ENGLEWOOD — Basketball brings teens together in Englewood, an official with the male mentoring program Books Over Balls said.
“The court is what attracts them. That's how they open up to us,” said 23-year-old Kenneth Jones, a California native who graduated from Downstate Illinois College with a sports management/business degree.
The group uses sports to bring the teens in, then emphasizes academics.
Jones, the organization's international ambassador and vice president of the junior advisory board, said after having a strong impact in Chicago, organizers now want to expand the program overseas and add a basketball clinic.
Their first destination? The United Kingdom.
Junior advisory board President Robert Tavory Robinson, 21, a Bronzeville native, studied abroad at the University of Sunderland in Britain the beginning of his junior year at Beloit College. It was there that he made connections with the university’s student union.
Robert Tavory Robinson of Bronzville is the Books Over Balls Junior Advisory Board president [Provided/Robert Robinson]
He said during his time there he saw firsthand how interested people there were in the United States — and basketball.
Robinson and the other junior advisory board members are developing a project to host an international sporting event and conference in the United Kingdom.
In Chicago, Books Over Balls works with teens in Englewood. It meets at Ogden Park, 6500 S. Racine Ave., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays. The organization, founded in 2012, does life coaching, where the coaches share their own experiences. Guests are invited to speak to the young men.
They encourage education, but it offers more than that, Jones said.
“It's about life after the books, that’s what is key for us,” he said. “Not all learning can be taught by an institution. We’re learning from them as much as they’re learning from us.”
Jones has been a part of the organization since it launched, and he said it’s been a great experience.
“Books Over Balls takes on the pain, the frustration and agony of the youth,” he said. “The stress and pressure of what they feel is alleviated when they walk into our room. We're an organization that relieves you of what's going on and helps you deal with the pressures of being a black man.”
Learn more about the organization at www.booksoverballs.org.
