Gym on Claremont in the Town of Tonawanda, a casualty of Diocese closings
It’s right up there on the wall, just before you enter the Blessed Sacrament gym at the corner of Berkley and Claremont in Tonawanda. The plaque honors the memory of Bill Lawson, one of two people on the athletic club’s Wall of Fame.
Lawson was one of the early founders of the BSAC, which has been offering sports opportunities for the town’s youth since 1958. He was a true patriarch, emblematic of the club as an extension of family, a fond community treasure.
Four generations of Lawsons have played and coached in the BSAC, and inspired others to do the same. Bill coached his son, Tom, and his grandson, Jordan, whose played in the league and now coaches in the boys basketball circuit. Jordan’s wife coaches in the girls hoop league. His son and daughter both play in that old bandbox, where one row of red benches separates teams and fans from the basketball court.
“Yep, and my uncle played in it,” Jordan Lawson said. “I coached when I was younger, I’m coaching again, my dad is coaching again. So it all came full circle for us. My grandfather was my first coach when I was in third grade.”
His son, Landon, has played in the boys’ 3rd-6th grade league for four years with Jordan as coach. He’s slated to move up to the 7th-8th league next season.
“He wanted to actually coach with me next year,” Jordan said. “He said, ‘Can you stay? I want to coach now.’ I said. ‘We’ll see’.”
That assumes there is a league next season. Blessed Sacrament Church is one of 25 churches in the Diocese of Buffalo slated to be closed in 2025. Parishioners have been protesting the move since plans were revealed last June, but the move became official in September. The school had closed in 2007.
So, the fate of the BSAC, which once offered four sports for about 50 teams but is now basketball-only, is in jeopardy. They’re waiting to see what the diocese will do with the parish center, and whether they’ll be able to play there.
“We’ve been using their gym since 1971 and there’s no guarantee we can continue to use it,” said Mark Zirnheld, who has been running the BSAC since 1985. “We’ve been told the church will go up for sale as soon as the edict comes down that they are officially closed. Our problem is next season we have nowhere to go. We’ve got to find somewhere to go or close down altogether.”
Zirnheld said there are two options. One, they find another gym to play in next year. They get a nice deal on rent from the church, so that’s bound to cost more, and they’re a volunteer organization. Two, the diocese sells the gym, rather than demolish it, and the new owners continue to rent it out to the BSAC.
“In March, we’ll be done with basketball,” said Zirnheld, who was persuaded to coach while a student at Kenmore East — by Bill Lawson. “We’ll have summer to find an alternative. But in October of next year we’d normally start up again. If we don’t find somewhere by then, we skip a year or shut down altogether.”
Shutting down would be a huge blow to the community. The BSAC has been a fixture in Tonawanda for more than half a century. When it started, the Bills were a couple of years from existence. It has an enduring and comforting quality, like an actual church, a way of coaxing people back into the fold.
“I just feel bad for the kids, because what are they going to do?” said Tony Jones, who has been coaching in the league for more than 20 years. “You’ve got third to sixth grades, if they don’t go to a private school they can’t play school basketball until they’re in middle school. I think they should try to find a way to keep it open, because you’re going to have all those kids with idle time.
“It’s already hard to get them to put the phones and the video games down now,” Jones said, “but it’s going to get even worse if you close the gym.”
Jones coached his daughter until she moved on. He stopped coaching to give other parents a chance. A few years ago, they asked him to return. He’s now coaching three teams in the league. The rewards remain great.
“My joy is watching a kid at the beginning when they can’t even hit the rim or dribble, and then after a couple of weeks or months you see the development,” said Jones. “They’re happy and they’re having fun. That’s what I enjoy about it. I just love to see the kids having fun.”
Jordan Lawson agrees that it’s mainly about the fun at BSAC. He said it’s not the winning and losing that creates a special bond, it’s learning the game and how to be a teammate. Losing that would be devastating.
“This league is nice because it’s all the town,” Lawson said. “It’s teaching them the fundamentals, listening, playing together, working on that stuff, having fun. A lot of the guys I see there, I played with them as a kid. We run into each other and say hi to each other. So it’s definitely fun to run into everybody.”
Nowadays, you could run into a Spitler. The Spitlers are basketball royalty in Western New York. Kevin Spitler played at St. Joe’s and Canisius. So did his brother, Mark. Between them, they had seven boys who played for St. Joe’s. All four of Kevin’s sons walked on to play Division I basketball. Two of his grandsons play at BSAC. His son, Andrew, is coaching in the 7-8 league.
Kevin Spitler and his wife, Mary Elaine, drove around the country to see their son’s college games. He was a color announcer for Canisius College for years and has seen more basketball games than he can remember. He knows what the game can mean to a young person’s development.
“I think we all agree that there’s so many positives to just being on a team,” Spitler said. “The community of it, your relationships, your friendships. If this place closes, I just feel sorry for all those kids who won’t be here. A lot of these kids aren’t going to play modified, or for their seventh- or eighth-grade team. They’re not going to make their freshman or JV team, but they like basketball.
“All these kids, where are they going to play? When are they going to have the fun of getting together with friends and playing in a gym and having fans?”
Dan Leslie can’t imagine it folding. Leslie is another of those people who couldn’t stay away. He coached his kids, served as a referee, became president of basketball for 15 years, then stepped away for about a decade. Soon after he left, the older hoop leagues folded and he returned to re-start the boys seventh- and eighth-grade league. They’re working on reviving the older girls’ league.
Leslie doesn’t think the gym will be sold right away. He’s hopeful that the new owners will let them rent the place. “But we have a backup plan,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of other gyms in mind. We’ll wait and see what happens.”
The BSAC has been there for generations of Tonawanda kids and their families over the years, like an old friend. It’s hard to imagine an institution that inspires that kind of love and commitment could die very easily.
“I definitely don’t think so,” Leslie said. “We’ve got a lot of people involved, and a lot of us know a lot of people. I would have to think we’ll be able to work something out.”
Photo Gallery Credit Shawn Turri/WNYAthletics
Thanks for the great article Jerry. The BSAC family appreciates it.