Given the rich history and tradition of hoops in the five boroughs, basketball is undeniably New York City’s game. 

So much so that there’s now a school in the South Bronx that tailors its curriculum around professions that touch the sport of basketball. 

The Earl Monroe New Renaissance Basketball Charter High School opened in the Pelham Bay section of the Bronx in September 2021. The co-ed school of about 400 students is temporarily located in what was once the Our Lady of the Assumption parochial school. 

The school is named after Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, the legendary New York Knicks guard and four-time All-Star who was a member of the 1973 NBA championship team en route to being enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. 

Monroe’s longtime friend Dan Klores is the school’s founder and chairman of the board. The Brighton Beach native and graduate of Lincoln H.S. is a Peabody Award-winning filmmaker who worked with Monroe on two of his films. 

“The mission of the school is to expose and teach the students about all of the professions off the court that stem from the ecosystem of basketball,” said Klores, who had the idea to start this school — the first of its kind in the country — about eight years ago. 

The name “Renaissance” comes from one of the greatest basketball teams ever in New York City history: the Harlem Renaissance, an all- Black professional team formed in 1923. The Harlem Rens were a staple in the city and also barnstormed across the country. 

“Basketball has historically been the city game from the turn of the century,” Klores said. “It’s the story of New York City and people not only playing against each other but with one another. It’s the pulse of the city.” 

Charter schools operate with a phased enrollment, meaning they begin with only freshmen and add one new grade each year. This year marks the first time the school has seniors, and thus, 2025 will be the school’s first-ever graduating class. 

Students start their first year taking the core curriculum classes and a course on basketball’s foundation. From there, they can decide which of 17 basketball-related career tracks they want to pursue, including broadcasting, journalism, print and digital media, marketing, finance, business, statistics, analytics, nutrition, photography, physical rehab, psychology, in-arena entertainment, and food services. 

“It was Dan’s vision to have a school where the professions related to basketball,” said Peter Leibman, a retired associate professor and former director of the student-teaching program at St. Francis College, Brooklyn Heights, who serves as a consultant to the school. “These paths can be placed in front of the students so they could decide what specific sports profession they would be interested in.” 

The school, of course, has its own boys’ and girls’ hoops teams, with s t u d e n t s broadcasting and scoring the games as part of their after-school activities. The boys’ team was honored at Madison Square Garden last season during halftime of a Knicks game for winning a basketball tournament in China. 

In addition to basketball, the school has a full sports program and numerous clubs in which students participate. They also have access to mentoring and internship opportunities to enhance their school experience. 

“Our curriculum and classrooms are based on developing a student-centered, project-based classroom,” said Leibman, who played four years of basketball as a shooting guard at Christ the King H.S., Middle Village. “The curriculum matches up with the different professions, and projects are developed, which allow the students to explore a profession.” 

The school is hoping to move into a new 69,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art building — which will be five stories and double the size of its current home — on 153rd Street and 3rd Avenue by the start of the 2026 school year. 

This revolutionary academic model has successfully exposed high school students to exciting professions at a young age. It’s teaching the students that work can be fun and that they can build a career around a sport that they love. 

“We open doors,” Klores said. “Our mission is to marry passion with opportunity.” 

As a result, this one-of-a-kind school has been a real swish.