Blocks from epicenter of Baltimore protests, a rec league celebrates

BALTIMORE — Carmelo Anthony marched through the streets of Baltimore late on Thursday afternoon, joining the crowds on St. Paul Street as they peacefully protested what they perceive are the levels of police brutality in the city. He grew up here, in West Baltimore. He learned to play basketball in the city’s recreation centers.

“I’m here supporting my community; I’m hear to talk to the youth about calming things down here in the city” he told a CNN reporter as they walked.

Less than a mile away, at a recreation center where Melo occasionally played, it’s clear that many of Baltimore’s youth already understand this message.

“Violence is not the answer,” said Syn’cere Conn, 8, a member of the Bentalou Recreation Center’s 9-and-under basketball league. “My teacher taught us that we should not be out on the streets doing all those violent things.” A mom said her son wanted to join the protests, but he didn’t like the violence. He knows to always respect authority, she said, so he decided to wait until he could join a peaceful march.

As Anthony marched just a few blocks away, these Bentalou teammates, coaches, and parents gathered Thursday night for the league’s end-of-year banquet. City officials called on Tuesday to try to convince the center’s leaders to cancel the event, but that was never even considered an option.

“I said, ‘Oh, no. No,’ ” says Arlene Foreman. “We didn’t cancel because they’re safe inside Bentalou. We want them to remember that."

The kids have been looking forward to this all season, added a mom. It would have been incredibly disappointing to cancel it. And so the event went on as planned, moved slightly earlier in the day to make sure everyone could get home before the city-wide 9 p.m. curfew for children under 14 years old.

Foreman opened the night by asking everyone to bow their heads and take a moment of silence “for all the chaos that’s going on around the city.”

“We have no control over that, but we have control over this banquet that's happening tonight,” she said. “I am so glad that you all did not allow all the foolishness to keep you from coming in.”

With that she turned it over the man many credit with keeping the recreation center going strong for more than 40 years. Herman Johnson – Coach Herman, as he’s known at Bentalou – started volunteering in Baltimore rec leagues when he was 16. He’s now 70.

When he started, he recalls, the teams were mostly white. He’s seen the city change tremendously, but he’s still old school, he says, because no matter who is on his team, kids still crave the same things: discipline, consistency, authority.

“They feel safe here. That’s very important," he said. "Especially for boys, in a single-parent home, they have moms, aunts, grandmothers, but they’re not used to a strong male disciplining them. Men do things differently. It’s important they have strong males around.”

Once he has their respect, Coach Herman teaches the boys about much more than basketball.

“Basketball is the draw, but what I do, I talk about life,” he says. “Paying the rent, buying groceries, getting an education.” He names teams after local high schools and colleges, so that the kids will start thinking about life beyond Baltimore. He took a group of players to Florida last year.

“One boy said, ‘Coach, we’ve been here seven days and I haven’t seen a roach,' ” he recalled. “I said, ‘Your house could be like that. Go to college, get an education, you’ll see.' ”

Davon Usher, 22, followed Coach Herman’s advice. He left Baltimore to attend the University of Delaware. He called his coach whenever things got tough – as they often did, he said – and he graduated in May 2014. He’s since been playing professional ball in Iceland.

Adressing the room on Thursday, Usher told the kids that Coach Herman might be tough, but he’s right. Listen to him, and you’ll make it through anything.

“This center is life-changing,” he said. “It does a lot for the city, it helps a lot of people not give up on life.”

“The center is a staple of community sports,” said fellow volunteer Vance Tyree. “People know they can come here and it’s constant. It’s steady.”

Having the event on Thursday was one more reminder that no matter how hard things are in Baltimore, the Bentalou Recreation Center is there for them.

Tyree and the other volunteer coaches recall having many more recreation centers during their childhoods. There were nearly 100 centers in the 1990s, according to Foreman, compared to today’s 46. If there were more centers again, more kids would have a safe place to go after school, they said. More kids would have a place to belong. It would make a tremendous difference.

There aren’t nearly enough rec centers for every child in Baltimore. But on Thursday, those who play for Bentalou received their trophies. For many, it was a first. Their smiles told the entire story. They were ecstatic. They’d earned this celebration, and the chaos around them was not going to take these trophies away.

Even still, Foreman had to rush a bit to make sure every boy received his trophy. Most of the crowd had already left by the time the last were handed out, as the curfew was quickly approaching.

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Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact her at delliot@yahoo-inc.com or find her onTwitter and Facebook.