For immediate use

Nov. 20, 1997 -- No. 880

Editors: Playoffs will be at 9:45 p.m. Nov. 25 and 26; 10 p.m. Dec. 2 (semifinals); and 10:30 p.m. Dec. 3 (championship) at the Downtown YMCA Family Center, Morgan and Foster streets, Durham. Three sets of two games each will be played Nov. 25. A culminating mentoring session at 10 p.m. by Dr. James H. Johnson Jr. will precede the 10:30 p.m. Dec. 3 championship. Media are welcome.

Jobs, education, positive attitudes result from first midnight basketball season

By LAURA J. TOLER
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Jimmy Black and midnight basketball are the reasons Carlos McLendon is back in school.

"The streets, you know, they get a hold of you," said McLendon, 20, whose mother died when he was 12. He and his grandmother didn't get along. The McLendon kids went to live with godparents, and Carlos told high school goodbye.

Then came a series of low-level jobs. And then, last summer, the Triangle's first midnight basketball league: Night Flight, sponsored by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Durham Parks and Recreation Department and the YMCA of Greater Durham.

With games every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. since Sept. 2, Night Flight, headquartered at the Downtown YMCA Family Center in Durham, goes beyond most midnight basketball programs around the country. Besides offering young men, aged 19-25, and neighborhood spectators positive activity during hours when crime is highest, this league seeks to change attitudes and match players with jobs and educational opportunities.

Black, a Durham investment broker and a star of UNC-CH's 1982 championship men's basketball team, volunteers as the league's commissioner. Black is among volunteers spending three nights a week until the wee hours mentoring the 91 young men of Night Flight -- while also holding down his day job.

"He was talking to us about not getting in trouble," McLendon said. "He asked me was I willing to go back and get my diploma."

Black took McLendon and another Night Flight player to visit Bonner Academy in Raleigh. Now, both are enrolled, getting rides to and from their Durham homes from a school official and playing on the Bonner basketball team. They are Night Flight success stories -- because they quit.

"I stopped playing midnight ball to concentrate on my school work," said McLendon.

Night Flight invites spectators to its first playoffs Tuesday (Nov. 25, 9:45 p.m.), Wednesday (Nov. 26, 9:45 p.m.), Dec. 2 (10 p.m.) and Dec. 3 (10:30 p.m.) at the Durham Y's downtown center. Organizers say that five to 10 players and former players have obtained jobs or begun interviewing for jobs, and many demonstrate attitudes that have changed for the better.

"We stress anger management," said David Oglesby of UNC-CH's Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, another volunteer who helps run the program. "At first, a hard foul was close to a fighting situation. Now, a hard foul is almost always answered by a hand up."

A late September survey revealed the following about 97 men then in the league: 75 percent had not been involved in criminal activity since they joined; 75 percent said league rules encourage them to avoid criminal activity; 34 percent said their home situations have improved since they joined; 93 percent said the league's tone of high moral standards, high expectation, and positive messages are realistic; 87 percent said Night Flight means more to them than the opportunity to play basketball; and all planned to continue.

After just one season, the league appears likely to be replicated in Chapel Hill/Carrboro and Raleigh, said Dr. James H. Johnson Jr., the UNC-CH business and geography professor who created Night Flight. He and other league officials have consulted with YMCA officials in Raleigh and with town, recreation department and YMCA officials in Chapel Hill/Carrboro, all of whom are interested in starting leagues modeled after Night Flight.

"We would be in a consulting role," Johnson said. "Our goal would be a Triangle-wide playoff."

A project of Johnson's Urban Investment Strategies Center -- part of the Kenan Institute, an arm of UNC-CH's Kenan-Flagler Business School -- Night Flight taps representatives of 16 league corporate sponsors to volunteer as coaches and to mentor players who often lack positive role models. Corporate representatives are asked to help identify jobs for the young men and to teach personal responsibility, or mentoring sessions players must attend before each game to be eligible to play that night.

"When you start engaging this group about the future, you're often engaging young men who don't expect to live more than another five years because of the kinds of experiences they've had and the level of violence that exists," Johnson said. "Often, they can't conceive of a future."

Now, they're preparing for a mini-course in December on how to take Scholastic Aptitude Tests, organized by Night Flight after requests from 30 players. Dr. Joseph R. Aicher Jr., chairman of the political science department at N.C. Central University, will teach the course Dec. 2, 4, 9 and 11. "He specializes in training at-risk youth," Johnson said.

