Syracuse — Melvin Triche, president of the Youth Enrichment Outreach Program, helped establish the basketball arm of the organization 28 years ago.
Since then, thousands of the city’s most at-risk children, including the nearly 400 kids involved this year alone, have received basketball training and life-skills development from an army of volunteer coaches and mentors.
“I think we provide leadership (skills) for them,” Triche said. “It also provides teamwork where they can learn how to get along with other kids and work with other kids.”
Triche, whose three sons grew up playing basketball with YEOP, said he doesn’t know where his kids might be if not for the program.
His three sons, including his youngest, former Syracuse University guard Brandon Triche, used the life lessons they learned from the program to create positive and productive adult lives for themselves.
“I don’t know what my kids would’ve been doing,” Melvin Triche said. “I was lucky because of this program. It taught them to be a part of a team. It also taught them how to work hard because they had to work hard in practice in order to get playing time on the court.”
On Friday night, STEAM at Dr. King Elementary School opened its gym doors to the program’s youngest age group, the basketball league for 5 to 8-year-old boys and girls. The program, founded in 1994, also provides basketball and baseball leagues for kids up to 15 years old.
Triche said the program was not built as a daycare where parents can drop off their children. It is a community-based organization that functions best when entire families are involved as supportive fans and even as volunteer coaches.
“It’s very important when the families take a part in it,” Triche said. “And that’s one of the things that I stress, I invite the families, mothers and fathers, to stay with your kids. Don’t drop them off and leave. Just stay and watch them. The kids want their parents to watch them. If they make a basket, they look over at them.”
Qasim Akbar, 34, coaches his 8-year-old son and has volunteered with YEOP for the last three years.
He knows firsthand about the positive impact of YEOP because he played in the program’s basketball and baseball leagues as a kid growing up near Syarcuse’s Kirk Park.
Looking back today, Akbar said YEOP helped him create lifelong friendships with teammates, some of whom now volunteer with the program.
“I still know some of the people from back then. I look at old pictures … and I’m friends with them today,” he said. “Friendship was the best thing it gave me. That’s why I keep my son in it.”
Akbar decided to volunteer after hearing about the death of Ed Bynoe, who had been a key figure in running the YEOP program in Syracuse for nearly three decades.
“When I heard (Bynoe) passed away, I was like, ‘I have to do this.’ It’s like my duty,” Akbar said. “There’s no way I’m not going to do that. That’s my whole childhood.”
Bynoe was a big presence in the Syracuse community. On top of his work with YEOP, he also officiated local soccer, basketball and lacrosse games.
“It felt like he knew every kid by name,” Akbar said. “He was always around. All the kids were involved.”
The entry fee to play in the YEOP leagues is $35, but both Triche and Bynoe believed it was important to provide these opportunities even for families that could not afford to pay.
“We want the young kids of Syracuse that can’t afford to play on those traveling AAU teams and all these other teams that charge so much money,” Triche said. “We just want kids to be a part of something. The original founder of YEOP, Avery Brooks, always stressed to me that ‘If a kid can’t pay, let ’em play anyway.’”
Katrina Williams’ 8-year-old son Jeremiah is playing in his second year with the YEOP program. Williams hasn’t missed a game.
She said having Jeremiah in YEOP has kept him busy and the coaches have stressed the importance of education and that has motivated her son to keep good grades in school.
“I’ve noticed so much improvement in his basketball skills and at school as well,” she said. “I love that about the coaches. It’s not just about the basketball, it’s about school as well.”
The program also provides opportunities for the athletes and their families beyond the sports leagues. Kids in the program have had the opportunity to watch Le Moyne basketball games and go on bowling trips. Triche said a trip to the Sky Zone Trampoline Park is being planned for the group of 5-8-year-olds playing on Friday night.
A group of kids and their families will also go to the Syracuse Mets’ Jackie Robinson Day later this month and the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Legends exhibition, which will utilize the Negro Leagues’ East-West All-Star Game format, in May at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown.
Triche said so many people are involved in making the YEOP program successful each year. Especially, Syracuse City School District Superintendent Tony Davis, athletic director Jesse Long and the entire staff of custodians who open the facilities and “make this possible.”
The YEOP program, which also has baseball leagues, always looks for ways to grow. Triche said he would like to establish soccer and lacrosse leagues, as well as leagues devoted specifically to female athletes.
The program is always searching for volunteers from the community, Triche said. To sign up head to the YEOP website. Donations can also be made through the website.
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