MECHANIC FALLS – A lot of kids were upset.

It was the first time their basketball game had been canceled, and police officer Tim Gamache was deafened by the protests on his phone last week.

But the next Sunday the kids were back. Teens, young adults, girls, boys – all excited to be dribbling and shooting once again.

“These kids look forward to this,” Gamache said Sunday, barely audible against a backdrop of about 30 youths sweating up and down the court.

“Whatever it is, I like it.”

And whatever it is, Gamache admits, it’s growing rapidly and it’s growing from its own energy. The group of players has grown from five or six a week to 30 or 35.

“I don’t see it stopping,” said Gamache’s wife, Tammy, who helps organize the games every Sunday at the Town Office. “So it’s a good thing we like to play.”

They’re not sure when the weekly games began.

The town held an annual three-on-three basketball tournament for a number of years, but once a year wasn’t enough.

“We kind of wanted to play some more,” said Tammy, who works as a youth group leader at the Vineyard Church.

A pickup game of youth basketball ensued. And last summer, Tammy’s husband challenged a local gang – the P-Unit – to try to beat him at basketball. They took him up, and every week they take him up again.

“It lit up from there,” Tim Gamache said.

As the numbers grew, so did the demographic. Kids now come from Minot, Poland, Norway, Oxford and even Lewiston and Auburn.

“I like playing with all kinds of people,” said Michael Mecham, 18, of Lewiston.

Mecham is a member of the Lewiston High School basketball team who heard from a Mechanic Falls friend about the Sunday games.

“The word is getting out, and that’s a good thing,” said Jeff Brocker, 23, of Mechanic Falls.

‘You can’t give up’

Brocker said it gives youths a chance to get out of the house. Tim Gamache said it also keeps them out of trouble.

One example is the New Year’s Eve game that brought in 40 kids. One of the kids who came that night made the varsity basketball team at his high school. That night, some of his classmates made local news for getting kicked off the team after drinking at a party.

“Some of these kids would have been at those parties if there was nothing else to do,” Tammy Gamache said.

According to Tim, the town’s youth crime rate went down by 70 percent since the games started in June.

“It’s not all about basketball,” he said.

He tries to talk to each of the players, to see how they’re doing and what they’re up to.

“The biggest thing is, you can’t give up on these kids,” he said.

Building relationships is the best thing about the games, Tim Gamache said. “Kids who normally wouldn’t associate with each other are getting along with each other.”

One of the worst things is that there’s not enough time to do more.

“But I can find that,” he said. “I would never not have the time and energy, because these kids need the time.”

Already, there are plans to start a second youth game for kids in lower grades.

A grant that Gamache is helping to write would replace the backboards and rims in the Town Office basketball court.

He is also starting to look toward future growth, finding additional space to play so he never has to turn kids away.

“We would never turn anyone away,” he said. “We’ll just keep building.”