The summer constants of the Rockaways can be summed up into the three B’s — beach, best friends, and of course, basketball.
The annual St. Francis de Sales Summer Basketball Classic in Belle Harbor is celebrating its 40th year. The event continues to be a seasonal highlight in the parish schoolyard and a popular weekday meeting spot for everyone on the peninsula.
The regular season tipped off in mid-June with the Tim Klein men’s open division. Soon, the grammar school junior, middle, and senior divisions started up, followed by high school, the Clare Droesch women’s open, and two “Graybeard” divisions. Competitors range from second graders through age 69.
A record 104 teams comprised of more than 1,200 players have been competing this summer. The playoff tournament is set to start this week.
Between the four outdoor St. Francis de Sales schoolyard courts and the St. Camillus gymnasium, five active courts feature three games per evening from Monday through Thursday for a total of 15 tip-offs each night.
To celebrate the 40th year, tournament organizers held a special party on July 20 at The Rockaway Hotel to relive the amazing moments and recognize all the basketball aficionados responsible for keeping the hoops classic going strong.
“There was a lot of basketball talent in the building — a lot of legends,” said tournament director Keith Goldberg, who is also the executive director of the Diocese of Brooklyn’s Catholic Youth Organization (CYO). “Many of the legendary players from the past were there.”
It truly is a family affair each summer. The schoolyard is a gathering place for the community to catch up with old friends, make some new ones, and enjoy some highly competitive basketball featuring the area’s top players.
“Quite a few families have three generations that have played, and we’re just waiting for our first fourth-generation family,” Goldberg said. “Most of the Greybeards played in the league at minimum in the high school division.”
When the tournament began 40 years ago, founder Flip Mullen, who was the parish’s CYO basketball athletic director at the time, didn’t have a vision of where things would eventually go. He simply wanted to start a summer basketball league for kids in the parish.
That first year, in 1984, featured 26 teams, which soon expanded given the tournament’s popularity. Because of the interest, organizers kept putting on the event year after year. Roles changed, and new people got involved, yet the running theme of the Rockaway faithful celebrating the game of basketball never wavered.
“This is not by any means a one-man show,” Goldberg said. “Over time, different people have been division directors and overall directors. It’s been a lot of people over a long period of time.”
Just like basketball requires a full team effort to have sustained success, so too does running this tournament. The teamwork and camaraderie shown by the organizers carry over seamlessly to the competitors.
“That is very much what the dynamic is,” said Goldberg. “Initially, when we started the league, it was trying to figure out who was going to do what. You quickly see what different people’s strengths are, and you try to use the person that’s best at a certain element to run things to figure out how it all meshes together.”
Through attacks on the country, such as 9/11 and the tragic plane crash of Flight 587, natural disasters like Superstorm Sandy, and even the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer basketball classic has stood tall in the face of adversity. When a tradition is this well established, not even the most ominous of potential disruptions could derail the momentum.
“The main thing is that although it is a basketball league, really it’s something that brings the community together with St. Francis at the center,” Goldberg said.
Although the faces may change from generation to generation, the spirit of this NYC basketball institution stays the same.
