Community hoops event grows
Published 7:48 pm Tuesday, July 1, 2014
Expansion and an infusion of youth helped make Michael Britt’s third annual “Communities Coming Together” basketball event a memorable one.
“I think that we had more teams, and we played more days,” Britt said of the event, which is put on by his nonprofit organization, Britt-Quinn Enterprise Inc.
The event was held June 26-28, with games played each day at the Salvation Army’s Robert W. Harrell Jr. Physical Health and Education Center on Bank Street.
More than a dozen teams competed from a variety of age groups, and they came from areas including Delaware, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Manassas, Virginia Beach, Hampton and Suffolk.
Britt said one of the local teams featured overseas players and players from the NBA Development League.
King’s Fork High School rising senior Dale Roscoe was competing for a local team during the event. On Saturday, he said he participated “just to be out with the community, having fun.”
He also was happy to again represent his school.
“I played last year, but last year was more Lakeland guys here,” he said, possibly because it was held at Lakeland High School.
Benefits of the basketball gathering remained similar to previous years.
“First of all, it gives the kids something to do in a positive environment,” said Emanuel Myrick Jr., pastor of Bethlehem Christian Church in Suffolk.
Zombia Everett of Suffolk, who was watching, said athletics is a healthy choice for young people.
“They need to be active,” she said.
Myrick, also there to support and watch the youth, said the event gave them networking opportunities with officials and coaches that were there to help out.
“It just shows what happens when the city of Suffolk just comes together as a whole,” he said.
The crowd ebbed and flowed, but a clear high point came on Thursday.
“The first day, we had right many, because we had the second- and third-grade teams that played,” Britt said. “It was amazing just to see those little kids running up and down the court and having fun.”
He said it reminded him of the regular opportunities while growing up that he had to do the same thing at Birdsong Recreation Center.
For this year’s event location, he said, “I thank the Salvation Army just to use the facility.”
Looking to the future, he said he hopes to have an opportunity to make “Communities Coming Together” a weeklong affair, with a steady influx of teams.
Britt’s team of 11- to 15-year-old boys from Suffolk and Gates County, N.C., has been invited to compete in Maryland later this summer, as well as Washington D.C.
Monetary support from the community has helped the Britt-Quinn Enterprise Inc. team go places before.
“We’d appreciate any and all donations to help us travel,” Britt said.