Cheshire Academy will be holding an in-person Commencement ceremony on Saturday, June 5 for the graduating class of 2021, with alumnus Jason Curry ’91 serving as the event’s keynote speaker. 

Curry is president of Big Apple Basketball (BAB), a company that he founded in 1999. BAB is a nonprofit organization that hosts basketball events, conducts clinics, offers college scholarship and mentoring programs, and manages teams. Over the past 10 years, BAB has engaged over 2,000 student-athletes while assisting over 400 youth in gaining college scholarships. This season alone, there are 24 NBA players who have participated in Curry’s program. 

An alumnus of Saint Michael’s College (Colchester, Vermont), Curry graduated with a degree in journalism and mass communication. He was a four-year starter on the men’s basketball team and graduated with several records in the history of the program. In 2009, he was inducted into the St. Michael’s College Athletic Hall of Fame and has served on the college’s Alumni Board of Directors, where he chaired the Admissions Committee. 

At Cheshire Academy, Curry was a key member of the boys’ basketball team that advanced to the NEPSAC Final 4, and was named co-MVP of the cross country team. In 2019, he was inducted into the school’s Kevin Slaughter Athletic Hall of Fame; that same year, he was honored at Madison Square Garden as the Junior Knicks Coach of the Year and was later named the National Jr. NBA Coach of the Year at a separate ceremony in Chicago. He continues to stay involved at Cheshire Academy as a mentor and motivational speaker to student-athletes, and is a founding member of the school’s Alumni of Color Mentoring Network.  

Curry has worked on MSG Television as a basketball analyst for the Westchester Knicks of the NBA G-League, and most recently on ESPN3 as a fill-in analyst for the Manhattan College men’s basketball team. 

A limited number of family members of the graduates are invited to celebrate on campus, and the ceremony will be livestreamed for those who are unable to attend. Proper safety precautions and social distancing will be followed, and face masks will be required during the event.