Homegrown Bronx youth basketball tournaments, growing source of hope through hoops
BRONX, N.Y. - Just walking around the edge of Edenwald Houses in the Bronx, you wouldn't know about the concrete rose that's becoming a new heartbeat in the largest housing projects in New York City.
Just beyond the gates, the big black sign on the blacktop welcomes basketball's next big stars.
With music pumped up and plenty of sun out, the crowd is waiting to see who'll shine with it.
Summer days on the court give teen athletes like Suleyman Kone a place to fall deeper in love with basketball.
Before 2013 the Grenada Blacktop Classic didn't have the buzz it has now or the court it's played on today.
"This court was horrible and atrocious, horrible no backboards, no rims. It was leaves growing outside the ground on the court," said Rasheem ‘Coach Rah’ Jenkins.
Coach Rah and his friends would play basketball with trashcans before he'd bring his vision for a better basketball court and a youth tournament to fruition.
"When I came back from college, I was like ‘Hey I want to make a tournament, I want to keep a safe haven for the kids’ and so the floors were just straight black. So, you know what we’re just call it Granada Blacktop Classic," said Jenkins.
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Over the last ten years tournament after tournament became the proving ground for athletes wanting to make a name for themselves.
"When we started, we had about maybe 30 to 50 kids now we have about 350 kids in the program," Jenkins explained.
They run the program and nonprofit that not only hosts games but offers tutoring, Saturday enrichment, and mentoring for youth who in most cases become like family to each other.
"It feels like he’s your brother or your little cousin. It feels like we feel the same pain when we got to go in our building and hear gunshots or you don’t have your father there, I don’t have my father, so we can relate," Jenkins said.
They aim to relate and rebuild a legacy in Edenwald that Coach Rah hopes will extend well beyond his own life.
"Growing up watching him, he instilled that in me playing basketball everyday working on my craft and just watching him and his brothers," Joseph Rainey Jr. told FOX 5.
Coach Rah coached and mentored Rainey who's now helping carry the torch that keeps kids out of the dark.
"It’s a lot of things going on in New York City right now. As far as the killings and the gangs, so we’re trying to do something to keep our kids out of that. This is the way," Rainey expressed.
Basketball is just their hook at trying to help their athletes achieve their full potential.
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"I would come through the project dribbling the basketball. Everybody would look at me and say he’s going to be something and that’s what I want for my kids," he added.
Coach Rainey’s greatest strength as a role model comes from sharing some other roles he’s played growing up.
"I ran across poverty. I stepped into that field of poverty. I know what its like to be gang affiliated. I know what it’s like to take the other route. I don’t want to get into detail but if you've been there, you know I don’t want my kids there," he shared.
Among all of the distractions there are out there, his kids know they don't want to be there either.
Some of them want to play Duke University, others want to make in the NBA and they understand the importance of using their own influence for good along the way.
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"Set an example for the younger kids than me and I have a little sister at home. I want her to see me on TV one day," said Jamel Jordan.
And if they ascend to basketball's highest league or not, the goal is to deepen their drive for success.
"Trying to get every kid to go to college whether it’s for sports or some type of education they want to be in their field growing up. Even if they want to be a police officer a firefighter or a doctor, they can do that too.
Having a community of mentors to guide them down that path makes achieving it--that much easier.
"They have my back at all times, training. Anything I need. You know what I mean, just mentors," said Jordan.