Basketball tourney to raise funds for court upgrades

Jul. 31—A group of young athletes are looking forward to breathing new life into Yellow Jacket Court — the basketball park on Main Street behind Livermore City Hall — after receiving unanimous approval from the city council for a new basketball tournament in September.

At the city hall meeting on July 14, Travis Phillips, 20, of Livermore, Phillips' brother Layson Case, 18, of Livermore, and friends Brady Dame, 19, formerly of Calhoun, and Matthew Miller, 19, of Livermore presented a proposal for the "Livermore River Bowl Tournament" — an event that would raise funds through player entry fee, donations, sponsors, food and other means in order to expand and widen the current court's layout and improve the overall infrastructure.

The tournament is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 23 and Saturday, Sept. 24.

"I love the game of basketball and really wanted something that would bring people together to our town and have a good time," Phillips said. "I believe this is going to be an event that people are going to look forward to every year. It's something that I always thought would be cool to do and good for Livermore; I just see so much potential in it, so I wanted to make it happen."

Case said that he has played on the court "ever since I could walk" and feels the facility is in need of repair.

"It's not like a full-court," he said. "It's kind of small and the rims and stuff are real old. It needs so much work done to it."

While upgrades to the court have been made in recent years — such as installing two three-tier bleachers, new signage and repainted basketball backboards, Phillips said that the future upgrades would help with the physical space of the court, allowing people to play full-court games.

Phillips and Case said they've had the idea for what "seems like forever" but have committed to focusing on getting it put together within the past few months.

Before deciding to propose the idea to the city council, the group reached out to Angie Smith, outreach coordinator at the McLean County Public Library, who knows each of the individuals and wanted to help them be more prepared to present the idea.

"Angie and the library (have been a) huge help in all of this," Phillips said. "I was actually asking people opinions on the tournament before trying to make it happen, and a few people have told me Angie has talked about this in the past."

"She's been helping us a lot," Case said.

Smith said that the Friends of McLean County Public Library group have "thrown around the idea" of holding a tournament for a while but weren't sure on how to organize one.

Phillips got in touch with Smith on how to proceed with their idea.

"I told them this is something that we need to request the city on because it's city property (and) get them behind it," Smith said. "I kind of explained there were avenues they needed to go through to get it done."

Upon the group's presentation to the city council, many folks were impressed with their passion, preparedness, thoroughness and how the group conducted themselves.

"I was impressed with the young men," Livermore Mayor Jesse Johnson said. "I've known some of them since they were small babies, but to see them be young men now, I was impressed by the way they presented themselves. They had done their research and talked to people that encouraged them and they've talked to folks about sponsorships ...."

"They presented themselves very professionally," said city council member Sharon Nell Boyken. "They would all rotate turns as to who spoke; they had it well-thought out, it was well-planned."

Johnson and Boyken said the council was equally receptive to the presentation and were happy to approve something that would benefit the younger demographic.

"We're always looking for avenues to help our young folks stay entertained and stay on the straight and narrow," Johnson said. "...They were all eager to see something happen here not just in Livermore, but in the county to help see the young people interested in things going on in the county without looking elsewhere."

"For them to come up with an idea to better the city on their own was remarkable," Boyken said. "...They wanted all proceeds (for the event) to go into expanding the park, in keeping the park and making it better."

Boyken also appreciated the group's plans to go door-to-door to touch base with the senior citizens that live near the court about the tournament.

Boyken said the group showed dedication to the new venture by donating $100 to the city towards the project upon completing their presentation.

"That there showed that they were serious," she said.

Boyken hopes that younger residents take similar initiative in wanting to make improvements in their community.

"That's what our hope is," she said. "If we didn't have that, then we would be a dying city.

"I would maybe encourage others to come up with ideas to do things like this as well. ....They took the initiative at such a young age, and I'm sure there are others out there that have ideas like that or even in a younger age bracket .... Come and bring it to council and see if we can find somebody to assist if it's something that's available to be done."

Phillips hopes that the event will be something that the county can appreciate and will see growth in the future.

"I feel like this can be around forever and will only get better throughout the years," he said. "This event has so much potential and will do great things for this generation and the next and so on by having players competing with each other ... and just having people get together and enjoy some basketball in our town. I really see this doing great things in the years coming, and I am just so glad to be a part of it."

For information and updates regarding tournament sign-ups, times and more, visit facebook.com/groups/3134001 030247160/.