By Todd Derkacz ’04
 In a time of violence and unrest the world over, Zach Leverenz ’01 is scoring big points for peace through an unexpected medium: basketball. As a program director with the Playing for Peace program, Leverenz is bringing together Catholic and Protestant children in Northern Ireland, teaching them valuable lessons about both basketball and life.
Playing for Peace, a nonprofit organization that seeks to bridge divides and develop leaders in regions of the world historically separated by strife, fosters harmony on the basketball court. In Northern Ireland and South Africa, the organization enables children from different backgrounds to play basketball, acquire life—as well as sports—skills and develop relationships that transcend religion, race and culture.
Founded in 1999, Playing for Peace sent its first group of five scholar-athletes—college graduates who had excelled academically, athletically and socially—to Northern Ireland in August 2002.
In September, Leverenz was among the second group of scholar-athletes to travel to Northern Ireland to expand and strengthen the program there. This marked Leverenz’s second post abroad since graduation (he taught English in China for a year, before settling near Washington, D.C.).
He learned about Playing for Peace while playing in the semipro division of the Washington Metro Basketball League last summer and was drawn to the group because it combined all of his interests: social change, international travel, coaching and playing basketball.
Besides serving as a program director in the town of Armagh, Leverenz signed on as a professional player with the Longford Falcons of the Irish Basketball Association (IBA). Having spent four years on Dickinson’s varsity squad, Leverenz relished the opportunity to play professionally.
“It is amazing to be able to travel around all of Ireland playing basketball,” Leverenz reflects. “The players, the coaches and fans have been incredible, and I often have to pinch myself when I realize that I’m actually getting paid to play—even if it’s not a lot!”
But his experiences with Playing for Peace have been most rewarding. Basketball, unlike traditional sports in Ireland, is not divided along denominational lines, is free of associations with the past, and can be a powerful tool for bridging the divides.
“Basketball is a fairly new sport in this country and one of the only sports left without definite religious affiliation,” Leverenz observes. “We target an age group—8- to 12-year old boys and girls—that has not yet been permanently instilled with the prejudice and biases that separate these communities.” Often the basketball sessions mark the first time these youths have mingled.
Leverenz encourages participation within and between Catholic and Protestant schools. Life skills and a healthy-living curriculum are integrated through junior basketball clubs, secondary-school coaching and quarterly tournaments, with a goal of drawing more children from both sides of the community.
Leverenz’s time in Northern Ireland has been as much of a learning experience for him as it has been for the children he has coached.
“Personally, before arriving in Northern Ireland, I had only a brief and casual knowledge of the history and troubles of this country,” he says. “I was truly shocked upon witnessing the complete and total division of both communities [Protestant and Catholic] in every aspect of their lives. In fact, every Christmas here in our town, there are two Christmas trees raised at opposite ends of the town square—one Catholic, one Protestant.”
Leverenz has enjoyed watching the Playing for Peace program flourish. Since August 2002, Playing for Peace has coached nearly 5,000 Catholic and Protestant children in integrated settings and established cross-community basketball clubs in the towns of Armagh, Dungannon and Derry.
The success of Playing for Peace has been widely broadcast—literally. Leverenz was among several representatives featured in a CBS News Sunday Morning story in March.
The hopeful future that the Playing for Peace program cultivates has had a lasting impact on Leverenz. In August he will head to Durban, South Africa, where he will coordinate the program, raise funds and expand Playing for Peace’s reach into more of the country’s rural townships. He’ll also play in a newly developed professional national basketball league, having finished the season in Ireland as a pick for the 1st Team All-IBA.
“We realize it’s a small part of [the peace] process, but it has been truly gratifying to see kids from both communities come together through basketball,” he explains.
“Through the power of sport and competition, these kids have become teammates and friends, and whether they are aware of it or not, their preconceived notions of the ‘other’ are beginning to fade.” •
To read an update from Zach Leverenz on the Northern Ireland program, visit . For more on the CBS News story featuring Leverenz go to: |
