Albany area basketball teams hope to provide welcome distraction

ALBANY —Familiar sounds filled the gym at Albany High Wednesday evening. Shoes squeaking on the hardwood, basketballs being dribbled and banked off the backboard. Voices, both male and female filled the air.

“That’s your shot!”

“Oh take him!”

“And one!”

The encouragement and cheers mixed with laughter as shots were taken and plays were made. After all that the students, as well as the city of Albany has been through in the past few days, head boys basketball coach Archie Chatmon described the scene as “therapeutic.”

With the damage that took place Sunday still fresh, high school basketball teams are trying to get back into the swing for their own sake as well as for the good of the city.

“I think often we find that that’s where athletics comes in,” Chatmon said. “Anytime you have these circumstances you often have a professional team and the college teams say the best thing they can do for their community is to get back going because it offers that normalcy that they are looking for. And like you said it also gives them that positive distraction from what’s going on. So that’s one of the things we can offer the community.”

Albany High was still reeling from the damage on Jan. 2 that left the school without power. As they embark on a week in which they must play six straight games before region tournament, Chatmon said that the mental and emotional state of his players is top priority and hopefully the stretch will provide a positive distraction.

“As we coaches talked about, maybe there are some kids who need this and need a welcome distraction,” he said

Dougherty girls basketball coach Khadijah Ali echoed these sentiments.

“For us personally and everybody in the area, I think we just need a break,” she said. “We can honestly just use a break, watch a good basketball game, cheer on our respective school and just have a good time. Sit down, pig out at the concession stand and just have a good time with their classmates or people in the community. Honestly, I think we all could just use a break.”

The majority of students zoned for Dougherty High saw more damage than most and Ali said basketball has taken a back seat to getting out in the streets and helping neighbors. She said the team took the initiative to help the affected neighborhoods.

“They started texting us coaches, once we found out everyone was okay, asking us what they can do, what type of community service can they do, can they organize something?” she said. “Really for them, it’s been about how they can do things to help and how they can get involved and that was pretty awesome.”

The Lady Trojans face Monroe Saturday at Albany State University’s West Campus Gym and will be collecting toiletries to deliver to those in need.

Monroe girls basketball head coach Jennifer Acree said she’s hopeful the game will help bring the city together in a time of need and show that they are there for each other.

“When we step out on the court, we’re competitive, but off it we’re Albany and we’re Albany strong,” she said. “We’re all helping each other out. We’ve been working because there’s no such thing as a zoning in between communities. When something like this happens, we’re all in it together.”

Tip off for the Monroe vs. Dougherty game will be Saturday at 6 p.m. Dougherty High cheerleaders will be stationed in the lobby to collect the donated items.