Shaun2 KNOWS SPORTS?
SHAUN CONNOLLY
CROMPTON BASKETBALL SUMMER
As a kid, my dad would take me to watch him play in the summertime men’s league at Crompton Park. Former Assumption, Holy Cross, Worcester State and WPI players would be mixed in with kids from Quinsigamond, North, South, Voke, Doherty and Burncoat. Legends on their campus, versus legends on their playground. Games were tough, heated even. Family, friends, and others from the community would gather around to watch everyone play.
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It’s where I got to see NCAA champion and NBA veteran Michael Bradley play. I watched UNC and Holy Cross star Neil Fingleton lumber up and down the court. I was told stories of all the Worcester basketball royalty who went on to play in college, no small feat regardless of their division. Some won NCAA championships, some just got to play basketball everyday and get a free or nearly free education for it. I was lucky enough to play on the same court where I watched what seemed like giants run up and down, through muggy air, sweating and shooting and pushing and scraping. I sometimes would play a Senior Ruth baseball game, get changed in the car to play the summer league game at Crompton. Those nights I felt unstoppable. Just the privilege of being allowed to play two great games in the same night with your friends with other real responsibilities felt like magic.
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Khrystian King is still there, helping facilitate all the games, keeping the spirit of this league alive. He’s now a city councilor and not just the youth worker who I knew when I was 16. As I was walking to the games, he slowed down in his pickup truck full of cones, and water jugs for the night. I was pushing my 1 and a ½ year old in a stroller. “They even let YOU have one of those?” I laughed as he drove off and thought about how he must have thought of me when I played. I could shoot and I could pass, but I wasn’t as strong as my contemporaries. King must have coached thousands of kids. I wonder if he remembers them all, like I remember those nights before I was allowed to step on the court. As I got older I was able to coach on that court as well. As exciting and electric as I always thought those games were watching from the grassy hill as a young boy, it is even louder and more intense on the sideline. These games don’t count for anything besides bragging rights, but competition swirled in the humidity of those nights. The barrier of a high school gym faded away. Insults, roasts, laughter all piled onto these competitive games. I live not too far from the park now, and like to watch the games. Basketball itself has changed a whole lot in just the 17 years since I played at Burncoat. There are more threes, a lot of these kids are on outside school teams that play year round and it looks and feels faster than when I played. I saw parent after parent on the sideline that were guys I used to play against on that very court. Their kids are now shuffling their feet, playing defense as the sun sets beyond the WRTA headquarters and seemingly into the railroad tracks in the distance. If you get a chance, head down to watch a game in the Canal District and see one of the things that makes this city tick, basketball on a hot summer night. Games are every Wednesday and Thursday night starting at 6PM till 9PM. You may just get to witness the next in line to claim Worcester Basketball Royalty.
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