Believe it or not, there's a basketball oasis in West Philadelphia, where Penn students and inner-city children come together each Friday to cap off the week.
Enter at 58th and Walnut. Tread lightly down the creaky hallways lined with beat-up lockers, past the classrooms filled with wobbly desks and outdated books and swing open the double doors.
Hang a sharp right to reach the basketball courts, which you can smell from 30 yards away. Sunlight seeps in through the caged-in windows high above the walls, which might have been bright white years ago before all of the paint chipped off.
The dim room gets even darker at night, but the lamps that dangle on chains from the ceiling provide the members of the league with all the light they need.
If you're not part of the Penn West Philadelphia Basketball League (PWBL), Sayre High School's gymnasium sounds like a pretty depressing place. But for 90 West Philadelphia children and dozens of Penn students, this dilapidated space is the setting for the most anticipated and refreshing time of the week: game day.
On Friday nights at 6, hours after Sayre's students have left for the weekend, the dead building comes alive again with 10- to 13-year-old students from a smattering of West Philadelphia schools. Their coaches and the league's referees - all of whom are Penn students - are every bit as excited for the four games as the players are.
At the beginning of each season, the players are drafted onto eight teams by the coaches. The league is free, and anyone is welcome to join, regardless of gender, race or skill level.
Last Friday marked the final week of the regular season, as teams jockeyed for position in the ladder for the league's playoffs. Cleveland Billingsly, who runs the point for his undefeated team (called Team HIT), refused to save himself for the postseason.
Before the game, he predicted a high point total for himself. "But," he added, "everyone's going to score a lot." As it turns out, Cleveland is quite the prognosticator.
Down by a point midway through the first half, he picked the pocket of Devin Regan -- Team Villanova's diminutive but sure-handed floor general - and coasted to the other end for an easy layup. On his team's ensuing possession, Cleveland penetrated the lane and dished a no-look pass to his good friend and center, Aneltus Botts, for another easy basket.
Cleveland led his team to victory with 30 points by his rough count (no official stats are recorded), but well-coached and true to his word, he looked to set up his teammates every time they were open.
With so many of the league's alumni returning every week to their stomping grounds to take in the action, the players are constantly reminded of the league's history and importance.
"Teams have gone undefeated in the regular season before, but they've all lost in the playoffs," Cleveland said.
In his three years in the league, however, he happily boasted that he already has one championship under his belt. He then motioned to league commissioner and former coach, College senior Jon Zane, and said, "Coach Jon's a good guy. He won one too."
But in the PWBL, winning isn't everything. Khalil Broxton, the starting center for the 3-4 Team Louisville, "looks forward to Friday every single day," regardless of his team's record. His father comes each week, along with many other players' parents, to watch with alumni and friends in the bleachers and along the side of the court.
"Every day I bug my coach (Wharton senior Dan Miller) and ask him when we're going to practice," Khalil said. For both him and Miller, Friday is the best day of the week.
Always animated, Miller constantly paced up and down the sidelines last Friday, shouting orders and words of encouragement to his team and coaching until the final whistle.
Penn students like Miller and Zane serve not only as coaches for their players, but also as mentors and role models.
Zane, who joined the league as a referee three years ago, is at Sayre from 5-9 every weekday and knows each player personally. He is responsible for all of the day-to-day operations, including the development of a curriculum for a tutoring hour that precedes all league practices. Players must be in good academic standing to compete.
The league thrives, according to Zane, because "of how generous the Penn students (coaches, referees, and scorekeepers) are with their free time, and how invested they are in a program that matches up with their personal interests.
"On the flip side, the people that you serve are drawn to the program for the same reason that the volunteers are," Zane continued. "Unlike other tutoring or mentoring programs, where West Philadelphia students might find other activities they'd rather do, basketball is high up on their list. That's why [PWBL] is so unique."
The league's model fosters continuity among players and coaches, the overwhelming majority of whom stick with the league from the time they join it until the time the players outgrow it or the coaches graduate. PWBL returned two-thirds of its players from last season, and coaches are allowed to retain up to three players on their team from season to season when the rosters are shuffled.
As a result, it's "common for coaches to form long-lasting relationships with players," Zane said.
Miller has coached one player, Ryan Stewart, for three years now, while College senior and coach Amanda Foote is tutoring one of her players' sister and mother.
Volunteers are recruited continuously throughout the year -- there are two basketball seasons annually that coincide with Penn's academic semesters. Zane noted that the league is always looking for more Penn students.
"Because the league works on a mutual interest in basketball, you don't need to bend any arms to get kids to play basketball, and you don't need to bend any arms to get students to coach," Zane said.
And though the league is on a bye this week for Philadelphia public schools' spring break, you can be sure that players and coaches are chomping at the bit to get back to Sayre for what should be another memorable postseason. Who knows? Maybe Cleveland and his teammates can finish off the first perfect season.
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