LEWISTON — Tree Street Youth, a program for Lewiston kids during and after school, always had kids that played pickup basketball when they could and would travel with the Boys and Girls Club of Southern Maine in Auburn down to Portland to play in some basketball games. However, there was always a bigger demand for basketball. 

After Nicole Welch took over the Lewiston Recreation Department in 2021, Welch and Tree Street founder and executive director Julia Sleeper-Whiting met on Jan. 1 to discuss a possible basketball league. 

The two brought in the local Boys and Girls Club and soon after the meeting the Armory Hoops League was created. 

On March 8, teams from all three groups, comprised of kids in grades nine through 12, played their first session at the Lewiston Armory. Two days later, middle school teams joined in. It was the beginning of a six-week long season. 

In the second week, the Root Cellar, another youth program in Lewiston, added a team on both days.

“When Nicole started at the Rec and was meeting people in the community, she came downtown to Tree Street,” Sleeper-Whiting said. “We started talking about kids’ needs and the community and things like that and I said, ‘Well, we have a really big dream about what it could be.’ She said, ‘Well, I think that’s possible.’

“I said, ‘Boys and Girls Club has a good way of running things.’ We thought that we should all get together, so we all had a meeting and we started brainstorming and thought that we could do this. Nicole made it sound super simple, and that’s when we started recruiting our own teams.”

Welch and Lewiston Recreation handled the scheduling, while the Boys and Girls Club helped with uniforms. For Welch, the Armory Hoops League is a culmination of her vision when she took over Lewiston Recreation. 

“I’m coming up on my year anniversary here and one of the biggest things I heard coming in was that kids need more open gym time, they need opportunity, especially during the winter,” Welch said. “We started opening our gym a couple times a week for mostly Lewiston Middle School kids coming in. We already have a relationship with the Boys and Girls Club, because they have a teen center opening up in a couple months here, and then Julia had the connections at Tree Street.

“The Lewiston Armory is such a gem in the community, so opening the doors for the kids here is so empowering to them. Bringing in so many kids in the community, even if they go to school together, they aren’t always interacting, so having basketball to be able to mold around is so beneficial to them and our organizations in the long run.”

The director of the Boys and Girls Club of Southern Maine, Gary Violette, said the interest in basketball has increased since the beginning of the league. Violette said the league is good for kids who can’t make the high school basketball teams. 

“I think it’s a great opportunity for kids who don’t typically play for varsity to improve their skills and get the opportunity to play,” Violette said. “Basically, the kids who wouldn’t make the teams or who haven’t been intro get a chance to play get to play now.”

At the Root Cellar, word of the league spread quickly. Now the group has its own team and the players are excited. 

“My understanding is they’re having a blast, enjoying it and it’s giving a wider group of kids (the opportunity) to play,” Root Cellar executive director Joel Furrow said. “Basketball is over in the schools, so it’s a continued opportunity to play. It’s a free league and the connections with the other youth organizations, we have great relationships with them and their families, so it’s a great base to build something. It’s kids being supported in other ways and being engaged in their communities. It’s fun to see that.”

Furrow said players on the Root Cellar team have been having fun and have been improving. There’s been playful trash talk between the groups, but it’s been an overall positive environment. 

Tree Street staff member and coach Chucks Obunse, who used to play for the Midcoast Sternmen in Rockland, said his players are committed and have realized that the league is competitive. 

“We want to do this to help keep them in sports and off the streets, that’s always a pleasure,” Obunse said. “Some of these kids are really talented but their work ethic has to improve. They can now compete against good talent. They gain a competitive presence that wasn’t there, especially at an after-school program. Now we have other programs in it, so we have something where we can get them to come in and play hard.”

The league, which features around 100 players, still has a couple weeks of play left. After the first few games in week one, Welch and Sleeper-Whiting realized it was an instant success. 

“After that first week, Julia and I stood on the sideline and said, ‘This is what it was supposed to be,’” Welch said. “We have so many kids that come to the Armory to come and watch and hang out. For me and from a city standout, I want kids to see the Armory as another safe space and positive space.”

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