Youth basketball alliance aims to nurture Bronx talent amid rising sports barriers

basketball
Players with WHEDco’s youth basketball team.
Photo courtesy WHEDco

Watch out, New York Liberty and Knicks — some city youth basketball teams are partnering up across boroughs to cultivate your future homegrown competition. 

Mo’Motion, founded by Maureen “Mo” Holohan in 2009 as part of the Gotham Basketball Association, remains the city’s only woman-run co-ed youth basketball program. But while Mo’ Motion mainly serves youth from the Upper West Side and Harlem, it partners with Bronx-based nonprofit WHEDco to bring competitive, yet fun, league play to kids who are transient or going through difficult family situations. 

Holohan, originally from upstate New York, was a former high school All-American who went on to Big 10 conference play with Northwestern University. During her later career as a teacher and coach, she found young athletes were often pressured to play in traveling leagues, which were expensive and inconvenient for families. 

Holohan, who grew up playing neighborhood ball, had become increasingly concerned with what she called “the gentrification of sports.” In a competitive city with many big-name programs, a lot of kids who can’t pay or travel — especially girls — are simply left out. 

Parents asked Holohan to start a new program where kids could play in neighborhoods like Harlem and the Bronx instead of going to Long Island or New Jersey — and she was more than ready. 

“I always kept in the back of my mind … we have to look out for these in-between kids,” said Holohan.

Maureen “Mo” Holohan founded Mo’Motion to help kids play the game without the hassle and expense of traveling. Photo courtesy Mo’Motion

Get ‘em started early 

The WHEDco team gives young players a “temporary moment of purpose and belonging,” she said. “The kids are so excited to have a purpose and a uniform.” 

Jamie Yellen, program director with WHEDco, said the organization has long offered basketball programming. Now, fresh off the Liberty’s WNBA championship and the Knicks’ strong run in last season’s NBA playoffs, basketball is an even more “high-visibility sport” — which she hopes will attract more players who want to start young. 

Yellen emphasized the importance of getting kids, especially girls, started in team play at an early age. Once they hit puberty, they often become too self-conscious to start a new activity, she said. “If you don’t get girls by fourth grade, you won’t get them.”

But despite the popularity of the sport, recruiting for middle school and younger teams has become tougher than ever. The pandemic disrupted the pipeline of players, and other sports such as lacrosse are competing hard for kids’ time and attention. 

And Bronx youth who want to play basketball often face barriers to doing so, because gym time is expensive due to insurance, high fees and referee costs. But with the WHEDco program, kids don’t pay anything — partly because Mo’Motion is helping cover the costs for their team and others. 

“Mo’Motion kids who can pay help fund those who can’t,” said Holohan. “We’ve done good deeds very quietly.” 

Yellen said the city Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD) used to offer more free or low-cost entry points into league play. But since the pandemic, “That all stopped,” she said. 

The partnership between WHEDco and Mo’Motion came together organically — neither Yellen nor Holohan could really remember when it began — and has benefitted everyone involved, said Yellen. Kids from different backgrounds interact with each other, no one feels stigmatized for not being able to pay and schedules are carefully coordinated to foster tough yet manageable competition. 

As Holohan put it, “We pay for other people’s teams to kick our butt.”

Holohan said she hopes another Bronx team or individual players might want to join the “mom and pop teams” of her Gotham Basketball Association. And though she said her organizations barely survived the pandemic, she intends to continue helping kids have easier access to the game they love.

Through Mo’Motion and GBA, “We kinda want to be a Robin Hood of the neighborhood,” Holohan said.

If you’re interested in donating or coaching — or if you know a kid in search of a team — see momotion.org and gothambasketball.org


Reach Emily Swanson at eswanson@schnepsmedia.com or (646) 717-0015. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes