A Little Gym on Federal Hill That Helped Shape a Judge, an NBA Player, and a Boxing Champ

A Little Gym on Federal Hill That Helped Shape a Judge, an NBA Player, and a Boxing Champ

Back in late August, I wrote an article featuring an up-and-coming basketball AAU program in Rhode Island (Rhode Island Elite), led by its founder, Nick Light, and the recent success they were having developing a number of Division I and II-level athletes for the college ranks.

One of the more talented players to come through the program this year, who was mentioned, is Providence native Kelvin Odih, a 6’5” athletic guard who had yet to decide amongst which Big Time College offers he was about to accept. Kelvin had narrowed it down to West Virginia, Creighton, Rutgers, Louisville, and Oklahoma State. He had made it clear at the beginning of the recruiting process that he wanted to go away to college, eliminating PC or URI from contention.

The NBA runs a Top 100 combine in Orlando, Florida for the best ranked prospects in the country and Odih won the MVP out of that illustrious group this year. No small accomplishment.          

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So when his AAU coach, Nick Light, notified me that there was going to be a press conference at the Zuccolo Center in Providence last week, where Kelvin Odih was going to announce his decision, I thought I’d show up out of curiosity to hear where he was deciding to attend, and also how such an event would be handled at such a grassroots level. 
         

I’m glad I did.
           

For many years scouting college basketball players for the NBA, my travels brought me, for the most part, to the large Big Time arenas of major conferences where most of the best players competed. During that time, the scouting events that I looked forward to the most were the High School All-Star games, such as the McDonald's All-Star games, The Jordan Games, and other such sanctioned games. It was fun to see all these precocious, unfinished, sometimes raw talents at different stages and degrees of growing into their considerable abilities. It was instructive to go down a level on the food chain to establish a benchmark from which to judge future improvement. We were not allowed, as NBA personnel, to go and scout any other high school games. The NBA was trying to avoid the perception or appearance of any undue influence on a young person’s decision about his future. 

I mention all of that to establish a contrast to the world I was about to enter when I arrived at the Zuccolo Center on Federal Hill in Providence. The first person I met at the front door was Howard Soares, whose smile and solid handshake put me at ease immediately. It was a telling precursor of what was happening inside. There was a combination of young kids, preteens, teenagers, and adults, all from nearby neighborhoods, who came to celebrate one of their own on his big day. Kelvin Odih, his mother and father, along with his two sisters and younger brother, were sitting at a card table with his AAU coach and teammates standing to the side. In front of Kelvin was a laptop connecting him to the SEC network as he was about to announce live his decision to attend West Virginia University as a 2025 recruit.              

There was a feeling of warmth in the room that can only come from the level of family and close friends. You could tell that everyone in attendance was genuinely happy for one of them who had made it this far. He, like many of us, took advantage of this valuable sanctuary and came in here from the time he was 7 or 8 years old, bouncing his ball, joined a team, and was coached until he attended La Salle Academy. But it was here that the foundation was laid for future success. 

Shortly after observing this scene, I was greeted by Jackie Poulios, the director of the Zuccolo facility. As I subsequently asked many questions about how this whole place operates, I learned that this unique family, vibrant atmosphere didn’t occur by accident. They just don’t roll the balls out, sit back, and passively monitor what transpires or babysit. There are certain demands that are established for all these young people, primarily from the ages of 14 down to about 7, that are required in order for them to participate in all the many programs offered at the Zuccolo.

Without boring you with all the details, the rules in place are strictly enforced under the general category of tough love - respect for the facility, your teammates, the coaches, proper behavior and attitude in winning and losing, punctuality, and especially a certain level of academic performance in order to participate. The list of programs available includes three teams each for girls and boys basketball according to 3 different age groups, (10 and under, 12 and under, 14 and under), after-school studying with computers (provided through a grant from G-tech arranged by former alumnus, judge John Lombardi), an art program, swimming for seven weeks in the summertime, cheerleading, and believe it or not bocce (their Zuccolo team just won the State Championship), and bowling. Poulios also soon plans on offering music lessons soon with an affiliate organization.

What was probably most interesting and impressive, however, was the history of the place and how it relates to its current success.           

As most Rhode Islanders are aware, Federal Hill is where the majority of Italian Immigrants (primarily from Southern Italy) settled from around the 1870s and the ensuing decades. When the Zuccolo Center was established in 1949, Italians were the dominant demographic by far.   

As Director Jackie Poulios explained to me, he grew up not far from the facility near Westminster Street (he still lives in the same house) and began working at the Zuccolo 1st as a pool attendant in ‘83, a lifeguard in ‘87, Assistant Director from ‘90-‘95, and subsequently became Director in ‘95.  He took the helm of the Zuccolo during a difficult transitional period, whereby, due to the combination of the changes in the immigration laws and the successful upward mobility of the predominantly Italian host population, major demographic changes were taking place in the neighborhood.             

Poulios relayed how the late 80s and early 90s were especially difficult at times. In a proactive, positive maneuver, one of the first things he did was go out and buy just about every international flag he could find and display it throughout the facility to send a welcoming sign to all the newcomers to the neighborhood. But he also wanted to take advantage of the history of Federal Hill’s past and its people to use as inspiration for the youth now coming up, so he eventually covered just about all available wall space with photographs of former local sports stars and prominent past alumni such as Judge Frank Caprio Sr. (State wrestling champ), who told me the pool at the Zuccolo was their Scarborough Beach in the hot city summertime; Peter Manfredo’s large banner taken from Ceasar’s Palace after the filming of the “Contender” series, along with more current successful male and female athletes that have come through the various programs such as David Duke (PC and NBA) 2016-2022, Kimani Lawrence (ASU) 2017-2021, Noah Meren (Brown 2020-2022), Deja Ross (Xavier) 2017-2021, Janai Crooms (PC) 2021-2023, Kelvin Odih (West Virginia), Joshua Ojuri (U of Maine), and Blessing Lawrence (Coppin State) 2024-2025.              

Many of us have friends or at least made acquaintances with people who came from Federal Hill. We can all attest to the fact that, for the most part, they possess a fierce loyalty and love for the memories of their upbringing there - the culture of family, Sunday dinners, friends, and all the characters they encountered in their formative years. 

But one of the things the original inhabitants of Federal Hill can be most proud of is the legacy of what the Zuccolo Center represents. Like a coral reef left intact as the marine populations change, the best spirits among them have left a foundation for the newer arrivals to utilize, flourish, and build upon.         

I wish more people could have seen and experienced what I did. The nightly news can be disheartening, but this was the opposite end of that spectrum, of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. To see Kelvin Odih’s parents, who came here originally from Nigeria, celebrating with their other children, friends and neighbors was beyond an encouraging sight. 

I know I felt a lot better leaving the Zuccolo Center than when I entered.