DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) — A Durham nonprofit is trying to keep young people off the streets and in sports instead.
City leaders called attention to RNS Sports last week after eight people were shot in just four days. Three of them were killed, including a 17-year-old.
Several times a week, kids from across Durham meet for 90 minutes of nothing but basketball.
“I created a family here. This is a brotherhood,” said 13-year-old Jamaad Featherston.
Jamaad said he first picked up a basketball as a kid, and in the fifth grade he found RNS Sports and founder and coach Sherard Johnson.
“He’s just a great coach. I love him. Like it’s, it’s my family right there,” Jamaad said.
Johnson said, “Sports saved my life. And that’s, you know, I just want to give back in that area, especially to these kids in Durham.”
Johnson said he is trying to use sports to give kids a safe space to come and connect and sometimes avoid a negative situation at home.
“We deal with a lot of kids from broken homes, single-parent homes, things like that,” he said. “And so we want to just keep their mind occupied, continue to be a positive outlet for them and just have a safe place for them to come where they don’t have to feel the pressures of doing anything wrong or, you know, negative things like that.”
When eight people in Durham were shot in just four days, one of the victims just 17, Johnson said it hits close to home. In 2023, RNS Sports lost a 19-year-old to gun violence.
Johnson said it makes his mission and the impact even more important. He said while these kids and teenagers are playing basketball, they are learning much more.
“We teach discipline. We teach structure. We teach teamwork,” Johnson said.
These lessons are something Jamaad said he wants to learn well and pass on.
”Just keep following your dreams. I mean, just don’t give up. Just keep going. Like, don’t, just don’t listen to the haters. Just keep positive energy all the way, you know? Just keep going,” he said.
