Around Pennsauken

            At Seven O’clock on Friday night they started. Parents and their daughters ages six to eighteen came to Phifer Middle School, in Pennsauken. Parents and children flooded into the red and blue colored gym. The girls lined up underneath the Pepsi scoreboard and waited for direction. Metal racks filled with basketballs were escorted into the gym. PYAA, Pennsauken Youth Athletics Association, are looking to recruit new young youth.

“I have more boys that try out than girls,” stated Trudy Pegues, Basketball president. Pegues sat at a paperwork scattered table, other PYAA members sat at the bleachers next to her. Because of the shortage of girls, Pegues said that she promotes PYAA girls basketball in middle and high school.

“I have about three hundred boys but only seventy girls.”

Pegues, a Pennsauken resident who has been coaching for seven years out of the twenty years she has been with PYAA, said that she joined the organization because, “no one else wanted to it.” Pegues explained that she started working with PYAA when her two sons were young.

“They needed a coach, and I wanted to help out,” said Pegues.

PYAA is a non-profit organization that offers football, baseball, soccer, cheerleading, and basketball for Pennsauken residents ages six to eighteen.

The Pennsauken organization participates in different trips and events, and gear students in the direction of higher learning.

“We are having a college tour in January at Temple University. The children will take a tour of Temple , and watch the men and women basketball games. We take a lot of trips.”

The PYAA basketball team has participated in trips from New York, to watch the celebrity basketball game to Dorney Park.

“We do this because we love it” described basketball commissioner Kenny Judge. “We don’t get paid to do this, not me, not Trudy.”

Judge sporadically walked back and forth handing paperwork and updating Pegues on what is happening with the tryout, in between her numerous cell phone calls and other volunteers giving her information

Pegues’s job description includes overseeing registration, the 50/50 raffles, and making sure that basketball stays in Pennsauken. Basketball courts have been pulled out of the ground in some parks and on July 25^th 2007 a basketball ordinance was set into motion. The ordinance stated that portable basketball nets are not allowed in any roadway or street and basketball play can not take place before 10 a.m. or after 7 p.m. daily.

“Pennsauken use to be predominately white and most of them have moved out but the aristocrats that are left have taken office and are trying to get rid of basketball in Pennsauken,” explained Pegues.

Pegues and fellow Pennsauken Athletics volunteers make sure that students have a place for students to play, where basketball is not endanger of becoming obsolete.

Because of Pegues’s hard work and dedication she acquired attention from Nike. Pegues received a community service award August 16^th at Footlocker in the Cherry Hill mall. The award was presented by Philadelphia 76ers basketball forwards, Thaddeus Young and Andre Iguodala.

Pegues has helped the basketball program to grow over 400 children in her last seven years as president

Some girls at the tryouts are returning participates from last year.

“ Basketball is really important to me and I want to play so I can go to college on a basketball scholarship,” explained twelve year old Bianca Cream.

This year will be Bianca’s third year in the program. Bianca waited for her turn to get one of the basketballs. They all took turns practicing their “jump shots,” and some girls were given the chance to move up so they could get a better shot. Though smaller than most of the girls, Bianca did not need the extra help.

“I want to stay in the program until I graduate high school,” Bianca said. “It’s really fun because we get to be involved in a lot of things. I want to play college basketball and I know I have to practice really hard, I know practicing with PYAA will get me there.”

Cars were parked along the street and in the small parking lot of Clifford Baldwin Elementary School, in Pennsauken, NJ. People rapidly walked in and out of the open doors of the school. No children were playing outside. No buses were parked in back of the school. “Corzine For Governor” signs dominated in numerous yards nearby, it was election day.
“I always vote, you have to vote, are you voting?” Asked 74 year old Theresa White, a retired History teacher. “People think that not voting doesn’t affect them, but then the same people that don’t vote complain about who is in office.”
White expressed that she was a John Corzine supporter. She was one of the 6,500 people that attended the Obama rally for Corzine last Sunday in Camden, at the Saquhanna Center. White walked to her car as Michael Dunn passed, ready to go inside the school and vote. Dunn eagerly expressed his enthusiasm about voting for Republican Chris Christie, before going to the voting booths.

“I want Christie to win. Republicans have better candidates and they care about our country,” said Dunn, a 55 year old government worker. “Democrats just always want to give something away for free.” Dunn talked about last year’s presidential election. “I wanted McCain to win, I think he had better experience. If McCain would have won there won’t be so many people on unemployment. He wouldn’t let them get all that money, people on unemployment are lazy.”
Compared to last year’s presidential race, there was a significantly difference in the number of people at the voting stations.. Last year’s lines had people almost waiting outside to vote, in comparison to the governor’s race; there was no line at all. Most of the people that came out to vote were middle aged to senior citizens. Drastic numbers in voters dropped state wide and Republican Chris Christie won the governor race, though New Jersey is a democratic state. Since 2002, New Jersey‘s governor‘s were Democratic. Christie won 49 percent to 45 over Corzine, but New Jersey was not the only state to experience the drop in votes. Both New Jersey and Virginia witnessed Republican candidates win the majority votes in Democratic states. Virginia has not seen a Republican governor in 12 years, and voters believe that both governor picks were due to apathy. November 4th the day after election, people expressed their concerns.

“Most people I know didn’t even vote,” said 23 year old Rowan College student Sharita Calloway, standing outside on the Riverline platform. She put her book bag down and lit a cigarette. “It just disgust me because now that Christie won everyone’s like, ‘Oh man I should’ve voted, I don’t want a Republican in office’ no one cared enough to vote but now their regretful.”

Some people justified not voting because they felt the race was not made to appear imperative. Collin Pemberton, a 20 year old Rowan student from Virginia explained why less people voted. “Everyone though everyone else was going to vote, except the republicans. Demarcates all around just got lazy and that’s why Christie and McDonnell won,” said Pemberton. “I don’t care, I’m a liberal.”

“I knew that Corzine, Christie, and Daggit were running, but I didn’t know much more than that, I just really didn’t care,” said Gabriel Corbett. Corbett, a 21 year old intern for a local paper said they virtually never talked about the governor election. “It’s like it wasn’t even important enough to talk about,” said Corbett. Maybe this election was slanted, but hopefully it will be a lesson learned for the people that did not take the time out to vote. “A lot of the minorities and younger people that went out and voted for Obama, didn’t vote in this election, even though Obama came out to rally for Cozine,” said Corbett. “Oh well, let‘s see what happens at the next election.”