East Harlem Hoops Tournament Marks 15 Years Of Changing Lives

HARLEM, NY — A Harlem basketball program is celebrating 15 years of helping provide a structured, indoor place for the neighborhood to shoot hoops.

East Harlem Hoops — currently in the middle of their March Madness tournament — has been a production of the Salvation Army's Manhattan Citadel Corps in East Harlem since 2009.

Started by a pastor who saw a need for space, the basketball league has been hugely popular, with roughly 2,000 people paying on the court since its inception.

Teams meet twice a week and play over a nearly four-hour period inside the East Harlem gym, with three games each night at the Citadel Corps Community Center located at 175 East 125th St., on the corner of Third Avenue.

The teams of 10 are full of different backgrounds and ages, but all are devoted to keeping the league, and the fun, going.

Pastor Alvaro Velasquez, 30, is an officer at the Salvation Army and has been running the program for the last year. He says it's the dedication that the players have for the league that leaves him amazed.

"I honestly am just kind of inspired by it," Velasquez told Patch. "I see the way in which people care about it and the way that people prepare for it. I'm inspired by the professionalism with which the the coaches and the players play. They take it very seriously and so it it makes me want to take it seriously too."

"These kinds of programs, really, they change lives. A lot of people tell me how this is something that they look forward to the whole week."

The program's popularity is so huge, the rest of the church has to basically arrange their schedules around it on the days the league takes place.

"Tuesdays and Thursdays," the days when games are played, Velasquez said, "are untouchable."

Teams are a mix of older and younger players, Velasquez said, with players' ages ranging from 16 to the late 40s.

"You got some young people — high school students — but but then you also have some college students and then some older gentlemen who are still ready, willing and able to play," Velasquez told Patch.

Pastor Stephen Mayes started the program at the Salvation Army in 2009 when he saw that there were a lot of people in the neighborhood who needed something to do.

"The city is bustling with activity," Velasquez said, "but sometimes without properly structured programs, people can get into all kinds of trouble, so he thought to start the league pretty much from scratch."

With some help from a basketball player in the neighborhood who goes by the name Carta, East Harlem Hoops got four teams together for their first year. By the end of the year, Carta was recruited as an organizer for the program as it grew to six teams, then eight and now to 12 teams total. Family, friends and people from the neighborhood come in to cheer the teams on and watch the games.

Carta, along with another neighborhood player, Shabbi, now run the league. And sometimes they get help, like from Olympic 3x3 basketball star and Harlem native, Dominique Jones.

"From the very beginning, it's been about getting people from Harlem to get them indoors, get them to do something productive and away from other kinds of activities," said Velasquez.

The results are obvious, Velasquez said.

A lot of the players end up doing volunteer work with the Salvation Army, he said.

And shortly after the Salvation Army moved to their new gym a few years back, a flood ruined the floors.

"The people who really came in to clean out the old flooring and make room for repairs," Velasquez said, "it was the basketball players."

"I think it's because we've all sort of just invested in this thing together," he said. "And so now they they feel a sense of ownership of this — this is their place where they want to come hang out and play competitively. And so now they take care of it, too."

"It's a place to do to get better and to grow," Velasquez said. "And then for some people, it's just a pastime and they appreciate it and that we made the building available."

Velasquez says that for anyone who wants to get involved, they should just come to see a game, which start every Tuesday and Thursday at 6:30 p.m.

To learn more, check out the East Harlem Hoops Instagram page or the Salvation Army Manhattan Citadel Corps Facebook page here. To learn more about the Salvation Army New York, click here.