A tale of two courts
Community rallies to fix up basketball courts
STAMFORD — Since he was a kid, Renel Domond has studied the cracks and crevices of the Lathon Wider Community Center basketball courts.
The blacktop is riddled with small, uneven craters, scarlike patches crisscross the surface and scattered green and yellow weeds stand high like the hair on a Troll Doll.
At 32, Domond’s skills — forged from years navigating the court’s imperfections — still show.
“We got good at basketball,” Domond said as he dribbled an imaginary ball around an invisible opponent, his foot narrowly but skillfully avoiding a dent in the ground. “We would play around it — I’d spin here, spin there — you get to learn the court and that’s how we got really good footwork.”
Now, on these courts where he taught
himself agility, Domond and a group of community residents say it is time to, quite literally, lay a new foundation.
The people’s court
The courts at the intersection of Pacific and Henry streets, with the South End’s highrise and luxury apartment buildings looming in the background, have all manner of deficiencies.
They’re narrow in width; the threepoint line, instead of forming its half crescent, is abruptly cut off at the edges; and the baskets’ height average the regulatory standard of 10 feet: but one is 8 feet tall and the other towers at 12 feet, said Shyquinn Dix, a Stamford native.
“You can’t even shoot a three, you’re out of bounds if you try,” said Dix, now a 24yearold point guard for the University of Maine at Presque Isle.
The courts — while occupying only half the space of the entire blacktop covered lot — are separated by mere inches. Players inbounding from the shared sideline of the adjacent courts are essentially sandwiched between the lines.
A lone soccer goal’s threepost frame stands right by the fence, unnoticed.
For residents who have grown up in the area, the court has remained virtually the same since they first played years ago.
“When I was younger, we would come here to play at some of the free summer camps,” Dix said.
The basketball courts are a sort of middle ground situated between industriallike edifices, a former firehouse, cozy twostory houses, threestory apartments and Latin restaurants and bodegas that have defined parts of the neighborhood and the towering, luxuryliving buildings that have been developed in the last years.
Not even half a mile from the basketball courts are pristine green areas and dog parks, maintained and manicured regularly.
In the face of ongoing change, residents want to reclaim something — repairing and renovating the courts as a testament to the community’s identity.
“We’re hoping to preserve what’s left of the South End. We want a safe environment for teens and kids here, a variety of people hanging out and coming together,” said Danielle Jordine, a 26yearold Stamford native who played on the court when she was in the eighth grade. “Our focus is on the love and preserving is the biggest thing.”
Full Court Peace, a Norwalkbased organization, knows a thing or two about basketball. The organization has worked to bring communities together through sport, refitting courts in neighboring cities like Danbury and Bridgeport.
Founder and Executive Director Mike Evans recently submitted a proposal to refurbish the Stamford courts to the city, an effort that is expected to cost $19,600 and funded entirely by the Norwalk group.
The plan is to give the court a much needed facelift by widening both basketball courts to standard size, installing indestructible baskets and fixing all the cracks and resealing the surface. A soccer goal would also be put in place opposite the one presently there, the proposal says.
Even with its shortcomings, the space has served as a gathering place for children and residents in a community that has undergone massive change in its landscape in recent decades.
An eyecatching mural covers the entire brick wall next to the courts. Figures of different colors — green, yellow, red, orange — are painted together, standing next to a robust tree with messages of hope, peace and love next to the faces of two AfricanAmerican people who, Dix said, were renowned community leaders.
The city, owner of 137 Henry St. since 1962 per property records, hosts various programs at the Lathon Wider Community Center. There is a childcare learning center, the Ferguson Library’s South End branch, the city’s Health Department, the South End Dental Center, and a Department of Motor Vehicles express office, according to a sign in one of the hallways.
The city Parks and Facilities Manager Kevin Murray said though the outdoor courts are in rough shape, staff have tried their best to maintain what they have. Photographs by the center’s front desk show a man applying a fresh coat of white paint to the outdoor courts’ backboards.
“We try to keep them as clean as possible, the court really hasn’t seen any money allocated to it,” Murray said. “We try to keep the nets and the backboard in good condition and clean up to the best of our ability.”
A series of hoops
With an idea in mind and a proposal in the works, there are still some bureaucratic steps to go through.
Murray, who met with Evans, said he believed this would be a huge upgrade for the city and the South End.
“The next step is to have Director (of Operations) Mark McGrath review and we will then walk this through the boards for appeal as it’s considered a city donation,” Murray said.
Russell Mink, owner of Accumark, a company that specializes in parking lot repair and paving, views the opportunity to renovate the courts was a way of giving back to the city he’s called home for the past 15 years.
“I think it would be great to fix (the court) up and give kids and people in the area something to use,” said Mink, who knows Evans from their days at Weston High School. “I’d love to help and I definitely want to be involved.”
The actual work required for the repairs is still in the planning phase but, according to Mink, it would mean cleaning up the surface, fixing the cracks in the asphalt and applying sealer to the surface.
As Dix walked around the basketball courts, he recited a list of changes he’d like to see: a shot clock, a mural, the name of the South End on the court.
“A lot of people look at this space and I’m the type of person that, if I see a small space, I see something bigger in it,” Dix said.
As the renovation efforts get underway with the city, residents and the nonprofit organization emphasize that the main focus is to cultivate a sense of community.
“Our goal has always been to use basketball to breach the divide,” said Evans, whose group has organized games between clashing Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. “We understand that in Connecticut we have the highest instances of income gaps between neighboring communities. In Stamford, like in Norwalk, within the same city limits, there are huge gaps in income and that leads to a lack of communication and integration between those said communities.”
Evans said his organization has sought to foster community support for the South End project since July, reaching out to businesses in the area and interviewing residents about what they’d like to see.
“The longer you wait, the more the neighbors get mistrustful of whether it happens or not. If you start a movement like this, you have got to finish it,” Evans said.
It’s an ambitious plan but the goal itself is rather simple: build it and they will come.
“The court is kind of an epitome of our relationship to the community, it’s about rebuilding. It’s about building over and giving the children of this community something that’s theirs and that they can come together,” Domond said.