Leonard Adams knew how arduous — and harmful — it was rising up in Mt. Vernon, a small city north of Cell, Alabama.
He discovered skeletons hanging from timber in woods close to his dwelling. Adams, who’s Black, was chased thrice by Ku Klux Klan members throughout his highschool years. One time, he needed to swim throughout a river to flee his attackers.
“They didn’t want any motive,” Adams stated this week about why they have been chasing him. “They have been chasing me due to the colour of my pores and skin.”
Adams, now 73, ultimately made it to Lengthy Seaside, the place he started, as a metropolis worker in 1975, a lifetime of serving to younger folks, those that have been homeless and anybody else needing a hand.
He turned a neighborhood father determine in Central Lengthy Seaside.
Famous person entertainer Snoop Dogg, whose given identify is Calvin Broadus Jr., grew up in Central Lengthy Seaside, performed basketball on the Boys & Ladies Golf equipment of Lengthy Seaside fitness center there and knew Adams.
Adams was “one of many best males he’s ever met in Lengthy Seaside,” Snoop stated in a video celebrating Adams’s retirement in 2016. “It takes a variety of arduous work and dedication to do what he’s doing.”
Snoop Dogg was one of many 1000’s of children Adams has helped through the years as a director and coach.
In his 40 years with town, Adams’s service has included working as a coach, referee, social outreach employee, homeless case supervisor and citizen police criticism commissioner. Adams was additionally one of many founders of Midnight Basketball, which launched in 1989 however was discontinued a number of years in the past.
However two years in the past, town requested Adams to come back out of retirement to direct the nascent Hoops After Darkish, a program patterned after Midnight Basketball.
The Salvation Military’s Hoops After Darkish summer season basketball season kicks off on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, on the Purple Defend Group Heart in Lengthy Seaside. (Picture by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Lengthy Seaside metropolis officers and coordinators of the Salvation Military’s Hoops After Darkish program helped kick off the summer season basketball season on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, on the Purple Defend Group Heart in Lengthy Seaside. From left are coach Earl McCullouch Jr., Brent Dennis, director of parks, recreation & marine and program coordinator Leonard Adams. (Picture by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Jordan Pitts drives in the direction of the basket because the Salvation Military’s Hoops After Darkish summer season basketball season kicks off on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, on the Purple Defend Group Heart in Lengthy Seaside. (Picture by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Lengthy Seaside Vice Mayor Rex Richardson welcomes spectators to the Salvation Military’s Hoops After Darkish summer season basketball season on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, on the Purple Defend Group Heart in Lengthy Seaside. (Picture by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
The Salvation Military’s Hoops After Darkish summer season basketball season kicks off on Monday, Aug. 8, 2022, on the Purple Defend Group Heart in Lengthy Seaside. (Picture by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)
Two Hoops After Darkish gamers taking part in in a league sport final 12 months. (Picture by Stephen Carr, courtesy of Leonard Adams)
Group picture reveals Hoop After Darkish coaches and gamers from final 12 months taking part in on the Salvation Military’s Purple Defend fitness center. (Picture courtesy of Leonard Adams)
Leonard Adams (heart), coordinator of Hoops After Darkish, with Snoop Dogg (left) and Steph Curry of Golden State Warriors (proper) in final August at ribbon-cutting for the refurbishing of the John & Alice Wallace Boys & Ladies Golf equipment Petrolane Heart fitness center at MLK Park. (Picture Courtesy of Leonard Adams)
Snoop Dogg gave every participant who performed in Hoops After Darkish final 12 months a pair of basketball sneakers. (Picture courtesy of Leonard Adams)
Hoops After Darkish offers a secure surroundings for youth to develop athletic and management abilities in reference to instructional workshops involving mentorships and profession counseling, stated Brent Dennis, director of the Lengthy Seaside Parks, Recreation and Marine Division.
Hoops After Darkish will begin its summer season season subsequent week, with six groups of 10 to fifteen gamers aged 17 to 26 on every group. They are going to play their video games by means of the tip of August on the fitness center within the John and Alice Wallace Petrolane Heart, a part of the Boys & Ladies Golf equipment of Lengthy Seaside. That heart is in Martin Luther King Jr. Park, 1950 Lemon Ave.
However first, Hoops After Darkish, together with the Port of Lengthy Seaside, will sponsor a one-day summer season basketball camp and useful resource clinic for these 6 to 16 years previous from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, July 29, on the Wallace Petrolane Heart, Adams stated.
The one-day workshop and clinic is free to attend and, Adams stated, dad and mom are invited to listen to about alternatives obtainable to children.
Mack Calvin, former Poly Excessive, USC, and ABA and NBA basketball star, will likely be on the Saturday occasion to speak to contributors and their dad and mom.
“Saturday will likely be a good time for teenagers and their dad and mom,” Adams stated, “to listen to about alternatives obtainable within the metropolis for careers, schooling and mentorships.”
Adams, who volunteers because the Hoops After Darkish director, additionally thanked Don Rodriguez, CEO of the Boys & Ladies Golf equipment of Lengthy Seaside, for figuring out a plan for the Hoops groups to make use of the Petrolane Heart throughout their summer season season and for the particular occasion on Saturday.
“I admire very a lot how he and his employees labored to make this occur,” Adams stated throughout a current interview.
The Hoops After Darkish program has additionally established good relations with the Lengthy Seaside Police Division.
A group from Hoops After Darkish, in reality, performed a group from the Police Division within the first two years of this system. The police group defeated the Hoops group within the first 12 months, however Adams stated the Hoops group bounced again to win final 12 months’s sport. The 2 groups will play once more in September.
“We actually loved the sport between our all-star gamers and Lengthy Seaside law enforcement officials,” Adams stated. “Our gamers respect and admire our regulation enforcement officers, and this season’s sport was a real redemption victory for our gamers as they have been defeated final season.
“We all know that our partnership with the LBPD is greater than athletic,” he added. “Our partnership establishes new friendships, solidifies present friendships and improves neighborhood relations amongst residents and members of regulation enforcement.”
A key enchancment made to the Hoops program in contrast with Midnight Basketball, Adams stated, is that the video games begin video games earlier. As an alternative of Midnight Basketball’s 9 p.m. begin instances, Hoops video games begin at 6 p.m.
The thought was to keep away from subjecting gamers to late hours. The time change, Adams stated, was needed for gamers to be higher ready for the subsequent day of labor, college or no matter else they have been doing.
To date, the Hoops program has served greater than 500 youth in a single capability or one other, Adams stated.
The mandatory element of Hoops After Darkish is to get contributors within the empowerment, schooling and employment help help this system gives, Adams stated.
The Hoops After Darkish program, he added, is concentrated on offering younger adults alternate options to substance abuse and different counterproductive actions. The basketball element simply occurs to be the hook to get them in.
“I welcome the neighborhood assist of every program participant,” Adams stated, “to work collectively to supply a nurturing surroundings wherein contributors can flourish.”
Adams stated he by no means will get uninterested in serving to younger folks — one thing he has achieved all of his life.
Not dangerous for a child from Alabama, who needed to escape the Ku Klux Klans memeber who sought to kill him merely due to the colour of his pores and skin.
