Jim Carr Comes Home For The Brayden Carr Foundation
By Matt Sugam
PISCATAWAY – Before Jim Carr left for Rhode Island in April, he stopped in Athletic Director Tim Pernetti’s office. The long-time Rutgers assistant had one last favor to ask.
With his deceased son’s foundation “In Brayden’s Eye’s” established, he wanted to continue to have the coaches clinic at the place he spent countless hours coaching the last 14 years. The place he still calls home.
“The foundations important to me I went and I asked Tim that if I would leave, could I still do the clinic at least for one more year here because this is my customer base for lack of a better term,” Carr said. “Tim had no problem and I walked back and talked to [head coach] Mike [Rice] about it and Mike said no problem.”
Aside from the peace of mind that they’re helping a former colleagues charity, Rutgers basketball becomes the benefactor of some of the great basketball minds – like Stan Van Gundy, Billy Donovan and Tom Crean – roaming around their home court for the day.
“It’s good for everybody. It’s a good synergy thing for Rutgers basketball too,” Carr said. “You get 500 coaches in your gym. There’s guys in here that are being recruited. There’s high school coaches, prominent AAU coaches, and it’s good for the Rutgers kids to get a chance to meet Stan Van Gundy, they got a chance to meet last year Larry Brown or Jeff Van Gundy or somebody like Kevin Eastmen could explain to them what it takes so it’s great for those guys there [to the NBA].”
For Carr, it’s a time to honor his late son by helping others. And this time, it was a homecoming of sorts.
“First time back in the building [the RAC] since last April,” Carr said. “It was a little weird last night because I was the only person here and I was setting up tables and stuff like that and I’m used to having a lot of people around me, but it’s nice. It’s home.”
However, coming home was no vacation. The Brayden Carr Foundation is a two person operation between Jim and his wife Natalie along with the help out countless volunteers. Today’s coaches clinic had over 500 attendees.
“It’s going to be a hectic couple of days,” Carr said. “We have two official visits this afternoon, so as soon as it’s done I’m going to jump in the car and battle 95 north for a couple hours to get back and get these two visits and fall asleep on Sunday. That’s the plan.”
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