioneer High School July 8-18. The camp’s focus will be on teaching fundamental skills with a focus on offensive shooting skills and defensive skills through individual and team drills. The camps will be held Monday through Thursday with sessions for grades 3-5 from 8:30-10 a.m., grades 6-8 from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and grades 9-12 from 12:30-3:30 p.m. For registration information visit reced.aaps.k12.mi.us.

Have a local sports brief to tell us about? Contact us at sports@annarbor.com.

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.