'Shoot Hoops Not Guns' event slated for Sunday
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on August 11, 2016 1:46 PM
This Sunday, officers and citizens will square off for an event named "Shoot Hoops Not Guns" -- a basketball game between citizens and law enforcement organized by the head coach of football and basketball at Wayne Christian Academy, Victor Young, in an effort to bring together law enforcement and citizens in Goldsboro.
The event will run from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday at Goldsboro High School, and several different teams will take the court to put on a show for those in attendance.
There will be a seventh and eighth grade game at 4 p.m., remarks from Goldsboro Mayor Chuck Allen at 4:45 p.m., which will be immediately followed by the basketball game between citizens and law enforcement and then there will be a game between 11th and 12th graders at 6 p.m.
There will be 10 officers and 10 citizens that step to the court for the game between officers and citizens.
Young, who grew up in Goldsboro and is now 32, said he organized the event as a way to bring citizens and law enforcement closer together and to raise awareness about ongoing gun violence in the community.
"When I grew up you would hear of maybe a fight here and there, there were no guns," Young said. "If someone got shot or killed it happened maybe every two or three years growing up. It was just so uncommon. Now it's like every week someone is getting shot."
Young said he came up with the idea of doing something to connect law enforcement and citizens after witnessing the ongoing violence in the city -- Goldsboro has had eight murders this year, five of which remain unsolved.
When he came up with the idea roughly two months ago to put on a citizens versus law enforcement basketball game, he reached out to an officer currently working for the Goldsboro Police Department who used to be his coach at Goldsboro High School and the idea took off from there.
"I want to give kids an avenue out of gangs and violence," Young said. "The biggest thing for me that kept me out of trouble was that my parents kept me in church, and if I wasn't in church I was involved in sports. If I wasn't in the school, I was at the Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA -- those were the main things that kept me on the straight and narrow."
Young said he spends his time as a coach and organized Sunday's event because he urges children to get involved with sports as a way to fill idle time that can otherwise be filled with trouble.
Young said it is a formula that worked for him as he grew up playing sports and attending North Drive Elementary School, Dillard Middle School, Goldsboro High School and then went on to receive a full basketball scholarship to the University of Mount Olive. He is hoping it can work for others, too.
"I want to raise awareness and let kids know there's more to life than picking up a gun and making bad decisions," Young said. "I want to get across to people that law enforcement is here to help us, not to hurt us."