With Court Resurfaced, Prayers Are Answered

On Monday, the Charter Schools Development Corporation, which is renovating Kingsman School for two charter schools, had the basketball court by Kingsman School resurfaced.

In the Oct. 19 issue of the Corner Forum, Samuel Ronald "Pete" Tilley Jr. (518 14th St. NE) described the poor condition of the court and made a plea for help with the resurfacing. Marc Borbely asked Mr. Tilley and Andre Sullivan (who grew up on Tennessee Avenue NE) yesterday about their reactions to the resurfacing and about their plans to organize a second annual basketball tournament — one for children and one for adults — within the next few weeks.

Mr. Tilley: Oh man, my prayer has been answered. They resurfaced the courts, and right now, everything is working out for the best. They're getting ready to start a little charter school up there, and at the same time they're doing that, they're fixing up the basketball courts, too. So it's just like everybody's working together.

Mr. Tilley: The surface is wonderful. It's nothing like it was at first. If you go up there, like I showed you the first time, you'll even think so yourself. So it turned out real, real good.

Mr. Sullivan: I was up there at 7 o'clock Monday, when they put it down. It's nice. I think they've done a good job up there. I think they should be doing the lines today. [The Charter Schools Development Corporation] volunteered to do the courts, because actually, it wasn't gonna get done. That was a big help. In the next two weeks, we're gonna get the tournament started. I talked to the lady [Elizabeth Nelson] last night. She said they're gonna remove the fence today or Monday. The only thing I was concerned about was if we had more rims. Because we had those rims since, what, '79?

Mr. Tilley:'79, yeah. And if this is not asking too much, if they could help us out with the rims. Breakaway rims would be just as good, because you're gonna have a lot of guys — when we have the adult tournament — they're gonna want to dunk the courts. Why just start with something small? Why not just go with the whole thing?

But if that doesn't happen, will you still have the tournament?

Mr. Sullivan: Yeah! The same way we put a little money into trying to get everything done, it won't be a problem. If they don't want to give us the help, we're still gonna continue. The only thing we're trying to do is to bring something back into this community. You can see the kids, some days, just breaking bottles, glasses.

Mr. Tilley: You hear all the violence that's going on here now, you hear on the news everyday, that's all because they don't have nowhere to do, they don't have nothing to do. That's a prime example right there: give them something to do.

You're still looking to get money for the rims and stuff.

Mr. Sullivan: The only thing that can really boost this thing up, is if we can get baskets. Because them things have been up for years. If you can get baskets, I think you can bring a lot of competition to this area, and I'm sure that will cut out a lot of what's going on. Because I think we've done a good job last year. We kept everything down up there, wasn't no fighting. Pete was always in control, and every time I seen something go, I said, look, Pete, go and check that out. And that was it. I think we've done a good job up there. And even if we have to go in our pockets just to win a popcorn machine — that's for the kids.

How much does that cost — rims and baskets?

Mr. Sullivan: Might be like $70 a piece. And even if they don't [donate them] we're still gonna do something. This guy that we know, named Tyce, who grew up in the area and went to Kingsman — he's the one who welded the courts up — I give him a lot of credit for welding the courts up (they was coming down). That way they wouldn't break. Didn't charge us anything.

And then if there are adults or children in the neighborhood who want to be part of the tournament —

Mr. Tilley: Definitely! That's what we're there for!

Mr. Sullivan: Because when I see the soccer tournament, I just think that by we having the kids tournament, people from the soccer probably can participate, so you can help each other.

Mr. Tilley: It's just like when they want to cut the grass for the soccer thing, we can pitch in and cut the grass for them, just like when it's needed for the basketball tournament, they can help us. It's a good thing. It's all together now. And it makes a lot of sense.

Thank you very much!

Mr. Tilley: All right.

Mr. Sullivan: Thank you. §