The Trinity Park basketball courts got an upgrade, thanks to this local group
The backboard shakes as it absorbs the impact from a layup. The ball falls to the concrete, avoiding a puddle of water that’s collected on the court. Beneath the Lancaster Bridge, a player runs, grabs the ball and aims before taking the next shot.
Lyndon Atole has been playing at the Trinity Park Basketball Court for five years. He plays three to four times a week for at least two hours at a time. Sometimes he’ll stay for six or seven. But, on this sunny afternoon, the goal he aims for looks different.
A local group, Funky Town Swap, raised money to replace the old basketball goals provided by the city. The new rims, nets and acrylic backboards were installed on Wednesday.
“Those courts are used on a daily basis by a lot of people, and we went out there and asked the players, ‘What do you guys think if we raise money for new goals?’ and everybody’s eyes just lit up,” said Chester Cox, co-founder of Funky Town Swap. “And the courts, they need some love.”
While the city installs and maintains standard steel backboards and goals, Atole said the goals that were originally installed by the city were old, small and crooked, and he often replaces broken nets himself. They are the “bare minimum” he said. The court also collects water when it rains and becomes slippery because of the paint that was used to decorate it.
“I feel like that court deserves more than what it has right now, and it needs to be taken care of more,” Atole said.
He said he is excited about the renovations Funky Town Swap made.
“They (Funky Town Swap) didn’t have to do any of this,” Atole said. “The city should have been making these changes, but the fact that Funky Town, Nate (Viera) and other people are coming together to fix something that they think needs to be fixed, I think it’s amazing.”
Maintenance staff are in the parks almost every day keeping tabs on the park infrastructure, said Joel McElhany, capital program manager of the Park and Recreation Department. But if someone wants to install something beyond what the city provides, it is up to them to raise the funds and the city will work with them to help them install what they are raising money for, he said.
Funky Town Swap hosts events for the vintage community in Fort Worth to come together to sell their vintage finds. The profits that Funky Town Swap makes from these events go toward different projects around the Fort Worth community.
“It’s a little bit more fun to throw an event that has a purpose instead of just throwing events just to throw them. It just feels better to give back,” Cox said. He said Funky Town Swap wants to brighten a little bit of Fort Worth each time they throw an event.
Funky Town Swap is now in charge of maintaining the new goals. Nate Viera, co-founder of Funky Town Swap, said the group plans to set aside funds from events in order to be able to repair or replace the goals if needed, and Atole will keep them updated if the court needs a repair.
If the group is unable to replace or make repairs to the goals as needed, the city will put up their standard backboard and goal, said McElhany.
What sounds like an easy fix has been a long time coming.
Viera said the courts haven’t had a proper upgrade since they were put there in the first place. He grew up going to Trinity Park and has played on the courts himself.
“I’ve been wanting to reach out to the city to replace those things for almost a year or two now because it’s dear to me,” Viera said. He said he hopes the renovations will build an outdoor basketball community and show people what coming together can do.
Atole said he thinks it’s great that somebody took the initiative to make the city better.
“Our main focus is striving to make a better community,” Cox said, adding, “The goal is to have a giant impact on someone’s day. It doesn’t have to be for a long time, it just has to be for a moment.”
Ricky Cotto, lead pastor at City Post Church, played a key part in helping Funky Town Swap renovate the courts. He partnered with Cox and Viera to host their Funky Town Swap event at the courts in April and later helped them receive city permission to do the renovations using the money made from the event.
Cotto completed an Adopt-A-Park contract in 2018 to be able to take care of the courts. Before Cotto adopted the park, the courts were gray and “cold,” Atole said. It was just concrete and just blank walls. But, in 2019, the courts got brighter. Cotto hired local artist Arnoldo Escobar to paint the court, covering it in vibrant, geometric shapes that radiate hues of pink, orange, blue, green and yellow. City Post Church funded the entire project.
“When Nate approached me, I was thrilled,” Cotto said. “I was like, this is exactly what we wanted to do. This is the plan.”
Cotto said he wants the courts to unite people and be a place that Fort Worth can be proud of.
“Basketball means to me escape, to be honest,” Atole said. “I just play to forget what’s going on. I play because it’s fun, too. I get to interact with the people that I never knew, the people that I know, and just to make a day out of it.”
Cotto said it’s great to see people stepping up and getting involved in their city.
“It’s really cool to see this younger generation proud of where they live and getting in the game,” Cotto said.
Cotto wants to continue to renovate the space by adding outdoor lighting and a picnic table area. He wants the courts to become an outdoor public art space for local artists to showcase their work and for basketball players to shoot some hoops. Victor Manuel, who works under the name “Uno,” painted the surrounding pillars around the court. Cotto wants to bring more local artists together to paint all of the pillars leading up to the street.
“We still want to create more,” he said.
City Post Church helps maintain the courts and has hosted a few basketball games. Cotto said he hopes the renovations and art help develop that area in Trinity Park and inspire others to revitalize other basketball courts around the city.
“My hope is that other people will see this and be like, ‘Man, I could do that, too.’ And just kind of replicate it in other areas of the city,” Cotto said.
In the future Atole said he hopes the courts will get some outdoor lighting, new concrete so water will stop collecting in the middle of the court and new paint. The paint is chipping off and gets slick when it rains, he said. Atole said he thinks the new backboards and rims will attract more players, and he hopes the more people who use the court, the more the city will pay attention.
This story was originally published July 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.