The iconic basketball courts in Oak Bluffs marked half a century of hoops Saturday with a group of elite young players and the legendary Vineyard coach who started it all: 79-year-old Jay Schofield.
After more than three years of planning, a year of construction and a fair share of financial stress, Niantic Park in Oak Bluffs will be fully open to the public within a matter of weeks.
Work is almost done on a $819,000 overhaul project at Niantic Park. Beginning Wednesday, hundreds of volunteers will take part in a five-day build to complete a separate, privately-funded children's playground.
For the first time in more than five decades, there will be no basketball in Niantic Park this summer due to major renovations planned for the popular Oak Bluffs hangout. Construction is slated to begin mid-April.
At first, it was just a peach basket nailed to a telephone pole. Vincent Frye was 12 in 1952 when he begged his parents to put up a basketball hoop outside his Oak Bluffs home. All the other kids on Wamsutta avenue had sporting equipment in their yard. So the “net” went up on the pole across the street, at the corner of Niantic Park. Neighbors came over to play ball, and the rest, well, is history.
The music of the Star-Spangled Banner gave way to the sounds of emcee Allen (Deejay Lefty) Pires’s turntable as the eighth annual Vineyard Streetball Classic got underway this Saturday in Niantic Park in Oak Bluffs. For the next five hours, would-be NBA stars from 14 teams — six from the age 10 to 12 division and four each in the age 13 to 14 and 15 to 18 — battled through round robin and double elimination play before the two strongest sides met in each division’s final championship game.
