Refurbished Basketball Courts Create a Safe Space For Community to Play

Beyond the Ball and the Chicago Bulls partnered on a basketball court project. PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE CHICAGO BULLS.
Beyond the Ball and the Chicago Bulls partnered on a basketball court project. PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE CHICAGO BULLS.

Refurbished Basketball Courts Create a Safe Space For Community to Play

By Tia Carol Jones

Rob Castaneda founded Beyond the Ball in 2006.  Growing up, sports was always a big part of life. He always loved being at the park and being outside. He wanted to be involved in sports as an adult, so he decided to become a coach. After a couple of incidents where his home was set on fire and wanting to move, girls on the basketball team that Castaneda’s wife coached encouraged them not to leave the community. Naturally, he went back to sports and founded Beyond the Ball as a way to improve the quality of life and make young people safe in the neighborhood.

Beyond the Ball partnered with the Chicago Bulls to refurbish basketball courts at Gary/Ortiz Elementary School, located at 3000 S Lawndale Ave. The hope is that with the refurbished basketball courts, young people will be able to have a safe space to play.

Castaneda said the goal of Beyond the Ball is to leverage the power of sports and play to reclaim space, unite the community and develop a culture of opportunity to cultivate hope and change lives. Beyond the Ball serves children from kindergarten to post high school, serving more than 5,000 unique individuals pre-pandemic throughout the course of the year and 4,000 post-pandemic.

Castaneda ran Hoops in the Hood for the first 11 years of its existence. Adrienne Scherenzel, Vice President of Community Engagement for the Chicago Bulls, connected with Castaneda a couple of years ago. He told her about the  Gary/Ortiz School and how with Beyond the Ball, the school campus has gone from one of the most dangerous to one of the most thriving. Part of making it a safe public space was making the courts look beautiful, so they talked about a mural. Two years later, the courts have been repaired and artwork, created by Roco Drilo, is located there. The artwork features a young girl basketball player, which Castaneda said is great because there are a large number of girls playing basketball now.

“The actual mural faces the school, so when the kids are in school and they look out of their classroom windows, they can see this big, beautiful mural,” Castaneda said.

Castaneda said he hopes as the students see the refurbished courts, they will feel safe, and they will want to use the courts. He believes that using sports, basketball and engaging young people around that, it is important that there is investment around public spaces across the city. He gave the Chicago Bulls credit for their investment in communities.

Scherenzel said that the Bulls’ mission with community engagement is to use the power of basketball to unite people and invest in under resourced communities. She said the partnership between the Bulls and Beyond the Ball is a perfect example of that. She hopes the community will be proud to use the courts.

“I hope that the response is a positive one and they see the Bulls see they are important, and they need and deserve these amazing facilities for their use and it is something visually pleasing as well, that represents their community,” Scherenzel said.

Last year, the Chicago Bulls hosted clinics at the Miracle Center, on the city’s Northwest side. The Bulls also have a girls coaching cohort for coaches to learn how to encourage girls to sign up and continue in sports.


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