A once ragged-tagged old, out of date gym at New Hope Christian Church is getting a new look and will be transformed into a space where rec games can take place, teams can practice and much more.
For now however the gym will be used for a youth league being organized by Crawfordsville girls basketball coach Tyler Smith who is the youth and sports pastor at the church. The youth league is for any individual in grades 1-6 and will take place from Mar. 14 - May 14. There will be one practice per week either on Monday or Tuesday with games taking place on Saturday’s. Smith talked about the league itself in more detail and what people can expect.
“The league is good for all skill levels,” Smith said. “If you never played before or are someone who plays year-round we’ll have a place for you. One of our goals is to just bring sports to the community and have a strong emphasis on the fun of the game. Our plan is to do two of these youth leagues per year. It’s just another additional option to people and we know what the role of sports can play.”
The new gym will feature all new goals, curtains, court, scoreboard and of course of fresh new coat of paint. The idea for the gym has been a thought for a while and the idea came to Smith out of the blue just by walking in the old gym and from then on the vision was born.
“I really just had an epiphany looking at the old stage and storage and thought if we move that stuff is this gym the length of a high school court,” he said. “Sure enough it was once that came to fruition we waited on the go ahead for funding then it all started to fall into place.”
Once it’s fully up and running the new gym will also be able to many other activities even outside of basketball like volleyball open-gyms and games, a special Olympics, and more. Of course there will also be men’s leagues, tournaments, and a variety of other basketball events.
“This is just the beginning,” Smith said. “We’re just going to keep dreaming how we can bring different leagues and sports opportunities here. We want to provide a safe and fun way for people to be able to enjoy sports in our community. If a local team of any kind doesn’t have a place to practice or whatever the cast might be, we’re going to be working with the local schools in that regard. Me being a sports-lifer and also working with kids, I’m just excited for what we have in store.”
The deadline to register for the youth upcoming youth league in the spring is on the 27th. For more information about the league or to keep up with everything else happening with the new gym and sports league at New Hope Christian Church, you can visit newhopefortoday.org and click on the sports tab.
