West Side Force Elite keeps select basketball at home at Brewer

The familiar squeak of sneakers on a gym floor and thump-thump of basketballs is not only the sound of winter in White Settlement, it’s a staple of spring and summer, too.

Those are the standout seasons for student-athletes of the West Side Force Elite, a select youth sports team with a difference: Membership is open only to students in White Settlement. All 10 coaches are unpaid volunteers, though they all hold or are working on USA Basketball certifications. Players’ families usually pay only about $30 monthly for each student to participate in the nonprofit organization.

Three nights every week, for two hours a night, the Brewer Middle School gym resounds with recreation — and determination.

“When we first started out, we would go to tournaments and people would say, ‘Where are y’all from?’ and we’d say ‘White Settlement,’ and people would laugh,” head coach Robert Blake said. “That quickly changed.”

Brewer middle and high school athletes were better known for baseball, but West Side Force players started their own winning basketball tradition right away. Most of them play varsity basketball and other sports in season for their school teams.

The West Side Force Elite organization was founded eight years ago, and the first students began playing four or five years ago. The first group of eight students are now Brewer varsity players heading into their junior year in the fall.

Blake is a graduate of Trimble Tech High School in Fort Worth, but assistant coach Fernando Molinar is a Brewer High School alumnus.

The 6,700-student White Settlement school district has Brewer High School, Brewer Middle School, an intermediate school, four traditional elementaries and two specialty campuses.

“We went to the school ourselves, and we went to the [schools’] coaches,” Molinar said. “We want to be their extensions [in the spring and summer] and be able to do things with the kids that they can’t do, take them out of town to tournaments.”

“I’ve seen a need for this area to have some select teams,” Blake said, “and a need to get kids involved at a young age and bring them up playing together.”

‘Pretty much like brothers’

That closeness over years is another atypical feature of West Side Force Elite that differs from business-oriented select sports teams, the coaches say.

“They’re pretty much like brothers, and they play that way,” Blake said. “They look fantastic out there.”

The team’s activities always take a back seat to the players’ classroom and homework schedules. Poor grades aren’t tolerated. Practice flexibility enables students to participate in other sports and activities in addition to the Force.

“We give them something to do, and we’ve kept so many kids out here out of trouble,” Blake said.

It’s not a pickup game to the Force players.

A foursome of seventh-graders, interviewed after a Force practice last week at Brewer Middle School, were laser-focused about their reasons for joining the program two years ago. “We’re all just real good at basketball,” said Gabriel Ballard, 13. “We all wanted to keep the flow going” through spring and summer.

Gavin Hernandez and Ethan Place, both 13, joined Ballard and Kaleb Smith, 12, on the team last year.

Kaleb’s mother, Laura Smith, said the fast-paced schedule could be hectic, considering she also has a high school senior and a kindergartner at home, “but it’s all fun,” she said. “It keeps him busy and out of trouble, and we love this team. It’s like a family.”

‘Let’s nurture our kids, here’

Jeremy Lelec, a psychologist by trade and a Force coach and leader, got involved about four years ago.

“We started with a group of sixth-graders going into seventh grade. Apart from most select teams, what we thought was, “Let’s nurture our kids, here,’ ” he said.

In 2014 the West Side Force Elite went undefeated in play against other select teams, Lelec said. “They really improved in the summer leagues. They did the same thing in eighth and ninth grade.”

Lelec said the entire program now includes about 80 kids on teams down to third grade, and up through varsity. There are three girls groups.

Chris Jenkins sat on the bleachers and watched his son Colby, a seventh-grader, go through the paces without losing a stride during practice last week.

“I can take him to a varsity game and he can tell me what plays they’re running” said Jenkins, who is the White Settlement district’s assistant superintendent of curriculum. “With kids in the fourth- and fifth-grade [Force] teams it’s the same way.”

The close-to-home affordability of the program is a big plus over other select teams, Jenkins said.

The coaches “don’t take a salary, it’s not a moneymaker. This is what it’s all about, supporting the kids,” he said. “The boys all get along; there are honors kids and some out there who are struggling a little with school. It’s an extra incentive for them.”

“All these kids are wonderful kids,” summed up coach Terrence Durham, who also volunteers at White Settlement schools as a Watchdog Dad. “All are valuable — they’re like my kids. There’s no kid out here I can’t ask to stand up to the line.”

This story was originally published May 13, 2017 at 4:53 PM with the headline "West Side Force Elite keeps select basketball at home at Brewer."