Through late-night basketball games and bonding workshops, Long Beach Hoops After Dark has helped divert young people from gangs and violence by showing them another way of life. By giving young men a safe place to connect and learn violence prevention and career paths, the nonprofit has changed countless lives on hardwood floors and blacktop courts since 2021.
However, Hoops After Dark has struggled with a lack of adequate funding in recent years. According to founder Leonard Adams, the City of Long Beach is funding its summer program, but the spring and winter seasons operate solely on donations and small mini-grants they have to reapply for every year.
Since the program offers everything free to players such as speakers, coaches, referees, jerseys and food, Hoops After Dark needs sustainable funding to continue operating.
“Without these programs, people fall into the gaps,” said Logan Baughman III, the five-year Hoops After Dark workshop presenter. “Once you fall into the gaps, you move from despair to regret to hopelessness … that’s when people fall into really negative habits.”
Young adults in the Long Beach Hoops After Dark program play basketball against each other on Feb. 2, 2026 at Jessie Nelson Academy. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)
Long Beach Hoops After Dark is currently in its winter season in which youth ages 16-27 attend weekly workshops and play head-to-head basketball.
Adams was also one of the founders of Midnight Basketball, a similar program that ran from 1992-2016. Former Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia began the process of starting a new league aptly named Hoops After Dark in December 2021, bringing Adams out of retirement to run the program.
“They wanted the old league to start but under the present conditions, we decided to start another league and we called it Hoops After Dark,” Adams said. The program still has the same goals and elements as Midnight Basketball.
“I feel like it’s a brotherhood,” said Denzel Williams, a 25-year-old Hoops After Dark basketball player. “Good vibes, good energy, people that are trying to help you [and that are] trying to open doors for you.”
The program consists of a winter, spring and summer basketball league at Jessie Nelson Academy where they meet Mondays and Wednesdays from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. to play basketball and learn new life skills.
There are 10 players on six different teams with two of the teams facing off against each other while the rest of the participants sit down and listen to a workshop. Teams rotate between playing and workshop time throughout the evening.
To be able to participate in the basketball game, players need to attend the 30-35 minute educational workshop, which focuses on violence-prevention and career goals.
“There’s a lot of young male adults without men in their lives and this gives them guidance, fatherhood, [an] uncle or big brother in their lives so they can come and talk to them [about] anything, they can pull them to the side,” said Lay Salter, a referee and backup coach for Hoops After Dark.
Jacob Brevard speaks to Hoops After Dark members about his experience in prison and stepping out of the gang lifestyle into a positive environment on Feb. 2, 2026. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)
Jacob Brevard, one of the speakers at Hoops After Dark, has opened up to the youth about his experience being in a gang and his time in prison. Brevard said gangs use loyalty to bring people in and he wants the youth to understand that when they commit to themselves, they create a pathway to success that loyalty can’t provide.
“To me, the main thing is kind of having a conversation without judgment,” Brevard said about the bond he has with the Hoops After Dark youth. “I think that’s where the relationship comes from and they can relate to a lot of stuff I talk about because they too come from this neighborhood.”
The goal is to create a safe environment for people to have fun and to allow the men to learn from speakers who have gone through similar experiences. Programs like Hoops After Dark are the pinnacle of what Long Beach has been preaching and promoting, especially through recent initiatives like Mayor Rex Richardson’s S.T.R.O.N.G. Beach. The City has recently prioritized youth programs as a way to decrease youth violence. Hoops After Dark was ahead of its time, yet still struggles to secure steady funding from the City to stay running year-round.
After speaking with Hoops After Dark members about his experience transitioning from loyalty to an outside source to commitment to oneself, Jacob Brevard talks with two of players on Feb. 2, 2026. (Samuel Chacko | Signal Tribune)
A study from UC Berkeley shows two years after a community-based violence interruption program was formed (Advance Peace), there was a 46% decrease in firearm and injury homicides in Fresno. The National Library of Medicine (NIH) argues that simple sport-based initiatives can be an effective way to approach violence prevention.
“I think it’s really important to really talk to the youth and help them understand a pathway out of their situation,” Adams said. “There’s a lot of trauma that we grow up with as young people. It’s really hard to grow up in a neighborhood where your friend can be shot, you can be shot or you witness someone die and overcome that.”
Even with constant concerns about the lack of consistent funding, Erroll Parker, a four-year workshop coordinator with Hoops After Dark, believes the program won’t die because the people who are passionate about it will continue to volunteer.
“[The] money is the thing that keeps the engine going but the engine is the heart of Leonard Adams. He does it selflessly; this is what he does morning, noon and night,” Baughman III said. “So [for] a program like this, if we don’t pay for it now, we’ll pay for it later.”
Samuel ChackoPhotojournalist
Samuel Chacko is an award-winning photojournalist from Long Beach, California. Samuel currently works as a freelance journalist for multiple publications and he is a class of 2025 Cal State Long Beach graduate. Samuel loves watching sports (the Ravens and the Yankees) and taking photos.
Check out more of Samuel’s work here: https://samuelchacko.com/