At the season's last mentoring session Thursday (Nov. 20), speakers from two Durham real estate firms dangled just the sort of carrots Johnson has encouraged. Sol Ellis of RTA Associates and Warren D. Robinson of the Robinson Group offered to pay for two of the young men to attend real estate school at Durham Technical College; they will encourage other firms to do the same. "We talked with several of the young men afterward, and we're going to meet with them again," Ellis said.

College deans and other mentoring speakers have stressed education.

"You can't just play basketball," said McLendon. "You gotta have a mind."

Not all the players have always thought so. The September survey revealed that 58 percent were working; 30 percent worked 40 to 60 hours weekly. Fifty-eight percent earned less than $10,000 a year; 26 percent earned less than $5,000. Thirty percent were not in school or working, 25 percent admitted to using drugs and 30 percent had had brushes with the law; 5 percent were on probation.

"We were reaching the population we needed to reach," Johnson said.

League officials have been character references in court for a few players. "We've had prosecuting attorneys say they were surprised to see us because nobody ever shows up to speak for these young men," Johnson said. "One kid was fined and is back in the league. He was grateful."

Oglesby has told judges that defendants played by the rules in Night Flight: "We've had young men who have made restitution or open-court apologies."

Said Johnson: "We say we've all made mistakes, and we believe in second chances. This program is about doing fundamental things that treat young African-American men with respect."

Tryouts open to everyone produced a league of one white player, five Hispanics and the rest blacks. "By natural development, we have become a program of color," Oglesby said.

Although about 50 men on eight teams play each night, "usually 60 or 65 show up," he said. "We have young men coming in who don't have to play that night to take part in the mentoring session."

Sessions have been taught by speakers ranging from Dr. Frank Brown, former dean of the UNC-CH School of Education, to pastors to Dr. Audreye Johnson, associate professor in the UNC-CH School of Social Work, who delivered a lecture on African-American heritage. "You're talking about kids who have never had the opportunity to interface with a dean of a school," Johnson said.

Night Flight has become their bridge to the mainstream. "We can tell an employer, 'He always shows up on time and he plays by the rules,' Johnson said.

The employment arena has given substantially to Night Flight, with the sponsoring businesses contributing $3,000 each: Bassett Furniture, Central Carolina Bank, Colony Capital, The Durham Herald-Sun, The Events Group, Glaxo Wellcome, Harris Teeter, IBM, Kenan Enterprises, Kenan Global Enterprises, Morgan Keegan & Co., The News & Observer, RPM Nissan, Trident Financial Services, University Ford and WRAL. Also sponsoring: the William R. Kenan Jr. Charitable Trust of Chapel Hill, the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation of Winston-Salem and the Rockefeller Foundation of New York.

Johnson told businesses that investing in inner-city youth makes good economic sense: "It costs $30,000 to incarcerate one man. It costs $70,000 to run this program."

In addition, Night Flight has given to the local economy. Referees, a trainer, YMCA staff members and off-duty police who provide security are paid. Coaches receive a minimal stipend.

"We rent vans three nights a week to transport players," Johnson said. "We purchase shoes and uniforms." As a result of refereeing in Night Flight, several referees who previously had experience but no certification have become certified to work in high schools.

As a result of midnight basketball, some young men have learned to do things not just for now, and not just for themselves.

"I want to have a nice job, and a family, and a future," McLendon said. "I've got little brothers and sisters. I want to be a role model for them. If I don't have a diploma, how would it look?"

That kind of mentoring can only ensure a future for Night Flight and its results, Oglesby said: "We've had substantial success -- but nothing like what we will have with the tradition of this program."

- 30 -

Night Flight contacts: David Oglesby, UNC-CH, 919-962-4696; Jimmy Black, league commissioner, 919-419-2500; Phil Henderson, Greater Durham YMCA, 919-667-9622

SAT course contact: Dr. Joseph R. Aicher Jr., 919-560-6434

Real estate contacts: Sol Ellis, 919-544-3761; Warren D. Robinson, 919-572-0247; Carlos McLendon 919-683-1029

Print media contact: Laura J. Toler, 919-962-8589

Broadcast media contact: Karen Moon, 919-962-8595