“Basketball in the Barrio” is a program that helps children from the Segundo Barrio and Chamizal neighborhoods in El Paso gain leadership, as well as literary and basketball skills, while celebrating border culture. Scott Brocato recently spoke to former Aggies basketball coach Rus Bradburd about the program he helped found 34 years ago.
Scott Brocato:
For those who aren't familiar with it, talk about Basketball in the Barrio.
Rus Bradburd:
Well, Basketball in the Barrio is now in its 34th year. And we got the idea a long time ago. My business partner, Stevie Yellen, and I--he was a former UTEP player, and as you know, I'm a former Aggie assistant coach--we set up a camp for $1.00, and it's for girls and boys ages 6 to 10. And for a dollar, they get a t-shirt and a basketball, free lunch, a harmonica, a couple of bilingual books, and a chess set, to play the game. They learn to play chess at the camp. And so we had the idea to make it about more than basketball, because, you know, at that age, when you're six or seven years old, you can't really understand weak side defense or that kind of thing. But you can have fun with the basketball, and we tie in the educational opportunities with the dribbling drills that I used for many years with the Aggies.
Scott Brocato:
Talking about the entertainment (factor): you incorporate music, you incorporate much more besides basketball. How does that tie in with what the kids get out of Basketball in the Barrio?
Rus Bradburd:
Well, I'm afraid that someone could sue us if they wanted and get their dollar back, because it's actually only about a third basketball. And the rest is, you know, as you mentioned, it's educational. We'll have a Norteño trio or folklorico dancers or storytellers come in, and we talk to the kids about recycling, and we have the Fire Department come in and talk about fire safety. And so we mix it with the basketball, which is used as the hook, as the lure.
And one of the interesting things is that many of the kids who had started out with us 30 years ago, they come back and visit the camp. And some of them become coaches. And so there's a sense of continuity, but it's also a bit of a living organism where it's a little bit different every year. We've have different guests each year. And US Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, was there a couple of years ago. Olympic hero John Carlos came in. And we've had Eric Channing, the leading scorer in Aggie history. I think we're going to have, I don't want to name her name, but I think we're going to have a player from the Aggies women’s team this year.
But the camp is almost like a living, breathing thing, and it changes a little bit from year to year. And the most important thing was for me to stop worrying about it and kind of cede control of the entire camp, to just let it evolve naturally each year. So it always happens over Father's Day weekend, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Scott Brocato:
What was the initial spark 34 years ago?
Rus Bradburd:
I was working in El Paso at the time at UTEP, and I noticed that I knew that many of the kids who were playing college basketball could have never afforded to go to camp when they were kids. And it seemed odd to me to be charging, at that time it might have been $300 or $250. And I thought, these kids in El Paso can't afford that. And I'd met a man named Rocky Galárza. Rocky was a boxing trainer in El Paso, and he trained kids for free for many years. And I thought, why? I was very influenced, as you know, Scott, by Don Haskins and Lou Henson. But really my biggest influence was this man named Rocky Galárza, who didn't care anything about making money. He only was in the coaching aspect to help kids.
And I think about that a lot for myself. Without getting too judgmental. I think the reasons I started out in coaching was because I loved basketball and loved kids. But that wasn't the reason I continued coaching. It was very prestigious to be a college coach. And by the time I got to New Mexico State, the money was pretty good and that kind of thing. But I do think what Rocky Galarza did--he died in 1997, tragically--but we wanted to keep Rocky's name alive. And so the T-shirts always honor Rocky Galárza. In fact, there's a giant mural in his honor at the gymnasium. So he was actually the impetus when I saw what he was doing with kids for free.
And then gradually as we went on, at first we were charging $20 and then $10. And then we did it for free one year. But we noticed that if you do it for free, the kids are less inclined to come back on the last day. And so we always make the mother or father give the dollar to the child and the child has to hand over the dollar. And that's, you know, what some people would call “skin in the game.”
Scott Brocato:
The barrio in question is the Segundo Barrio. Talk about that and the location where the program will be taking place this weekend, and the previous weekends.
Rus Bradburd:
You know, the great writer, Benjamin Sáenz, says that the Segundo Barrio is the Ellis Island for Mexican people. It was often a place--now, of course, the immigration has changed greatly--but it's the poorest neighborhood in El Paso, which makes it one of the poorest neighborhoods in the United States. Now, one time it was the poorest neighborhood in America per capita; I don't know if that's true anymore. But it's also a pretty safe neighborhood.
And there's a real community feeling there. Long before there was Facebook or those kinds of things, the Segundo Barrio--and these kids all wind up going to Bowie High School, and the Bowie High School Alumni Association has a very strong social contract with the community--we wanted to do something. It's only a couple hundred yards from the Mexican border. And we wanted to do something close to the Mexican border and give back to the community.
But for me personally...people ask me why I do it, and the real reason I do it is to remember Rocky Galárza. He was a huge influence on me. And people in the boxing world, even in Las Cruces, would remember Rocky Galárza. But it really changed the way I thought about coaching and why we were involved in sports in the first place.
Scott Brocato:
You mentioned a lot of the kids have come back as they've grown up to Basketball in the Barrio. In what ways have you seen lives changed over the past 34 years with the kids, and later adults?
Rus Bradburd:
Well, I always dodge that question because I don't want to put words in people's mouths. But I will say that my number two person is Elena Hernandez, and she's a New Mexico State graduate, but also Bowie graduate, and she came as a child. And then when she was a teenager, she was what we call a junior counselor. And now she's the number two person at Basketball in the Barrio.
I think it's one of those things that when kids go through it, they don't leave and say, “boy, that camp really changed my life.” But I would hope that years later that the kids would think about it and remember it fondly, but also to have been exposed to things that they normally aren't exposed to.
You know, the entire world tells kids from the border, especially in today's world, the entire world is telling kids on the border, “you're not good enough.” Their very identity is questioned. And I think what we're trying to do is to reaffirm, the self-worth of every kid and to have them feel like they're special, that being from the border is actually a cool thing to be from. Not only is it something not to be ashamed of, but it's something to be proud of.
Scott Brocato:
The program, Basketball in the Barrio, is taking place this weekend, June 19th through the 21st. Is there a registration process or how do people take part?
Rus Bradburd:
Yes, well, it's at 700 7th Street, the Armijo Center. It's the Armijo Recreational Center. And if anyone wants to go, they need to be there by 8:30 on the first day on Friday. But camp doesn't really start until 9:00. And the camp is about one-third girls. You know, it used to be almost all boys. And we've gradually we've tried to do a good job of reaching out to girls, and we have plenty of women coaches. And again, my number two and three people or young women. I'm hoping I'm hoping to turn this over someday, Scott. I'm getting too old to be doing it after 34 years. (Laughs)
