'The whole city needs it': Community expresses excitement for Midnight Basketball league
The new Atlanta Midnight Basketball league is already in its second season this year.
City officials are hoping the efforts of the league will help reduce crime in Atlanta neighborhoods.
The idea of Midnight Basketball as a way to prevent crime has been incorporated into numerous neighborhoodss around the country for decades.
At first, the bleachers of C.T. Martin Gym did not have many spectators, but music bounced off the hardwood. Players were warming up on the court.
The league allows players between 18 and 25 to sign up to play in the games. Akil Shaw, 21, is a local to the Adamsville neighborhood and in college at Morehouse.
Shaw joined the league with friends as a way to stay out of trouble and set an example for others individuals like himself.
“Focus your energy on something else…come do an organized sport,” he said. “Do something other than just standing around; that’s how you get into stuff.”
Sergeant Vincent Sims of the Atlanta Police Department says that the league’s purpose is to help guide young guys to stay positive and connected to the neighborhood.
“The great thing about this is it’s not just about recreation. But I think, more importantly, we want to take these young men and mentor them,” he said.
Sergeant Sims is also a part of the Police Athletic League (PAL), and the games are a way he builds relationships with the players. He then helps connect them to JOBS and other community resources.
As the game continued, more residents of the Adamsville neighborhood filtered in.
Most are there simply to watch basketball as an evening pastime, including spectator Johnny Clark.
Clark hopes the league will continue to be a positive outlet for young men.
“I’m ready for it to touch all parts of the city because the whole city needs it,” he said.
The league has thirteen games left this season, and games are not at midnight but every Monday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.
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