Both say the same thing: The outdoor game builds character.
“If you didn’t win,” said Baker, the former Dunbar High School and Ohio State star, “you would be watching for a while.”
As part of a new $40 million facility on North Keowee Street, officials at the Roy & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center want to help create that outdoor environment with an emphasis on watching the best on its wide-space, forgiving-surface outdoor court that impresses any visitor.
The facility, which opened May 8, will bring spectators a high school summer league featuring some of the area’s best teams beginning Monday, June 21. The center also hopes to form a league featuring the area’s best adult players and, perhaps next summer, an NCAA-certified summer league for current college players.
The goal is to make the 400-seat court a premier place to celebrate the area’s top basketball talent while maintaining the spirit and buzz of the neighborhood pick-up game.
“You have the outside environment, the stands out there, it just feels different,” said Watson, who has shot around on the court with friends. “It’s big, like a special court. It looks professional.”
Unique court
Matt Savage, the vice president of sports construction for Vasco Sports Contractors, has a difficult time fully explaining the niceties of the outdoor court to a layman.
It has an “acrylic court coating” and “encapsulates EPDM and SBR rubber.” It also took 10 layers to install.
Put simply, it’s a softer, more forgiving surface for athletes not found in many places in Ohio.
“You really don’t see this that much,” Savage said. “It’s expensive, so it’s used in a lot of professional tennis facilities, but not a lot beyond that.
“They certainly spared no expense.”
Beyond the playing surface, which should help ease the strain on players’ bodies, the court includes seating for about 400, with many chair-back seats. There are shot clocks, a video scoreboard and nearby concessions area with television monitors.
It also boasts the open-air atmosphere that center Recreation Director Bill Winters said has been a long-time hope of his father, Reggie, the center’s director.
“My dad is from New York, so he’s always been a big Rucker Park guy,” Bill Winters said of the famous New York City outdoor venue. “He’s talked to coaches for years about having an outdoor court, and this was the opportunity.”
The first show
Word of the facility — and specifically the outdoor court — has spread.
“I heard it’s awesome, I’m so anxious to play there,” said Deontae Hawkins, who will be a Dunbar junior next season. “A lot of people are talking about it.”
If only they knew everything coaches and teams get aside from just playing on the court. With McDonald’s as the main sponsor, there are league-specific reversible jerseys for each player. Because there will be several cameras on the court for the video scoreboard and live feeds into the concessions area, officials can quickly burn DVDs for coaches, if they desire.
There also is a video screen-equipped meeting room open to the teams for instruction and analysis. Order will be kept by three licensed referees as the teams play up to four games a night beginning at 5 p.m.
Center officials hope to extend some of these amenities to many coaches and teams in the area, in part to grow the high school summer league that will be the first to be featured on the carefully planned court.
“If we can start the thing and really get it going, hopefully we can get some more teams,” said Dunbar coach Pete Pullen, who led the Wolverines to the Division II state championship last season. “Maybe we can make it something big.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7389 or knagel@DaytonDailyNews.com
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