Back in the early 1990s, when local kids like Candace Hall, Destiny Salter and Ryan Creighton spent the lazy days of summer bouncing around Greenport, the neighborhood event of the season was Joanne “JoJo” Jackson’s annual basketball tournament at the Third St. court.
“It was huge,” said Ms. Hall, a niece to Ms. Jackson and the village clerk, who has revived the tradition with a group of family and close friends from her childhood.
At its peak, the old tournament featured cheerleaders in outfits custom-sewn by local seamstresses and for a while there was even a fashion show, back when the event was so popular it stretched over two days. Ms. Hall said it continued for decades until sometime in the early 2000s.
“There was one year where [Ms. Jackson] got a stage put up at the Third St. park and there were a couple of years where they had a fashion show, too — and all of this was to make money to produce the event.”
Ms. Hall’s family goes back seven generations in Greenport and the surrounding area. She is the granddaughter of legendary local figure Delores Bertha Swann Shelby, affectionately known as “Bootsie,” who was born in the village in 1930 and grew up to raise 14 children, work in the Greenport School cafeteria and provide day care to dozens of local families.
Also this year, the group received non-profit status — which they hope will assist in future fundraising to cover the roughly $2,500 cost of staging the tournament each year.
The revived event, now known as the North Fork Kid Connect basketball tournament, unfolded last Saturday under picture perfect blue skies, with dozens of kids in a spectrum of candy-colored t-shirts competing against one another — starting with the 5-year-olds and moving by age up to the 18-year-olds.
There was a grill master and a DJ, both volunteers who played in the tournament in their youth and now have their own kids participating. The North Fork Dance Company performed a half-time show. This year for the first time, a pro referee volunteered his time to ref the tournament. Local politicians including Greenport Mayor Kevin Stuessi, Southold Town Supervisor Al Krupski and 1st District congressional candidate John Avlon dropped by to catch the excitement courtside. And in an unannounced twist, a trio of Southold cops, including Mr. Creighton — one of Ms. Hall’s many cousins — turned up and faced off against the 18-year-olds in the final game.
The tournament, which kicked off in 2021, began as a series of discussions between Ms. Salter and Ms. Hall, and blossomed into a small Facebook group of 10 friends and neighbors, and has remained an all-volunteer, grassroots effort ever since.
“It’s our extended family and friends who feel like family,” she said. “We all grew up together going to the basketball tournament. And we realized that now all of our kids — and by kids I mean my family’s kids and our friend’s kids — none of these kids had ever experienced it.”
Ms. Hall said that the competition is the ideal way to bring multiple generations of the community together.
“The beauty of it is that not only are the kids having the time of their lives, but there’s this group of adults that are anywhere from 30 to 50 that are just in their glory, because they’re seeing this thing come back. It was super important to us Greenporters as kids.”
In 2014, the Third St. court was renovated and renamed the “Third St. Memorial Basketball Court,” in honor of four village residents who had died young in separate incidents but shared a love for the court, which sits between Center St. and North St.
Competition was fierce last weekend at Greenport’s Third St. basketball court (Credit: Bill Landon)
Years later, Ms. Hall said, the Third St. court remains a magnet that draws neighborhood kids in year-round.
“There are always kids down there playing basketball, even all winter. It’s something that’s part of our core here in Greenport.”
She said it’s important to the organizers that the tournament remain free.
“Greenport has a lot of socio-economic differences and there’s some pretty big gaps,” she said. “There’s people that come from serious wealth, and they’re able to get their kids in a travel team. And there are those that don’t.”
Keeping the tournament free “levels the playing field, so that anybody can sign up.
“We don’t turn any kids away, even the day of the tournament. We had a family with five kids show up on Saturday and we got them shirts and got them on teams.”
She said the event is an investment in the community’s youth.
“It goes such a long way,” she said, “and they appreciate it. What we’re creating is core memories for these kids, the way we have those core memories from our childhood that we all share, of coming out to the basketball tournament every summer.”
Each successive summer, she said, excitement surrounding the tournament has grown.
“From an organizational standpoint, this started out like super rough around the edges, and it’s still a little rough around the edges — which is fine because it works, and it’s getting bigger and bigger.”
She said the first year drew about 40 kids, the second year 50 and last year 70. This year’s tournament featured more than 100 hard-charging young athletes.
Like her aunt JoJo before her, Ms. Hall and her team are considering turning the six-hour tournament into a weekend-long event next summer.
“With these numbers, we may have to,” she said. “All of that’s on the table.”