COVER STORY : Learning Teamwork, Problem-Solving and Job Skills Are Among the Rules of the Game for Youths in . . . : Night Court

It’s 9 p.m. Tuesday and Bo Patterson is ready to wreak some havoc.

But instead of hanging out with the homeboys, getting loaded on beer and smoking weed, Patterson heads off to a Long Beach gym to let off steam on the basketball court.

Patterson, 22, a former gang member, has joined the Long Beach Midnight Basketball League, a branch of the national nonprofit group formed to keep youths occupied and out of trouble at night.

“It’s a way to stay off the streets, be around more positive people,” said the tall, muscled young man.

While an all-out game of basketball may be the primary reason that dozens of young men file into a cramped, musty gym between 9 p.m. and midnight on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the league’s organizers have a greater motive.

They hope the program will help the young men learn to fit into society and the work world around them, while keeping them off the city’s streets and out of trouble with the law.

The program targets young men, ages 17 to 25, who are in danger of being trapped in a life of drugs, gangs and chronic unemployment. Most of the participants come from the north, west and central parts of the city, the areas that have the highest crime rates.

Last year, the value of these nighttime basketball leagues became a subject of national debate. Congressional Republicans, during discussions on the $30-billion crime bill that eventually passed, portrayed so-called midnight basketball as the epitome of liberal social programs whose results have not justified their costs.

The Long Beach chapter of the Midnight Basketball League, like others throughout the nation, receives no federal money. It started last month after a series of delays caused by funding problems. Corporations contributed about $50,000 for uniforms, equipment and salaries for six coaches and 16 referees. The 34 assistant coaches, counselors, instructors and scorekeepers are volunteers.

Long Beach City Councilwoman Doris Topsy-Elvord pushed for a local league.

“It’s a viable option and one that works,” she said. “I know that you can divert young people from criminal activity if you have an alternative that’s attractive to them. We have to help them refocus their energies in a positive and creative way.”

Before or after each game, the league’s participants are required to attend workshops covering a wide range of topics, such as writing resumes, becoming a better parent and resolving conflicts.

They receive instruction on how to change behavior that has kept them on the streets and out of school, and has deprived them of job opportunities. Participants, for example, are taught how to work as a team, to resolve differences peacefully and to control tempers. During games, swearing draws a technical foul.

The league’s participants also get help in furthering their education, learning a trade or finding a job. Indeed, the organizers place a heavy emphasis on school and work. If participants aren’t in school or don’t have a job, they must search for work, sign up for vocational training or enroll in an adult-school program.

The league’s organizers have invited a dozen local business representatives to attend the games later this month to interview participants for jobs.

“We want to turn some lives around,” said Stan Herbert, national director of the Midnight Basketball League, which has programs in more than 50 cities. “We’re using basketball as a hook.”

The program has produced solid results in other cities, at least in keeping participants out of trouble, organizers and supporters say.

In Glenarden, Md., for example, police say the crime rate dropped 60% in the first year after a Midnight Basketball League was established in 1986. In Chicago, thousands of young men have participated since the league started in 1989, but only two have been ousted for committing crimes while in the program, said Commissioner Gil Walker.

Similar nighttime sports programs have started in Southern California. In Bellflower, city officials and sheriff’s deputies recently started evening basketball games for teen-agers on Saturdays. Inglewood city officials formed a Late Night Basketball League last year, while Oxnard officials organized late evening basketball and volleyball matches at a local gym.

In Long Beach, about 70 participants were recruited. Organizers contacted law enforcement, church and city agencies, which put the word out to youths.

A wide range of young men signed up. There are gang members, former gang members and high school dropouts who don’t have jobs. But others go to college part time or have jobs in warehouses or delivering goods.

About half of the participants live within walking distance of the gym on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, a rough neighborhood where there are open drug deals and prostitutes walking the streets. At a nearby park, groups of youths drink beer out of containers in paper bags.

For many of the players, life off the basketball court is a constant struggle. Money is scarce and jobs are hard to come by. Peer pressure to ditch school, do drugs or commit other crimes is at times overwhelming. Many live with friends or girlfriends.

Derek Jones, a gym employee who coaches some of the players in his spare time, offered a firsthand endorsement of a program centered around basketball.

“Playing basketball was the way I relieved my anger, my stress, like a lot of these young guys here,” said Jones, a former basketball player at Cal State Fullerton, who grew up in east Long Beach. “This gym was my sanctuary. I didn’t have a lot of free time to be on the streets hanging out, getting into trouble or being at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

On a recent Thursday evening, the young men strolled into the gym lugging shoes, shorts, team jerseys--and black binders filled with notes.

The binders are as critical as the gym gear. Participants who come without binders must sit on the sidelines for the night.

When not on the basketball court, the young men gather in classrooms for workshops.

At a recent session on self-esteem, Gary Olson, Long Beach deputy fire chief, stood before a group of 14 young men, many sporting tattooed arms and shaved heads.

The soft-spoken Olson talked about growing up in the city’s tough Carmelitos housing project. He described how some adults had written him off, telling him he wouldn’t amount to anything. He talked about all of the fighting in his neighborhood.

“I was 12 years old before I knew there was a game associated with croquet mallets,” Olson recalled. “Before then, I just thought it was a weapon of choice.”

The young men listened closely.

“Nine out of 12 of my childhood friends are dead due to drugs or fighting,” he said, eyes downcast. “I’ve faced the same thing you guys are facing. But I managed to concentrate on positive things and make something of my life.”

Olson said a high school coach helped him get through some of the rough times. “He told me I could do whatever I set my mind to do. He changed my life.”

Some players said they were inspired by Olson’s message.

“I’m pumped,” said Nick Huntley, 20, who is unemployed and living with friends in Long Beach. “The workshop, it was cool,” he said with a smile.

Huntley said he soon hopes to enroll at a junior college and play on the basketball team.

Basketball is clearly the lure for most participants, the reason why they flock to the gym at odd hours.

“I wouldn’t have anything to do with the program if it didn’t include basketball,” said 17-year-old Dameon Johnson, a Polytechnic High School junior who hopes to play college basketball. “It’s something to look forward to. It’s the only reason I’m here.”

Organizers divided participants into six teams. At the end of eight weeks, all of the teams will gather at Cal State Long Beach’s sparkling Pyramid arena for a daylong tournament capped by a championship game between the two top squads.

Next year, after the league is more established, the winning team will compete against teams from other leagues in the country.

On a recent Tuesday, the teams played their first games of the season. The gym was packed with cheering family members and friends.

Two evenly matched teams--one clad in black jerseys, the other in purple--traded baskets throughout the first game.

With the score tied in the final seconds, Arthur Pope, the leader on the black squad, deftly dribbled past a defender and went in for a slam-dunk and a 58-56 win.

Pope and his teammates exit the gym, exchanging high-fives and wide grins.

Pope, a 21-year-old former gang member, said the games help keep his mind off problems.

“A lot of my friends aren’t around anymore,” he said, indicating that many were killed in gang-related violence. “Sometimes, when I feel like I can’t get away from it all, I play a few games. It eases the tension, helps keep me in focus.”

If the local program receives more money, organizers say, they will accept more participants and expand to other sites in the city, lengthen the season and add games next summer.

Many of the players, including Patterson, hope to return in September for another round.

“I’d like another go at it,” said Patterson, who works at a warehouse and attends Long Beach City College. “It’s better than hanging out, drinking, smoking or getting into trouble. I’d rather be playing basketball.”