In the inner city, basketball often gives youngsters with limited opportunities for self-expression, an art form truly suited to their environment. Basketball courts proliferate in vacant lots, playgrounds and city parks. A pick-up game of basketball offers diversion from inhospitable surroundings. A young boy or girl's athletic prowess at hoops can chart a path to a better way of life; in fact, many see it as the only way out. In this culture, playing basketball can be the first step towards a college scholarship and an improved way of life.

The Gauchos is located in the Mott Haven Section of the South Bronx, where the rates of poverty, crime and unemployment are high. Many families live in poor sub standard overcrowded housing. Schools are overcrowded and there are few places to play basketball. Mott Haven has one of the highest high school drop out rates in the city (23%) is among the highest percentages of unemployment (nearly 24%) and the highest percentage of families with annual incomes under $10,000.

Forty three percent of Mott Haven's children between the ages of 5 and 18 live below the poverty level. It is there here the Gauchos gymnasium stands out. It is an oasis, offering a program. which provides New York City youngsters an opportunity to beat the odds stacked against them. The Gauchos program endeavors to put basketball in perspective, to offer it not as a catapult into some fabulous, famous life, but as a compass for a different and better world. We give them hope and opportunity as way to success.