On the morning of Sunday, June 7, the gym at Brooklyn College quickly became filled with coaches, teams and families of New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development. Winston Devernie had basketballs, water bottles, jerseys and even some bacon-egg and cheeses for his players ready to go for the girl’s championship day. Following his thorough set-up, the Lady Prestige sixth-grade coach watched on as his team took home the first annual DYCD Championship, defeating LSU Staten Island, 31-26.

“AAU organizations, leagues and tournaments cater to the top tier of the basketball players in the communities,” head coach and founder of Lady Prestige, Winston Devernie said. “But the DYCD programming allows other young ladies to be able to come out and compete.”

Coach Winston develops young ladies into elite players. With his advanced communication style, his teams have a complex basketball IQ, not often found in young players. Helping lead Lady Prestige on the court was point guard and sixth grader Jemma, who won the championship through her constant tenacity and creating opportunities for her teammates. She brings the same mindset to the court as Coach Winston instills in his players.

“He has taught me confidence, how to share the ball, and how to communicate,” Jemma said. The Manhattan native regularly plays on three different basketball teams: Lady Prestige, an AAU team and her school.

Winston, who has been Jemma’s coach since she was nearly 8 years old, is a child of deaf adults (CODA). He is also an assistant coach for the USA Deaf Women’s National team. With his fluency in sign language, he teaches all of his players a few signs to communicate on the court in a way that the other team cannot interpret. 

When the semi-finals stage was set, Winston was surprised to see that Lady Prestige 6th grade was put up against Lady Prestige 8th grade. Ultimately, it was the younger squad who prevailed, winning in a whopping 24-4 victory to bring home the first ever DYCD championship trophy.

So, how did they do it? After all, the girls come from the same program, same staff, same courts, same neighborhoods and even run the same plays. But, they have vastly different players. Where the sixth grade players lack in physical maturity, they make up for it in their mental maturity. The eighth graders seemed to believe they could easily beat the sixth graders based on size comparison. However, the sixth graders proved to them that they were very wrong, that size doesn’t always matter.

“It was something that they realized, we run the same stuff, but…it’s about execution,” Winston said. “They were able to execute better in that game. I’m not surprised that they pulled off the win, they played really hard.”

The sixth graders had strong defense and executed a complex offense to stay ahead the entire game. On the next court over, it was a battle of the boroughs. Queens’ own A-Train defeated Staten Island’s LSU in a close matchup, 37-22.

A-Train made it to the championship. However, prior to the big game, some LP parents and coaches noticed that A-Train’s girls seemed much taller than their LP sixth graders. DCYD has strict rules regarding age requirements for their sports leagues and this was strictly middle school. 

One player on A-Train was somehow 15 years old, while the other girls were barely 11. Coach Winston made a deal with the other team’s head coach that they should be allowed to full-court press the entire game instead of the final four minutes. 

The saying “defense wins championships” truly reigned supreme in Brooklyn yesterday. The game was an all-out battle. Nearly every other play, girls from both teams were on the floor fighting for the ball. Three LP girls ended up getting injured due to A-Train’s aggressive, yet persistent nature. 

“Even though our families felt a certain way behind playing against a few ninth graders, I told them it doesn’t matter,” Winston said. “We play against older girls all the time. Let’s figure it out. Let’s play, let’s compete, let’s play a show.”

With the end of the school year upon us, the girls will be getting much needed rest and relaxation in the coming summer months, but NYC DYCD Basketball will return in October. 

“We teach sign language to our girls just to kind of give them an added skill, just to give them something that separates us,” Coach Winston said. “They come out of here becoming a better person, better basketball player.”

Photos via Kathy Evans of @kge_pics.