LONG BEACH : City Gives ‘High 5’ to Midnight Basketball

The question of how to save young people from turmoil on the streets arises with some frequency at City Council meetings.

This week, the answer appeared to be basketball.

A solid, sweaty game of basketball, played around midnight, could be the saving grace for hundreds of young people who might otherwise be on the streets, council members agreed Tuesday as they unanimously voted to support a Midnight Basketball League in the city.

“This is exactly the kind of program we need. And we need more of them,” said Councilman Thomas J. Clark as he congratulated Councilwoman Doris Topsy-Elvord for helping bring the program to the city.

The council voted 8 to 0 to support the program, which is funded with private donations. Councilman Ray Grabinski was absent.

The program includes seminars before each game on such topics as job skills, interview techniques, conflict resolution and self-improvement. The sessions will be from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.--prime time for young people to get into trouble, police say--and league scouts will recruit players from the court system, schools and playgrounds. Games will be open to men and women 17 to 25 years old.

The league, organized by a new chapter of the nonprofit National Assn. of Midnight Basketball Leagues Inc., is patterned after similar programs in other urban areas. Teams will be formed this fall, and the first game is expected to be played in January, 1995, said Phillippa Lewis, director of the Long Beach chapter.