Recreation
17th Annual Charlie Brown Basketball Tournament to support new playground and D.A.R.E. program
By Melissa Wood
YORK - A total of 60 teams in grades 3 through 8 will come from all over the Seacoast to compete in the 17th Annual Charlie Brown Basketball Tournament beginning this Friday, Feb. 23.Money raised by the games will go toward the DARE program and to help fund the building of a community playground at the Bog Road athletic fields, a project that is expected to cost $60,000.
The tournament will feature match-ups for 10 days in the York High School and York Middle School gymnasiums from 5 to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday, and all day during the weekend.
"Saturday and Sunday, the gyms are going full speed," said York School Resource Officer Scott Cogger.
Cogger said York is one of the first towns in the Seacoast area to start a third- and fourth-grade basketball division. The tournament will also feature divisions for boys and girls in fifth through eighth grades.
The tournament was renamed 10 years ago in honor of Charlie Brown, a York police officer who passed away in 1996 after suffering a massive heart attack at Fenway Park. Cogger said he was an officer for 14 years who is still remembered well today for his work with the town's youth.
Brown, who was known for being fun and unconventional, was initially involved in the February basketball classic and helped make sure that it benefited DARE and YORKWISE, two programs that aim to prevent substance abuse in York children and teens.
"He did things a little bit differently," explained Cogger.
Although Brown's widow and children moved to the Bangor area, his family will be on hand to help out during the tournament. Both his mother, Helen Brown, who lives in Kittery, and his daughter, Kimberly, who is now a college student, will be volunteering at the concession stands.
The community playground at the Bog Road fields is the idea of David and Katie Wholey, who have already raised $20,000 along with the playground committee for the project, in memory of their son, Benjamin, who was stillborn in January of 2005.
"Hopefully in the springtime they'll be breaking ground on that," said Cogger.
For a full schedule or to volunteer for the concessions stands, visit the York Parks and Recreation website at parksandrec.yorkmaine.org and click on the link for children's programs.
