Addition of Outdoor Basketball and Tennis Courts Makes SYS an Even Bigger Draw

Scott Johnson readily admits that he’s a “basketball guy.”

The executive director of Southampton Youth Services has long been committed to the organization’s mission of creating athletic and recreational opportunities for kids, but anyone who knows him knows that hoops have his heart.

If what’s happening at the Southampton Town Recreation Center off Majors Path in North Sea this summer is any indication, the entire East End has a similar passion for basketball.

The SYS youth summer league has been a big hit and huge success at the recreation center, thanks to two new basketball courts that were recently installed outdoors. The basketball courts have allowed SYS to have an outdoor summer league, and were part of a $750,000 project that also included the construction of two new outdoor tennis courts, expanding the offerings for adults and children of all ages.

The money for the tennis and basketball courts came from a fundraising campaign that took just a little over a year, and recently wrapped up.

The youth summer league, which started the second week in July, includes 132 kids, ranging in age from incoming third-graders to incoming eighth-graders, from as far east as East Hampton and as far west as Westhampton Beach, with a strong contingent of both part-time and full-time residents. There are three age-group divisions, with four teams per division, all run by volunteer parent coaches.

“I thought it was a nice add-on to the campus,” Johnson said, when asked about his motivations to kick start a campaign to put outdoor courts at SYS. “It finishes the campus up a bit. There are a lot of calls for basketball throughout the winter, and I wanted to translate that to the summer and take it outdoors. People my age, this is how we grew up, playing basketball in the elements outdoors, on the blacktop. It adds a great element to the game.”

Johnson said he and the other coaches and parents involved in the league evaluated all the players before assigning them to teams to ensure the teams would be evenly balanced, and he said they purposely tried to mix it up when it came to geographic locations of the players as well.

“We think the teams are pretty equal, and they get to meet new kids, from different socio-economic backgrounds,” he said. “It’s really great to see this all take place.

“Once you get on the court, it doesn’t matter if you’re from the Upper East Side or living out here year ’round,” he added. “You just want to play ball.”

A focus on the addition of more outdoor courts for several different sports at SYS is a direct result of the pandemic, Johnson said.

“This whole vision really took place a few years ago during COVID, when people wanted to be outdoors. There were a number of people out here from the city, and we started having the discussion and it just blossomed from there.”

Johnson added that there is more to come. The next fundraising campaign, which has yet to kick off, will be focused on adding three outdoor padel courts. Padel is a racket sport that has seen a surge in popularity recently, as it is a sort of mashup between tennis, pickleball and squash. Johnson said SYS is also hoping to add two outdoor platform tennis courts as well, which will make SYS even more of a go-to destination for anyone who wants to dabble in as many forms of racket sports — and sports in general — as possible.