DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) — A Durham nonprofit is trying to keep young people off the streets and in sports instead.
City leaders called attention to RNS Sports last week after eight people were shot in just four days. Three of them were killed, including a 17-year-old.
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Several times a week, kids from across Durham meet for 90 minutes of nothing but basketball.
“I created a family here. This is a brotherhood,” said 13-year-old Jamaad Featherston.
Jamaad said he first picked up a basketball as a kid, and in the fifth grade he found RNS Sports and founder and coach Sherard Johnson.
“He’s just a great coach. I love him. Like it’s, it’s my family right there,” Jamaad said.
Johnson said, “Sports saved my life. And that’s, you know, I just want to give back in that area, especially to these kids in Durham.”
Johnson said he is trying to use sports to give kids a safe space to come and connect and sometimes avoid a negative situation at home.