Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 5, 1994 TAG: 9408050085
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Half of the lights hanging from the ceiling of the Jefferson Center gym have blown out. Inside, it is dim, yellowish, hazy from lack of light and from the humidity that has wafted through the doors.
Jerry Jackson couldn't care less. He is shooting hoops with deft precision.
Swish.
Jermaine Johnson is deep into a half-court game, his T-shirt drenched with sweat. Never mind that, or the late hour. Johnson is pumped.
Swish.
This is Midnight Basketball, where 18- to 23-year-olds looking for something to do lose themselves in three hours of hard play.
Some are former high school stars, their careers stalled by poor academics. Some are college basketball players who enjoy competition that surpasses what they've found elsewhere. Some are ex-offenders, sidetracked by bad choices.
They are young adults who want more activity after work, after dark, than what the streets or home have to offer.
"I come mainly because I'm bored in this city," Jackson, 23, says. "There's nothing to do. This beats being in the streets."
Johnson, 21, is fresh from a jail term on a malicious wounding charge.
"I don't want to go back," he says. "This helps ease my mind so that I don't do anything negative. I don't want to be hanging out. I'm trying to better myself."
Stephanie Harris lingers at a side door. She is 16, too young to enter. She watches as her 20-year-old boyfriend steps into a game.
"We come just to be somewhere," she said.
The program, sponsored by the YMCA of the Roanoke Valley and the Roanoke Department of Parks and Recreation, is modeled after those in larger metropolitan areas.
Similar programs - spinoffs of federally sponsored Midnight Basketball leagues - were highlighted in President Clinton's crime bill. Called "urban recreation" programs, they have been criticized by some as masquerading as crime-prevention efforts.
Cal Johnson, executive director of the YMCA, disagrees, particularly when programs target an age group that is too old for curfews, yet too young for nighttime, adult-geared activities.
"This is a group of young adults who don't get programs," he said. "Programs are there for them after something happens but nothing in terms of giving them a good outlet for positive activities."
Roanoke's Community Relations Task Force - created in 1990 after bottle-and rock-throwing incidents focused attention on tensions between the city's black community and police - proposed the idea in 1991. The task force was concerned about a lack of summertime activities for young people.
Though the task force's proposal was not the impetus for this program, the YMCA and the city Parks and Recreation Department had the same concern. Joint sponsorship of a Midnight Basketball program seemed a natural, Cal Johnson said.
The program - funded with $10,000 in Community Development Block Grant money - is a pilot endeavor that began July 14 and was to end Aug. 27. But because sponsors so far have underspent allotted funds, the program has been extended for a few weeks, said Rob Bachman, athletics coordinator for the Parks and Recreation Department.
"We're going to try to use every cent of this money available, push it out as far as we can," Bachman said. "It's a great program that's definitely showing its value and its need."
The program's purpose is to give young adults who may be prone to hanging out in the streets an outlet on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.
From 11 p.m. to 2 a.m., young men and a few young women pass through the gym doors. An average of 70 have attended each night.
Identification is checked at the door. Alcohol is prohibited, as is the use of profanity - most of the time. Participants are allowed one cuss word a night.
Once participants step through the door, they are in to stay. If a participant leaves and tries to get back in, "tough," said Millard Bolden, a program director for the YMCA.
"Some of these guys come here with that park mentality. Things don't go right, they want to fuss and cuss.
"We just don't put up with it. These rules let them know what our expectations are."
Two Roanoke police officers are assigned to patrol the gym and the area surrounding it each night.
The officers "represent authority. That's the main reason we use them," Bolden said. "There's not that much problem inside the gym. Their biggest job is to manage things on the outside of the building."
James Jones, a Patrick Henry High School teacher and coach who is working with the program, has recognized many former students among the participants. He welcomes the second chance to influence their lives.
"They feel as though they are a part of something, not out on the street, in limbo," he said. "They know that on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, they can be somewhere positive. They've finally got something to do, somewhere to go."
For many, going or staying home is not a desirable option. For them, the program has become a kind of home away from home, Bolden said.
"A lot of their needs are not met at home. And obviously they are going somewhere else to get their needs met," Bolden said. "For some young people, the outlet may be drugs or other negative forces out there. Midnight Basketball gives them a positive outlook."
Though basketball is the hook, activities include life skills training. Guest speakers talk to participants about employment prospects, job-interviewing techniques, substance abuse, self-esteem building and money management.
The program also might serve as a college recruiting tool, Bolden said.
"There are some participants who finished high school, did well athletically and still have not made a decision about continuing their education," Bolden said. "We're having [college] coaches come in one night before the program ends and take a look at these guys."
The program's future beyond October is unclear. Participants have begged for it to continue year-round, seven nights a week.
"It all depends on what resources we have available, whether we have additional money along the way," Bachman said. "We'd like to see this program continue all the way through the fall and winter. We're hoping that eventually if the program continues to grow in popularity, we'll open up a few more facilities for it."
Still, Jones is worried that when the program does end, the young adults will be forced to return to old habits.
"We'll have hundreds of young people come through here by the time it ends," he said. "And when it does, they'll be going back to whatever they were doing.
"What's going to happen to them?"
by CNB