WINONA, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University men's basketball team has joined forces with the St. Stanislaus Middle School to form a partnership for the 2008-09 school year. The "Adopt a School / Adopt a Team" program will run throughout the school year, with players and coaches from the SMU men's basketball team visiting St. Stan's two-to-three times a month to assist in the staff and teachers in a variety of activities, stressing leadership, teammwork, being a good classmate/teammate and positive behavior.

"As a coaching staff and as a program, we wanted to reach out to the community — to give something back to the youth of Winona — and we felt this was a perfect way to do that," said SMU first-year head coach Todd Landrum, who, along with seven members of the year's Cardinals' team tipped off the program with an assembly for all fourth and fifth graders in early October. "We got a chance to talk to the kids about our experiences when we were in elementary school. We also had a great discussion on 'What is a good teammate/classmate.' It was an energetic group and we had a lot of fun while learning about each other."