Former Long Island champs launch fundraising efforts to revitalize Village basketball court

The Northport High School 1995 Long Island Champion Boys Basketball team is together again, this time taking on a new challenge that will bring their love of the sport full circle.

Reunited in person this past June for the funeral of a teammate’s father, members of the team left St. Philip Neri Church on Main Street in Northport Village and walked down to the basketball court, located in Cow Harbor Park on Woodbine Avenue, and reminisced about playing there in the 1990s. The court has since fallen into a state of disrepair, and the team was immediately inspired to return it to the fun, inviting and formative part of their childhoods.

“It’s a great memory we have here of playing on the court as little kids and we just want to pass it on to the next generation,” said Doug Trani, then captain of the 1995 champion team and one of the players heading the renovation project. He said when they used to play on the court, it was fairly new, and the baskets were more forgiving, easier to play on. While the current hoops and rims have their strengths, they also have their downfalls. “It’s a discouraging experience, especially for someone who is young and learning basketball,” he said. “With a better basket and better rims, it’ll be a very desirable place to play for kids.”

After a few Zoom meetings with his teammates, said Doug, the group was ready to forge ahead with its vision to bring a beautiful, top-quality court to Northport Village. On July 6, the team’s starting lineup – Doug and fellow players Greg Dunne, Rob Sanicola, Tom Radman, and Chris Wiebke – presented a plan to revitalize the basketball court to the Village Board. The board voted on, and unanimously approved, the proposal that evening. That’s when things “got real,” said Doug.

The team found a perfect partner in Eatons Neck Youth Club, Inc, a Northport-based nonprofit known for providing affordable and inclusive basketball opportunities to Northport children for more than 50 years. Most of the guys on the team grew up in the club’s basketball league, said Doug, and credit club president Steve Schmitt for assisting them throughout this process, especially in their paperwork and fundraising efforts. “He’s been nothing but amazing,” said Doug.

Last week, the team unveiled a GoFundMe page to help raise the money to put their plan into action. “Northport basketball has been an avenue for boys and girls to develop high character and positive self-esteem for more than 100 years,” reads the page, alluding to records showing that the first Northport High School boys basketball team was created in 1920. The entire team is helping with the initiative and believe that refurbishing the basketball court will “create an accessible place where kids can discover and nurture a love for the game.”

Renovation plans include, depending on funds raised, two new commercial-grade tempered glass backboards, state-of-the-art rims and poles, a completely refinished and repainted surface and court markings, and new benches. The group has already begun to get quotes from vendors and are looking to break ground in March 2022.

A Northport husband and father of two, Doug doesn't shy away from recognizing the practical (for adults, too!) benefits of a new court. With benches facing the scenic harbor backdrop, parents can watch kids on the court, and/or the playground, while enjoying the iconic Northport Harbor view.

“I mean, you can’t beat the spot,” he said.

When the court is complete, it will be dedicated in honor of John Kennedy, “a humble, lifelong resident of Northport Village and East Northport, and longtime doer of charitable works in town, father of four and personification of the good qualities we would all want our kids to learn from sports,” reads the GoFundMe page.

“There was always one person in our lives, since we were kids, that was a huge basketball person, really just a wonderful person to be around,” Doug said, commending John for dedicating his time not only to basketball, but to charity work around town.

“He’s such a humble guy, he started rattling off all these other people in the town related to basketball he thought would be a good idea, and we were like, ‘John, you’re our guy,’” Doug joked.

A youth basketball coach, mentor, parent, player (and member of Northport High School’s 1973 League 2 Championship team), John’s humbleness and sense of humor radiate in even a brief encounter, as he quickly dismisses compliments to give credit to others. He was honored that the team would even consider dedicating the court to him. “Just them saying that they wanted to do that, I didn't need anything else but that, it was so kind of them,” he said. “These guys are the best guys in the world.”

Doug recalls how John would tip the guys off when he found a new court they could practice on, and was always willing to help them along their basketball journeys. A father of four sons (Sean, Luke, Dave and Thomas; all played basketball), John coached youth teams even when his kids had moved onto other ones. “He was always one of our biggest fans, and he’s really just stayed a part of all of our lives,” said Doug. And so has basketball, with all five starters continuing to be involved in sports: Doug is the associate athletic director for compliance at St. John’s University in Queens; Chris is a senior director at the NBA; Rob is a college basketball coach at St. Joseph’s in Maine; Greg is a college basketball coach at SUNY Brockport; and Tom, a biomedical engineer with the FDA, is a youth basketball coach in Maryland. One of John’s sons is an NBA agent.

The 1995 team reminds him of how he grew up, John said, and together he, Doug and the other team members hope that the new court can help shift children’s habits from indoors to outside again, walking or biking downtown to play a pickup game with friends and neighbors.

John remembers his childhood in Northport, going to different basketball courts around town, including one at the Brosnan building, where you could play 3-on-3 for hours, he said. On the weekends, there would be more kids, and bigger games. “And then we'd walk to the deli across the way, we’d get our sandwich, and our soda. I mean, we lived there. Maybe someday, this could be like that,” he said.

So far, the team’s GoFundMe page has raised $13,320 toward its goal of $50,000. All donations are tax deductible and go directly to the revitalization of the basketball court; any surplus will be earmarked to future maintenance and upkeep of the court.

For more information, and to make a donation, visit the GoFundMe page here.