Michelle Turner Photo
Competition was fierce. The two teams raced up and down the court, hot on each other’s trail, passes connecting, shots sinking. This was clearly no mere pick-up game, but rather the next-to-last game of the day for “Hoopin’ Not Shootin,” a series of basketball games held over the past month bringing together teams from New Haven’s different neighborhoods.
The games aim to show the players — and their respective neighborhoods — - they can come together without violence.
Played this past Saturday at the courts in the park at the Boulevard and Derby Avenue (steps away fromt he PIlot Pen tennis tournament), the games have been bringing together young men mostly over 18. The games’ organizer, community activist Maurice “Blest” Peters, hopes to turn this informal competition into a regular league with contests in school gyms throughout town.
Blest and Rev. Albert Shaw.
“Rebuilding the community one shot at a time”, is how Blest explained the games’ purpose. “Trying to show the city that our youth can get along. And now we just have to convince our youth that the same energy that they have on this basketball court they can take back into the neighborhood. The love and respect that they’re showing to each other. If they can do it out here, and this is seven different neighborhoods, they can do it in the existing neighborhoods were we live at.”
Blest chose the court at Boulevard/Derby Avenue because it was neutral territory.
“My vision is to take ‘Hoopin’ Not Shootin’ to the other neighborhoods,” he said. “We wanna be able to come off this basketball court, and go to the other kids’ home court. Yeah, we want to build community one shot at a time.”
The games started with five teams. By this Saturday, the third weekend, the roster grew to seven.Neighborhoods represented included The Hill (three teams), Day Street, Kensington Square, The Boulevard ( West River), Fair Haven. Blest is waiting to hear from a squad in Newhallville. “And that’s going to be our real test … to see when the ‘Ville comes over, that we can control the attitudes, and convince these kids that whatever they’re beefin’ over is not that serious.”
The players’ reaction has been enthusiastic, Blest reported. “They’ve been calling my phone, making sure that we still preferrin’ to do it; they’ve been helping to promote it. I have flyers, and gave them out to some of the kids … What we really want is the community to come out. We want our elders. We want some of our parents to come out, because we want to establish new relationships. … There’s a mic here if you got something you wanna say to the young people … Give ‘em a minute of your time. But we want to rebuild, rebuild those relationships. We don’t want our elders fearing our young people anymore.”
The city’s new police chief came by the previous weekend, along with one of his assistant chiefs. So has Lt. Ray Hassett.
Blest said the games will continue as long as the weather is warm. He wants to “continue their track record” before he approaches the Mayor John DeStefano about supporting a more permanent league in neighborhood school gyms. “We have volunteers that will to do security. We believe that we earned to continue this basketball tournament and that we earned a gym or two. If we really want to help cure what’s going on in the inner city, give us a gym.”
Rev. Albert Shaw, who moved to the area from North Carolina last year, has offered to help find money for the games to continue. “It’s not just about playing basketball,” Shaw said.
Then he pointed at some of the players. “It’s about mentoring theses guys afterward. We’ve got this kid right here to go to Lyman Hall [High School, in Wallingford]. This kid, getting him out of New Haven, the city, getting him to Lyman Hall … It will be a great fit for him,” Shaw said.
“The kid right there, with the white and burgundy shorts? Went from Hillhouse to Lyman Hall, transformed his whole life; a ‘B’ student now. I brought him and his little sister out here in this, to participate. But I guarantee you, if someone got shot, Channel 3 would be here. Channel 8 would be here. But we’ve got some positive movement out here, something positive going on, and no one is out here dealing with this.”
Garvin (pictured in the light blue shirt, doing the tip off) moved to New Haven from out of state. He said the games have helped him get to know local people. They’ve also given him something to do in between looking for a job. “It’s been a real positive,” he said. “I’m enjoying it.”
This is cool - good on Blest and the Rev for covering this, and thanks to the Independent for making us aware of it!