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Religion

Ministry gets boys, men to aim higher

It seemed like a good idea 15 years ago: Blend playing and praying to keep guys off the streets. Still does.

By WAVENEY ANN MOORE
Published March 23, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - A group of young men recently formed a circle on the basketball court at the Lake Vista Recreation Center and joined hands. A referee held up his right hand and said a prayer.

Then the game began.

On the bleachers sat a smattering of onlookers, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters. The Rev. Walter J. Williams was among them, looking onto the court the same way that he has most every Saturday from January to April for 15 years.

This faith-based program, called the Shepherd's Men Basketball Ministry, is dear to him.

It started in 1989, when Williams was pastor of Greater St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church. His son, Larry, came up with the idea for a basketball program that could keep black males off the streets and out of trouble.

Since then, the basketball ministry has grown to include tutoring and mentoring. It stretches beyond St. Petersburg to include more than 400 men and boys, ages 8 to 56, from Tampa, Clearwater and Largo.

"We're hoping we can get this spread statewide," said Williams, now pastor of New Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Tampa.

At present, 21 churches participate in the ministry. A team from the St. Petersburg Police Department, made up of black and white officers, also participates.

There is no age limit, but church attendance is required.

"No church, no play," said Larry R. Williams, branch manager and assistant vice president of Wachovia Bank in Clearwater and pastor of Good Samaritan Baptist Church in St. Petersburg. He is now executive director of the basketball ministry. "They have to be a member of the church they're playing for and they have to be in good standing," he said.

Players pray before and after games.

"That's one of the reasons we can't get grants," he added. "And we can't negotiate that."

On a recent Saturday, Michael Plummer, 16, stopped to chat with the elder Williams. The Alonzo High student is new to the program. His family joined Williams' church last year. He said the ministry "keeps kids off the street."

That was the idea behind the ministry, Larry Williams said.

"I grew up here in St. Petersburg and I've seen a lot with the youth and I want to make a difference. In 1989, I was fresh out of the Marine Corps. I came home and I wanted to do something," he said.

He told his father about his idea to evangelize with sports and took three young men at his father's church to play at city gyms and parks.

"We would attract men and we would invite them to play with us and practice with us. I went to other churches around St. Petersburg and I told them how we wanted to make this a ministry tool. They bought into the idea," Larry Williams said.

The volunteer ministry operates on a shoestring. Typically it has an annual deficit of $1,500 to $2,000 a year, Walter Williams said. The organization pays about $7,000 a year to use the Lake Vista Recreation Center. Supplies and salaries for referees and scorekeepers add another $3,000 in expenses. Each church is assessed $375 a year.

"We usually trust God and at the end of the year, we usually work it out," Larry Williams said. "But I look at the good that we do and the lives that we change. ... It's worth it to me."

[Last modified March 23, 2005, 00:55:18]