PHOTO BY BOB ROCHE
Justin Candelier put up 17 points for his Lynn Housing Authority team at the Lynn Parks and Recreation basketball league Wednesday.
BY STEVE KRAUSE
LYNN — The basketball courts at Keaney Park behind Lynn English resemble a sea of brightly-colored T-shirts. Wearing them are boys and girls from elementary school level up to high school.
And they’re playing basketball. That’s all. Just playing. There’s no pressure. No coaching. No boring, repetitive drills that you’re likely to see at a high school practice.
They’re playing because they want to.
“We like to give the kids a chance to play without coaches, without anybody yelling at them,” said Fred Hogan, a former girls coach at Lynn English, who now directs, along with Jeff Byrd, the Lynn Parks and Recreational League summer basketball program.
Hogan and Byrd have worked together in this program for more than 20 years, with Hogan coming when Jim Ridley, who is currently the principal at St. Mary’s, used to run it.
“I believe he was the first one (to run it),” said Hogan. “When he got too busy with other things, Jeff came on and we’ve been working with it together ever since.”
They both pride themselves on running a low-pressure, for-enjoyment-purposes-only program, but there’s an ulterior motive.
“Come the Fourth of July,” said Byrd Thursday night, “there’s nothing to do. It’s a good thing to have these kids come down here, and it gives them something to do.”
The program, which runs four nights a week — two at Breed Middle School and two at English — isn’t just a feel-good project. Despite the low-pressure atmosphere, there is teaching of a sort.
The young kids come sometimes because they want the older kids to teach them,” said Hogan.
There are 24 teams in the summer league, all of them sponsored by various businesses within the city. On Mondays and Tuesdays, the action is at Breed, with the West Lynn-based teams. East Lynn goes Wednesday and Thursdays at Keaney. There are three levels — grammar, middle and high school — with four teams each, in both East and West Lynn. At the end of the season, which is during the last week of July, East meets West in a playoff at Marian Gardens one day before the annual Shoe City Classic.
Go to either Breed or Keaney and you’ll see a good cross section of former high school players who have come back to help out, either by being referees, helping with clerical work, or calling newspapers with scores.
“We don’t have regular board refs,” said Hogan, whose son, Fred Jr., along with Byrd’s son, Jarell, are both referees in the league. “We like to have kids come work here who have been through the program and who know what we’re all about.”
Even Classical assistant Ken Turner, who, Wednesday, looked as if he was about to embark on a safari to protect himself from the searing 90-degree sun, referees.
“Everybody knows everybody else,” said Byrd, who has been involved with Lynn basketball for the better part of six decades. “It’s kind of like a family.”
Although it was hovering around 90 degrees Wednesday, that didn’t deter any of the children from coming down to English. Hogan said that this year, thanks to the largesse of sponsors, the program was able to increase the number of shirts it gave out per team from 10 to 15. Every team, from the elementary school on up, had healthy representation.
“We thought about postponing because of the heat,” Byrd said, “but these kids aren’t deterred. When we said that, they all said, ‘no. We want to play.’ So, here we are.”
Wednesday night, there were some close scores in the middle and elementary school divisions.
Irvine beat Councilor Buzzy Barton’s team, 30-24, with help from leading scorer Nelson O. Andrew Jackman had nine points for Buzzy Barton.
Lynn Housing Authority beat Lynn Credit Union 37-26. Ly Rivera lead Lynn Housing with ten points, while Hervans Artelfore scored six points for Lynn Credit Union.
NRT got the win over Pizza Lovers 43-36. Jefferson Obarisiaebaon had eleven points for NRT, while Tito Tavares recorded seven points for Pizza Lovers.
Gannon Building beat Lancelot Paper Products, 38-34, thanks to Ky’Juan Anderson’s ten points. Louis Rivera scored 13 points for Lancelot.
In the high school division, the gray team got the big win over the blue team, 71-50. Jalen Johnson scored a game-high 29 points, while Jonathan D’Oleo had 17 points for the gray team. Tyler Ferradamo scored 14 points for the blue team.
