HOBART (NBC 26) — One local gym means so much more than the game of basketball to the players and its owner. This Black History Month,NBC 26 takes viewers inside The Workshop.
"Being an inner city kid, [raised by a] single mother out of Green Bay, I grew up at the parks, I grew up playing basketball," said Harry Boyce, owner and coach at The Workshop basketball gym. "I had great mentors in the game."
And that's what Boyce has been doing ever since. After playing in high school, college, and professionally for nine and a half years, Boyce is now a mentor himself. He owns and operates The Workshop, a basketball gym in Hobart.
"To come back to my city and give this back to them and have the opportunity to coach kids just like me, to coach kids that are different from me, from different walks of life, different backgrounds, that's what it's about," he said.
Javon Miller is one of those kids. The 13-year-old has been playing at The Workshop for more than five years.
"The atmosphere and, like, the people here, it's kind of like a family," he said during practice one February afternoon.
"I'm not the easiest to play for, I'm very demanding," Boyce said. "But these kids take it in stride 'cause they know me, I know them,"
Boyce also knows the owner of the barber shop attached to his gym, Daniel Gilbert, from when they used to play against one another growing up.
Now, they're on the same team.
"I feel like we both lead by example and kind of show the youth and show our children, you know, that you can be more than what you see on TV or YouTube or just social media, you know?" Gilbert said while working with a client at MVP Barbershop. "And then to also see two brothers supporting each other in business together also is a great example to kind of show the youth too, [you] don't always have to be in competition with one another."
Summer registration is now open for basketball camp at The Workshop.
