THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606050137
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH THIEL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 177 lines
IN NEIGHBORHOODS WHERE no one can afford country club memberships, visits to amusement parks or trips to museums, the boredom can be crushing.
Just ask the kids who live in the Pleasant Park and Peaceful Village apartments, off Campostella Road.
Used to be, there was nothing fun to do on weekend afternoons or long summer days. The boys filled the time by playing pick-up basketball games on a dilapidated outdoor court; the girls hung out and watched.
Without much else to keep them busy, the kids had plenty of time to get in trouble, said Lazarus ``Larry'' Worsley, 39, a former resident of the area.
Worsley has changed that.
His youth basketball league, which began by accident last year with a handful of neighborhood boys, has grown into a highly organized, co-ed conference.
It's one of many such grass-roots programs blossoming throughout Hampton Roads, as community leaders discover that athletic competition can lure kids away from mischief caused by idleness.
Worsley's league has eight teams - two for girls and six for boys - that play each other on a rotating schedule. Each team has a coach, 10-12 players ages 7 to 15, a fancy name such as the ``Magics'' and strict rules for how the players and coaches must behave.
All told, more than 80 kids now have something to look forward to every day and a reason to stay out of trouble.
``It's fun playing other teams,'' said Brandi E. Edwards, 11, a sixth-grader at Indian River Middle School and a player on one of Worsley's two girls' teams. ``It's better than being on the streets getting in trouble or getting hurt.''
It wasn't easy to get the league started, Worsley said.
He had to persuade parents that he was serious, so they'd help make sure kids were on time for practices and games.
He had to concoct a complicated schedule of afternoon practice sessions, games and playoffs. He had to find a place for them to play. Some of them use the Indian River Recreation Center's gym.
Most use an outdoor half-court at the end of Shelter Road, next to a swamp that breeds big, black, biting flies. There's no shelter from the weather or from hordes of onlookers who distract the players and coaches from the business of basketball. The court is so small, the kids must play three-on-three games.
Worsley draws lines in the gray sand next to the court, imaginary sideline boxes that are off-limits to spectators, so he and the coaches can concentrate on their tasks.
Neighbors let them use milk crates, old chairs and a white plastic table. There is no scoreboard; coaches, who also act as referees, must work together to keep score.
Each player donated $1, which was used to help pay for sleeveless jerseys, without numbers. When they're fouled, the kids must raise their hands and shout their names, so the scorekeepers can keep records.
Then, there's the problem of keeping up with the players.
Kids who are accustomed to the anarchy of the streets, accustomed to dropping curse words or picking fights or dictating their own schedules, sometimes have a difficult time adjusting to rules.
``Most of the kids are good kids, they just need some leadership,'' Worsley said.
He's determined that every kid who participates will obey the rules or get out.
The curfew for players is 9 on school nights. They must be on time for scheduled practices and games. They can't curse, argue or cop attitudes during games. They must maintain at least a C in all classes, and they have to stay out of trouble at school. Worsley checks to make sure they do.
And fighting is out of the question.
``I'm all for the kids, but I can't baby-sit a whole bunch of kids who are rugged and rude,'' he said.
For violating the rules, Worsley's suspended kids or kicked them off teams entirely. He's suspended coaches, who are young men themselves and sometimes get more carried away during games than the kids.
He's doled out chores to kids who want to earn their way back on teams after messing up.
The lesson for them, Worsley said, is to respect authority and follow directions.
``I just want the respect,'' he said.
He figures he's earned it.
A landscaping contractor by trade, Worsley has seen his own share of trouble.
Until a couple of years ago, he said, he had a temper and a bad attitude.
Worsley grew up in South Norfolk, playing sandlot football as a kid. He left high school in the 11th grade, then went into in a job training program near Lynchburg. He learned to plaster walls and played on the football team there.
He believes he could have landed a football scholarship at a college, if he hadn't been so determined to ignore his coach's advice and go his own way. When he left Lynchburg, he left behind a large trophy for his football performance. At the time, he didn't care.
