This year, Hoops Creating Hope reached a milestone we once thought was decades away: 2,500 active students across Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. When I started Crossover in 2010 with 45 kids on a single court in Chennai, I never imagined we would be writing this report. But here we are, and the numbers tell a story that is far bigger than basketball.

Our 85% high school completion rate held steady for the fifth consecutive year. To put that in perspective, the national average for students in similar socioeconomic demographics sits at roughly 16%. That is not a typo. Our students are completing high school at 5.3 times the rate of their peers. And it is not because we found exceptional kids. It is because we built an exceptional system around ordinary kids who just needed someone to believe in them.

This year we also launched our first college readiness cohort in Bangalore. Thirty-two students from our senior program began SAT prep, college application workshops, and career mentoring sessions with professionals from across India and the United States. Fourteen of those students have already received conditional acceptance letters from universities. For most of them, they are the first in their families to even consider higher education.

Our girls program continues to be the heartbeat of everything we do. Sixty percent of our students are girls, and this year we saw a record number of female team captains across all three cities. Repriya, one of our earliest scholars, returned as a full-time coach in Chennai this year. Watching her run drills with the same intensity and compassion that her coaches showed her six years ago is proof that this model works. The cycle is real.

None of this happens without you. Every donation, every volunteer hour, every shared post on social media creates ripples that reach courts and classrooms across India. We are not done. We are just getting started.