PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — In the midst of a racially divided time in America, two local youth basketball teams think they’ve found a way to help bridge that gap: through sports.
Nate Palamos coaches PDX Ballers, a youth basketball team from Portland. John Barhoum is the head coach of Clackamas Rogue, a team from Happy Valley.
The men met five years ago through basketball and decided their two teams — from very different backgrounds — could benefit from each other.
“A lot of times our kids… I like to say we ‘don’t got the complexion for the connection,’ so, they get to see it,” Palamos explained. “A lot of times these kids go through stuff just because of the color of their skin, or they have braids, or they just look a little different.”
It’s a different story for Clackamas Rogue.
“My boys live in happy valley, it’s 2% black,” Barhoum stated. “I grew up out here, I was born and raised here. I didn’t meet a black friend until high school.”
The coaches bonded the two programs through training and scrimmages, along with traveling to tournaments together. Soon their bond transcended sports, with the boys hanging out outside of basketball through sleepovers and other get-togethers.
“To realize what other people have to go through instead of just our idea on things… how we react to stuff and how we act in general,” Rogue player RJ Barhoum said of the benefits of the connection.
Coach Barhoum says while his team has been playing with the PDX Boys, they’ve seen some pretty eye-opening experiences — including parents screaming things like “go back to the ghetto,” or “we know where their kids will end up.”
“We’ve seen a lot of things happen,” he said. “That’s kind of the ugly side of youth sports.”
Meanwhile, the coaches say the boys don’t see their differences, they just see their friends.
They think if more people focused on bringing communities together, it could bring positive change in America.
“It’s a really dope environment… we help each other,” PDX Ballers player Braylon Gaines said.