The Courts is a story of Martha’s Vineyard in the 1970’s- the guys, the girls, the shark, the sun and the fun

SYNOPSIS:

It’s The Summer of 1974. The Jackson 5 are a Dancing Machine. Stevie Wonder is Living For The City. President Nixon is leaving office amid an explosive scandal, and “JJ Evans” is Dy-no-mite. The country is caught between reaching for the stars and moral damnation. And on the island many Blacks enjoy as a vacation haven, a movie crew on the beach is filming a shark tale called Jaws. But for Eric Collins, who is madly in love with basketball and pretty girls- both of which are a little out of reach—life is just getting started.

On Martha’s Vineyard, Eric and his fellow teens escape the headlines of violent reactions to Boston’s forced school busing, by hooping, or cheering on their summer friends from Oak Bluffs. The center of their universe for these teens is “The Courts,”, where an all day, all night summer basketball league serves as social center.

The Oak Bluffs Courts in Niantic Park were a welcome retreat from the confines of their cities or boredom of their suburbs. Basketball sets the stage for a culture both cool and cherished. It’s showtime any time onlookers stay for a combination of entertainment, gossip mill, dating service and fashion show.

Where else in 1970’s America are the white kids the working class, and the Black kids the upscale suburbanites? Where else do little white boys have both teenaged Black role models and - the summer league stars six and seven years their senior, who coach their games in the morning, and teach them basketball drills. Like teenaged basketball players Johnny Rogers and Ronnie Brown- Johnny and Ronnie are heroes to Vineyard and vacation boys, hearthrobs to the girls.

The Courts- where players from across socioeconomic lines hone their games. Vineyard players pride themselves on beating city kids from Roxbury, Harlem, Brooklyn, Queens, and Philly, while admiring young ladies look on. When the buzzer sounds, it’s party time. But not so much for Krista Reese, a first time visitor from Ohio, an outsider confined to her family vacation cottage porch by a spinal condition that constricts her movement. Krista would love to join her sister Andrea, who’s two years older, and her brother Ken, who’s two years younger, at the beach or on their bikes. Not so much for Eric, who spends the summer of ’74 working up the nerve to get in on all the fun, struggling to keep focused as he steps up (and gets shot down) from one girl to the next, and like Krista, though neither of them realize it, struggles to belong. 

THE COURTS