Local Youth Basketball League Stays True to Brooklyn Hoops

“This piece of orange leather can take you all over the world.”

So advised Lavonne Gaston, Parent Coordinator at Boys & Girls High School, holding up a basketball to a group of third, fourth and fifth grade players gathered near her school’s legendary basketball court. Ms. Gaston’s comments came just after last Wednesday’s 39-30 win by CS 21 The Crispus Attucks School over PS 44 The Marcus Garvey School in the Athletics, Achievement and Advice (A.A.A.) Elementary School Basketball League title game — and followed the news of the untimely passing of Dwayne “Pearl” Washington, the transcendent Boys and Girls star basketball player.

The not-so-pint-sized players were busy wolfing down pizza and cradling trophies, which — according to league commissioner John Leftridge — all receive, win or lose, but paused to hear Gaston, whose children have excelled in the sport thanks to an early exposure to A.A.A. lessons.

Her son Bryce Jones averaged almost 13 points per game this season as the starting point guard for Murray State, while Gaston’s older son Brent Jones was the starting point guard for the St. Francis Brooklyn men’s basketball team from 2011 – 2015.

Longevity — A.A.A. has been around since 2004 — has allowed the league to profoundly impact the lives of hundreds of boys and girls throughout the Bedford Stuyvesant, Clinton Hill, Crown Heights, Fort Greene and Park Slope neighborhoods where it’s teams are located.

Why is quite simple, says Leftridge, A.A.A. co-founder.

“You play sports and you go to college,” he explained. “You play sports well and it pays for college.”

“We looked at it and said ‘We have to do something,’” Leftridge said about his and PS 44 head coach Mark Zguro’s decision to create an elementary school league where none existed.

An all-state high school football and lacrosse player, Leftridge was motivated to repay what had been given to him.

“As a kid growing up in Rome, New York, somebody grabbed me and got me to play. During the summer and the fall I had somewhere to go.”

CS 21’s head coach Ty Cheeseboro believes that his continued involvement in the game continues the borough’s legacy of basketball as embodied by Washington, a star at Syracuse who also had a brief career in the NBA.

“The tradition of Brooklyn basketball and Pearl Washington — he’s a legend” the Panthers’ head coach said. “The fact that we were able to play in his alma mater, that’s touching because… [h]e left a lot of greatness for the kids to follow.

“He was an inspiration to me. I grew up watching him play, so I wanted to pass that on to my kids.”

Washington, known for his stylish play, likely would have been impressed by how well the teams executed basketball fundamentals. As they raced up and down the Kangaroos’ home court, players from both sides moved the ball crisply, set picks and looked to set up teammates for shots.

A.A.A.’s impressive level of play is no accident.

“The way we play basketball at PS 44 it’s always ‘Find the open player.’ ‘Give the looks.’ ‘Ball fakes and then try the reverse,’” Knights’ coach Zyguro explained.

“We pride ourselves with having not just a team but a program,” he added. “We get kids involved in first, second and third grade so that by the time they’re in the fourth and fifth grades, they already know the system.”

The Knights, down by 13 points with less than five minutes to go in a semifinal match-up with undefeated and top-seeded PS 11 before pulling off a 33-30 upset, simply could not keep up Wednesday with a faster, deeper Panther team. Led by game MVP Antoine Knight, CS 21 broke out to an early double-digit lead. PS 44 simply did not have another stunning comeback in them.

CS 21’s Cheeseboro, who in a decade of coaching has captured half of the league’s titles (six), credits unselfish play for his most recent championship, the Panthers’ third straight.

“I’m proud of this team for being one of the most unselfish in my ten years of coaching,” he said.

“It’s important for them to understand that playing team ball, and being a team, makes champions,” Cheeseboro added. “When you put on that jersey you’re not playing for yourself, you’re playing for your team.”

Following the loss, PS 44’s Yandel Santiago —an effervescent fourth grader whose long locks flew frenetically as he buzzed all over the court — was disappointed but not discouraged. “He’s a good player,” observed Angelica Crespo about her son, who has been playing basketball since he was six years old. “He really puts himself in to it.”

Yandel deflected praise to his team. “[T]hey played hard and it don’t matter that we didn’t win. We tried our best.”

Asked why teamwork was important, the slight nine year old, whose favorite player is Stephen Curry, shrugged then said: “We feel strong as a team.”

PHOTO CAPTION: CS 21 The Crispus Attucks School, 2016 A.A.A. League Champions
PHOTO CREDIT: Michael Randazzo for The Patch