Reclaiming The Streets

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Safe Summer Basketball League Championships Honor Victims of Violence

by Shanita Bigelow

Last Tuesday marked the third annual West Haven Safe Summer Basketball League championship tournament. Before a full crowd, the elementary school, high school and adult division teamsCrane Future, Bogan High School and the Village (representing Roosevelt Square)claimed victory on the Malcolm X College court.

Commemorating the lives victimized by gun violence, players at the event from each division received a Sportsmanship award in honor of slain Chicago police officers Thomas Wortham IV and Thor Soderberg, as well as 16-year-old Blair Holt, who was killed in 2007.

In the past the awards have honored slain youth, said Ernest Gates, Director of the Near West Side Community Development Corporation (NWSCDC), which started the league in 2008. This year, in an effort to bridge the divide between the neighborhood and the police, NWSCDC honored Holt and the two police officers, Gates said. We saw it as a way to say to the police department, we feel your pain and we respect what you do, he continued.

Marlon Jones of Dett Elementary School received the elementary school divisions Sportsmanship award in honor of Blair Holt. Holt was shot on a CTA bus while protecting a friend. Ron Holt, Blairs father and director of the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy (CAPS), presented Jones with the award. Blair loved basketball so this event is very comforting. Basketball is a positive, motivating force. Like I always say, Team work makes the dream work, Holt said.

Jones has been participating in the league since it began and while the competition is tough, he says, its helped with his skills and it helps the kids get off the streets.

Stanley Martin of the Bogan team was awarded for his sportsmanship in honor of Officer Wortham, also an Iraq war veteran. Worthams father, Thomas Wortham III, presented the award. We need more young men doing the right thing, he said. Worthams mother and sister were also in attendance. Wortham was shot outside of his familys South Side home in an attempted robbery on May 20.

Tony Bennett of the Village received the award in honor of Soderberg who was killed in the line of duty on July 7. Soderberg was part of Operation Project Youth, a CPD crime-fighting initiative, CBS News reports. He was approached in a police parking lot after his shift and was shot in what police believe was an attempted robbery.

Since the leagues start in 2008, public violence in the West Haven community has decreased by 64.4 percent, according to a NWSCDC press release. Homicide and aggravated battery have decreased 100 percent, the release reports. Created by NWSCDC to provide a safe alternative for youth and fun, free entertainment for members of the Near West Side community, this year the league hosted 240 basketball players and over 250 onlookers per game.

People of all ages could be seen in the crowd. A lot of kids and families attend, said Gates, who believes that if you give people clean, free entertainment, theyll come.

The basketball leagueone of the West Haven Sports Clubis one of many programs NWSCDC offers. The programs occur year round and include music, dance, baseball and softball, boxing, math and science, and the Young Entrepreneur Programeach includes a mentoring component with peer discussions.

The basketball league, a part of NWSCDCs implementation of the Local Initiatives Support Corporations (LISC/Chicago) New Communities Program. The West Haven tournament was a precursor to Hoops in the Hood, a citywide tournament facilitated by LISC/ Chicago. The Hoops in the Hood championship games were held Saturday. Teams from West Haven, Englewood, Auburn Gresham, the Near North Side, Pilsen, East Garfield Park, Back of the Yards, Humboldt Park, North Lawndale, and Little Village came together as examples of how they, through their efforts on the court, have reduced violence in their neighborhoods.

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