BARROS SURVIVING IN
Youth hoops leagues on hold
Dana Barros has put on youth basketball camps since his rookie season with the Seattle Supersonics, in 1989-90. He knows the habits of kids.
And now that he coaches youth basketball as a profession, the owner of the Dana Barros Basketball Club in Stoughton has a hunch where many kids have gone since COVID-19 shut down all organized athletic activity.
“Man, it’s creating more like, video games, zombie kids,” said the former Celtic and Boston College star, laughing. “I’m sure the parents are having a difficult time keeping them off of that, because there is absolutely nothing else to do.
“I have grown kids and they play Xbox and stuff, but it’s not like the Fortnite craze going on. But there’s going to be a lot of kids who lose that sports ambition and fall into that Xbox era.”
But there’s no choice, and Barros’ operation in a 60,000-square-foot complex in Stoughton is momentarily shuttered. Like every other small businessman out there, he’s swallowing hard and praying.
“Any business will have to deal with the things we are going through,” he said. “Any business will be affected immensely if it goes on for five or six months, absolutely, I don’t care what business you are. Every business is holding their breath. I don’t know if the whole season will end for AAU, but it’s going to be close if something doesn’t change pretty soon.”
In addition to offering an extensive personal coaching service — Barros has about 20 coaches under his umbrella — the organization’s AAU programs field multiple teams on each level from third grade through 12th. His five-court facility hosts most of the area’s regional AAU tournaments.
“Oh, absolutely,” he said when asked about worries.
“This is a peak season for us — for everyone, all basketball programs. This is AAU.
March and April programs. I have 35 teams, and there’s probably 5,000 teams in this state, and some of those teams were year-round basketball programs that rely on the income from AAU. It’s difficult for all the businesses, definitely, and I was the main facility for most of the tournaments. The ancillary effects are just enormous.
“The issue we have is when the governor gave a 250-person mandate, we could stay open and do our clinics. But if we had an open gym, we would have 1,500 kids because everyone’s home. So we couldn’t even have a place for the kids to unwind. It would just be an immediate rush of hundreds or thousands of kids. It’s tough. It’s not like you can go to parks and meet kids from other areas.”
Not at a time when towns and cities have sealed off outdoor basketball courts and playgrounds with rope, cones and caution tape.
But Barros feels better conditioned now than during his first attempt at running a facility. Heavy debt and admittedly bad business decisions forced him to abandon a property known as the Dana Barros Sports Complex in 2006 — a large facility that included four parquet wood basketball courts, a soccer field, fitness center and restaurant.
After a life of succeeding at basketball’s most elite levels, Barros had to learn how to fail.
“As an athlete and you’re successful, you’ve never failed at anything,” said Barros. “You get successful, and you don’t listen to people sometimes. You have to learn. I had opportunities for people to come in, and I didn’t want to do that. I wanted to do it all on my own, but you have to learn.”
The facility’s Mansfield location was also a deal-killer, and may have choked off the operation before it had a chance to grow.
“The location of the spot was the worst part of it. It wasn’t a great location, but at that time there were no facilities,” said Barros. “Everything was booming, and nothing open. I had to go find something that was