Not Just Fun and Games : Night Sports at La Colonia Gym Keep Kids on Court, Off Streets

The inviting lights of Oxnard’s La Colonia Gym have become a beacon on Friday nights for bored teen-agers and reluctant tough guys searching for something--anything--to get them off the streets.

The gym, located on Marquita Street, has opened its doors on Fridays from 9 p.m. to midnight, hosting basketball and volleyball matches, hoping to attract idle young people and give them a chance to sidestep mischief.

About 40 to 50 teen-agers now spend Friday Night at the Gym, as the program is called, every week. Most say they have nowhere else to go.

“Nobody wants to go out in the Colonia at night,” said Rey Reyes, a volleyball coach at Hueneme High School who volunteers his Friday nights to the program. “They would rather come and shoot some baskets than get in trouble. They come here, wear themselves out and go (home) to sleep.”

The 26-year-old Reyes has spent the last month talking other Oxnard schools into starting similar late-night recreation programs. So far, Hueneme High has agreed to open its gym, and Santa Clara High School is considering a Friday-night program.

“I like kids to have an opportunity, an option, a chance,” Reyes said. “A lot of us had that opportunity, but a lot of kids don’t.”

Last Friday, as loudspeakers blared “Bop Gun” from Parliament and other funky tunes, an equal mix of boys and girls played sports with youthful abandon at La Colonia Gym.

Reyes initially tried to spin a Fleetwood Mac disc, and was nearly laughed out of the gym.

“I was surprised,” he said. “There were a lot of complaints.”

John Rodriguez, 19, said he stayed home a lot before the program began because it was not safe to do anything else.

“House parties are getting too dangerous,” Rodriguez said, working on his pull-up jump shot just before midnight. “You can’t go anymore. There are fights everywhere and guns getting blown out.”

Most of the gangbangers and hoodlums would never step foot in the gym, said Rodriguez, who believes it is futile to try to attract them to the program. But at least other young people have a place to go to escape the gangs, he said.

Although Friday was his day off, Oxnard Police Officer Ed Ludaescher was volunteering at the gym, lifting weights and playing pool with the boys. It is important for police officers to be seen as normal guys, Ludaescher said, not insensitive people who do nothing but arrest teen-agers.

The program helps cops deal with the frustration of watching good kids turn bad, said Ludaescher, who patrolled the Colonia before joining the Police Activities League.

“There’s a lot of kids you see on the streets all the time on patrol,” he said. “You see them grow up, and get into trouble, and you wonder, ‘What else can I do?’ By the time reality sets in for them, it’s too late.”

Some of the youths are beyond redemption, Ludaescher said, but most are just followers who can be lured back to the right side of the law--all they need is a place to gather, gossip, play sports or just watch others.

“If it wasn’t for this place, most of these people would be out partying, getting drunk,” said Marina Mendoza, 17, a senior at Channel Islands High School, sitting on the sidelines. “It’s cool here, instead of being in the streets.”

After a good skirmish, kids break to drink Gatorade, eat Oreos and play Ping-Pong, pool and Foosball at the adjacent Colonia Recreation Center, which opened at night for the first time Friday.

“Before this we’d just hang out in the streets,” said 17-year-old Victor Robledo, who dominated the Ping-Pong table Friday. “I’d rather be here than out in the streets, getting into trouble, robbing people and starting fights.”

Reyes’ sister, Nora, a former volleyball star at Pepperdine University in Malibu, was supposed to coach youths on how to slam, dig and spike across the volleyball net.

Instead, brother and sister were schooling two eighth-graders on the basketball court. After a strong move in which she drove to the basket, stopped and easily popped a jump shot over their outstretched arms, one of the boys shook his head in disbelief.

“Normally I’m not that slow,” Nora said after the game. “A lot of times guys don’t want to play with girls, but it’s different here.”

Program participants are given fluorescent bands when they leave the gym so they will not be harassed by police for violating the 10 p.m. curfew. Organizers are also trying to lure kids back by promising them T-shirts for four straight visits.

After a rough, strenuous full-court game, 23-year-old Ramon Perez and his friends headed toward the drinking fountain.

“We used to play outside before this, under the lights, but it’s much safer here,” Perez said. “There’s no violence here to worry about.”

Reyes and other volunteers say they worry about confrontations breaking out inside the gym. But they say that if the neighborhood’s young people face such problems every day, organizers should be able to do it once a week.

“That’s a risk we have to take,” Reyes said. “The people here, at least we know they’re sober.”

Friday Night at the Gym is sponsored by Oxnard’s Recreation and Community Services Department and the Colonia Coalition on Alcohol and Other Drug Issues, a consortium of community activists and agencies. The program at La Colonia Gym is expected to cost the city $3,000 a year.

Coalition participants include the Oxnard Police Department, Ventura County Alcohol and Drug Programs, El Concilio del Condado de Ventura, the Oxnard Housing Authority and Friday Night Live, an anti-drug abuse group.

“It gives us something to do,” said 13-year-old Marie Martinez. “We won’t be out there like vagos (vagrants) walking the streets.”