THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 9, 1996 TAG: 9608090519
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 59 lines
Basketball - the game that melts barriers separating neighborhoods fast as ice cream in summer - has become a focal point of evening life in Norfolk's toughest neighborhoods this summer.
Nighthawk basketball for men ages 17 to 30 boasts 112 players. Each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evening, teams compete in the pilot project involving eight neighborhoods.
While competition is keen, it's friendly, and that's a slam-dunk above the sometimes contentious rivalry that's existed in the past, according to Michael Ivy, the Recreation, Parks and General Services commissioner who conceived the project. He got local businesses to back his idea with donations, so neither players nor the city had to foot the bill.
``I wanted them to get away from that territorialism,'' Ivy said. For example, he said, ``people from Young Terrace couldn't go into Berkley.''
Ivy said that involvement of the young men helps steer them in the right direction. Many, he said, don't have their high school diplomas, so he's working on a plan to make GED classes a requisite of a fall-through-spring version of Nighthawks for these young men.
For now, though, Ivy's glad that the men set good examples for the youths who come to watch the competition.
Antwan Epps and Russell Branch, 17-year-olds from the Young Terrace neighborhood, wiped the sweat from their brows during halftime at Tuesday's game at the Young Terrace Community Center. Their team was bent on defeating Calvert Square.
They are students at Booker T. Washington High School and the youngest members of the team.
``It keeps you off the streets,'' Branch said.
Added Epps: ``It keeps you out of trouble.''
Just what coach Ivy had in mind.
The 44-year-old Ivy hatched the plan after looking at the results of a survey that indicated Norfolk's men ages 18 to 22 needed more to do. But men as old as 30 also signed up for the league.
``We don't turn anyone away,'' said Larry Bellamy, coordinator for Recreation, Parks and General Services.
Other sites for the league games are community centers in Huntersville, Diggstown, Park Place and Bowling Green and the Hunton YMCA.
``I came up some of the same ways,'' Ivy said, watching the game. ``Cleveland, Ohio. It's how you talk to them.''
In addition to his educational goals for the program, Ivy hopes to institute a once-a-month ``midnight madness'' program in the fall. It would be for men ages 23 to 30 and would consist of basketball tournaments from midnight until as late as 6 a.m.
``You never know,'' said Bellamy, listening to Ivy's plans. ``The sky's the limit. He said, `We need this,' and we told him to run with it.'' MEMO: For more information, call Michael Ivy at 441-2692 ILLUSTRATION: Photo by L. TODD SPENCER, The Virginian-Pilot
Antwan Epps, No. 11, Howard Benton, No. 5, and Ron Lee, No. 3, of
Young Terrace play a friendly game of Nighthawk basketball. On the
opposing team from Calvert Square, Andre Smith struggles with the
ball, as his teammate Eric McNeal, No. 5, looks on. by CNB