``I was just hard-headed,'' he said. ``I should have stuck it out.''
He worked at various jobs over the years, including landscaping. Beginning in the early 1980s, he coached recreational league football and basketball.
Then about four years ago, his temper changed his life: He was convicted of assault and battery and malicious wounding.
He's embarrassed about it now, and doesn't like to talk about the details of the incident. He was sentenced to three years of probation, and suspended from coaching by the Department of Parks and Recreation. He finished the probation a year ago, he said, and got reinstated as a coach.
``It's probably good that it happened,'' he said. ``It let me open my head up.''
He saw that he needed to drop his bad attitude, Worsley said. And he saw that he could help kids learn the lesson earlier than he did.
``It was just attitude,'' he said. ``That's why I push the kids so hard. They can do anything, if they just get rid of that attitude.
``I wish somebody had been around like this for me and my buddies when we were growing up.''
He got involved with youth almost by accident.
He was living with his sister in Pleasant Park last year, when he spotted some kids playing pick-up basketball on a nearby court.
He stopped, got them organized into teams and recruited some coaches. The four teams that formed played a mini-season and ended with playoffs. Every kid got a trophy or a certificate.
Worsley thought that might be the end of it. But the kids bugged him throughout the winter, wondering whether he was going to organize the league again.
So he did. In mid-April, they lined up all the interested kids on the outdoor court and had a draft; coaches picked the kids they wanted, until everyone got chosen.
Worsley's original intention was to have four kids on each team. But so many showed up, the teams now have many more than that.
Still, every kid gets to play, regardless of ability.
Games are Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons. There will be playoffs, and the coaches will pick an all-star team.
``We've told the players it's not how many points they score,'' said Aaron T. Cooper, 25, a resident of Pleasant Park and one of the coaches. ``It's who has the most discipline, who gets to practice on time.''
Keeping the whole thing organized is difficult for Worsley.
``It's a big headache,'' he said. ``I almost wanted to let it go last Saturday, the coaches were so bad.'' Two coaches had to be suspended for their conduct during a game.
``But I remembered something,'' he said. ``If I'm a quitter, how am I going to explain to the kids that they should never quit?''
The difference the league has made in the kids is evident, players, coaches and neighbors say.
``The kids love it,'' said Gladys M. Blow, 54, whose grandchildren play in the league. ``The boys that sponsor it, they do a good job with the kids.''
Herbert L. Lawrence, 39, whose 12-year-old son plays, said, ``I think it's what they need.''
The kids notice that they're gaining a new kind of respect for each other. Girls, who felt that the boys didn't respect them before, feel a new status. One girls team beat a boys team in a scrimmage game.
``The boys thought we weren't nothing,'' said Aja T. Couther, 15, an eighth-grader at Oscar F. Smith Middle School.
Lisa C. Butler, 14, a seventh-grader, said, ``But then they felt dumb when we blew 'em out of the frame.''
D'Marlo V. Harvey, 18, a senior at Oscar F. Smith High School who coaches Lisa's and Aja's basketball team, has a longer-term vision for the girls than just a shift in the neighborhood pecking order.
``If they keep coming back every year, it can help them get into college . hopes to escape someday. For many of the kids, athletic scholarships are the only way out.
``All the girls out here are pregnant, or beaten up by their boyfriends, or in jail, one,'' he said. ``These girls I've got, they're good-hearted. They get their work done because they like being out here.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Anthony Williams, left, and Tracy Francis, rear, guard Arnicholes
Bount. The men coach teams in the youth basketball program.
Lazarus ``Larry'' Worsley started the youth basketball league for
the kids who live in the Pleasant Park and Peaceful Village
apartments. Four years ago, he was convicted of assault and battery
and malicious wounding. He's embarrassed about it now, but he was
sentenced to three years of probation, and suspended from coaching
by the Department of Parks and Recreation. He finished the probation
a year ago, he said, and got reinstated as a coach.
Andre Walston, 15, shoots free throws during practice. Players have
a 9 p.m. curfew and must maintain at least a C average in all
classes. by CNB