Between breakaway dunks, stifling defense, and colorful play-by-play narration, there is a grass-roots effort underway this summer at Ronan Park by key adults and organizations to “take the park back.”

When they say “back,” leaders said they don’t just mean to take ownership back, but also to take it back to its heyday, when hundreds of high school aged boys and girls gathered nightly for basketball leagues and socializing in a safe atmosphere.
Basketball was king at Ronan for decades, but in 2017 it unraveled due to increased violence, and the leagues moved elsewhere.
This summer, that’s changing.

Two weeks ago, Nugget – a respected community leader who works for MissionSafe and prefers not to use his real name – brought his co-leaders, Benji Alves and Mitchell ‘Herc’ Hercule, back to the Ronan Park courts for the summer.

“Nugget always ran a basketball league here at Ronan, but left because it wasn’t supported and was unsafe,” said Paulo Debarros, president of the Cape Verdean Association of Boston and a partner on the Bowdoin-Geneva Mental Health and Safety Task Force.

“Ronan Park needs life and kids want to be here,” he said. “The idea they don’t feel safe isn’t true. The kids love this place, but they were pushed out and never came back. They just needed organized activities with adults they trusted, and they would come back. We’re already seeing that happen.”

During a Wednesday night session at Ronan Park last Wednesday, Nugget said that when violence in the park hit unsafe levels six years ago, he and his partners took the program to Fields Corner and to indoor gyms. Conditions have changed since then, he said, and he, Debarros, and other community partners felt the time was right to make the move to return.

Paulo Debarros, president of the Cape Verdean Association of Boston; Mitchell ‘Herc’ Hercule, leader of the skills and drills program; and former Ronan Park player Jonge DaSilva. Seth Daniel photos

“Earlier this year I sat down with Paulo and said this was the best time to bring it back if we were going to do that,” he said. “We have kids that want to play here. I didn’t want to bring it back in the past because I was in tune to the violence, but now we can give them this option…Without options they’re going to think you’re a nobody. I want a kid to be a kid while he’s still a kid. They’re in such a hurry to grow up.”

The Take Back Ronan program is a partnership involving the Area C-11 Police, the Task Force, the Cape Verdean Association of Boston, Bowdoin-Geneva Main Streets, St. Peters Teen Center, St. Peter’s parish, ADSL, and MissionSafe.

The free 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. program thrives on basketball each Wednesday and Thursday but also offers flag football with Domingos DeRosa each Monday and Tuesday, soccer with Debarros Mondays and Wednesdays, and activities like movies and cookouts on Friday nights. The plan is to stretch the program for seven weeks into late August, and have it be a complement to the city’s Sports Center day program for ages 7-14 at Ronan Park this summer.

“This is a critical time because this is when kids are most vulnerable – 4 p.m. to midnight,” said Boston Police Officer Manny Dambreville, who attends the program in plain clothes to provide a more understated police presence. “This is the time when people get in trouble. They have a tremendous group of folks coming together to give them something positive. This is exactly what we need.”

There is also a small circle of benefactors who help in various ways. For instance, one community helper donates generators twice a week so the basketball league has electricity to run its sound system and scoreboard as they cannot get access to electricity in the park. Meanwhile, Catholic Charities donates a van to help transport the generators and equipment to and from the park, as organizers haven’t been able to arrange access to storage containers on site.

“We’re doing our part, but the park is filthy,” said Nugget. “The city has to do its part and support us. We can do more, but are we allowed to? Do they want us to? We’re just going to do this until someone says ‘no.’”

The patchwork hustle hasn’t tamped down the excitement among the young people, the curious neighbors who haven’t seen this level of activity in years, and the adults who once played here and have come back to help.

During a recent game, a BNBL club and some junior varsity players from TechBoston High School went back and forth and drew a small crowd. With only seconds to go, the BNBL team was down two points and had a chance to tie. But the effort fell short, courtesy of a massive, blocked shot by a TechBoston player.

It was all skillfully narrated by DJ Chris while music pumped through the sound system and everyone along the edge of the court saw the shot block and let out a huge exclamation, which could be heard far up the hill.

“It brings a lot more excitement to the game. Everyone wants the shout-out on the mic. It’s the perfect place to play,” said Adrian Bryant, a volunteer from ADSL.

Players on each team told the Reporter that it felt “like a community” and that the atmosphere was better than anywhere else.
It was a snippet of what was once up at Ronan Park, but hopefully will come back.

Jonge DaSilva, Jerome Stephens, and Jerrell Lewis – all in their 20s now – returned to volunteer as coaches and helpers. All played in the league when they were as young as 12 back “in the day.” They described non-stop games and teaching clinics each weeknight until 9:30 p.m. when they were young – games that attracted so many people there wasn’t anyplace to sit.

They all hope they can be a part of bringing that back for today’s young people who might be straying further away from positive activities.

“This was the place to be in the summer when I was a kid,” said DaSilva, now 23. “When they said they were bringing it back, it was a full-circle moment for me. I was the young one playing up here, but now I’m an old head watching and giving the kids my time.”

Added Stephens, now a college student, “If we can bring Ronan Park back up for the kids, it’s a plus for them.”