For Haneef Hill, the Founder and Executive Director of Urban Youth Kings and Queens (UYKQ), providing spaces where kids can engage in sports throughout Northwest Philadelphia has been a dream come true.
“Since the age of 12, when I was playing sports in the community, I always knew that when I got older, I wanted to start my own program,” Hill said. “Through that passion, I developed the love of working with the youth and being able to share my own personal experiences [with them].”
UYKQ is a Northwest Philly-based organization that offers a variety of athletics and educational enrichment for ages 7-16, consisting of baseball, basketball, softball, summer camps, and after-school programs. Now in its seventh year, it is expanding its outreach and program offerings to the community’s youth even further.
Germantown resident Jonathan Barnes, the father of a UYKQ baseball player who has recently joined their new travel basketball program, has formed a connection with the organization that keeps them coming back.
“We feel that it is really important to be a part of programs in Germantown that are also representative of the people that live in Germantown,” Barnes said. “We really liked the way Haneef is running it, and the coaches know what they’re doing — We’re a family that wants to support black-owned businesses.”
Hill began coaching baseball at age 15, where he coached 7-12 year olds in Mt. Airy while also being a student-athlete in high school. He eventually received a degree in Sports Management from Virginia State University in 2008 and used that foundation to get involved in different sports organizations throughout the community.
“I saw what I was doing but was thinking about what more I could do; I was seeing what programs [in the area] were offering but was thinking about what more they could offer,” Hill said. “I took those mental notes over the years as I continued to volunteer my time with other organizations.”
He entered a position as a Recreation Leader for the Department of Recreation and Parks, where he ran a basketball league in Mt. Airy from 2014 to 2015.
“That was my first time running my own program and getting some hands-on experience, organizing schedules, games, referees, dealing with parents, things of that nature,” Hill said. “It was right after that where I decided to take this journey and say, ‘You know what, I’m ready.”
Hill founded UYKQ in December 2016, beginning with a tight circle of coaches, resources, and players before its gradual growth that made it what it is today.
The first implementation was the recreational basketball summer league in 2017, held at the Mt. Airy Playground. In its first summer, 50 kids participated, alongside 12 coaches he knew from the previous league he operated.
“When I left the [previous league], a lot of those coaches respected the way I managed things, so they came with me and were my first coaches,” Hill said. “As they followed, parents and kids followed, and then as we started to practice, community individuals started to say, ‘Oh, basketball started up in Mt. Airy?”
Then, in the winter of 2018, he began the baseball training program that started with only 12 kids. Three of Hill’s childhood teammates assisted him with coaching at the time. They rented out space in the basement of the old Germantown YMCA, now known as the Germantown Life Enrichment Center, for those training sessions.
As the rapid growth of participants became apparent in the first couple of years, Hill realized more programs could be offered to young athletes. However, the expansion into the right locations to do so was uncertain.
“Over time [with basketball], we outgrew the space; What was once 50 kids became 75, 100, 150, to 200 plus,” Hill said. “Those were long Saturdays at Mt. Airy Playground because there was only one court. As the league grew, we started to look for other spaces where we can have 200 kids practicing and having games within a reasonable time frame.”
The summer league and other basketball-related programs began transitioning to Finley Recreation Center in 2019 to accommodate the growth.
Finding effective locations was also an obstacle when Hill wanted to expand the baseball program to provide not only winter training but competitive travel teams, too.
“We started practicing at Vernon Park before it was renovated, it was all grass and was pretty much an abandoned park, and then I laid eyes on Morton Playground on Haines Street,” Hill said. “I knew I was starting a team, and I wanted a field in Germantown that wasn’t used and that had lights; I’ll never forget when I pulled up, stared at the field, and said, ‘This is it, this is the park where we’re going to make our name at.”
In 2019, UYKQ implemented the Germantown Warriors travel baseball program, which allowed boys to try out for their age group’s team and play against competition from across the city. During the early days of travel play, Hill, coaches, and players had to make due on the fields before the parks were properly refurbished.
“[Morton Park] was just a vacant field, the building belonged to L&I, there was no electricity, the fences and field was overgrown, and I was taking on something I didn’t know,” Hill said. “We didn’t have a bathroom, we didn’t have bleachers, we didn’t have anything, so we had field clean up days where we got rid of the leaves, sticks, and trash.”
Hill called upon the Department of Parks and Recreation and City Council members to take notice of the park’s situation.
“We were just practicing and playing on grass; we didn’t have any dirt or base pads,” Hill exclaimed. “Literally, I was digging with a shovel through the grass to try to create a base pad with some dirt; I was out there with a shovel before I got Parks and Recreation to come out here and provide us with a diamond.”
Getting the field renovated while receiving city assistance took three years, from 2018 to 2020.
“I remember during COVID when we opened a remote learning center at the church across the street (Providence Baptist Church), I came out of the church one night, sat on the steps, and saw that the field was [completed] and had dirt,” Hill said. “I’ll never forget that feeling; it was a proud moment.”
UYKQ now holds its headquarters at a location up the street from Morton Playground, on the 200 block of East Rittenhouse Street.
Morton Playground and Vernon Park are now fully renovated parks where Germantown Warriors practice and compete.
As more locations were established, more players joined, and there were more extensions of the basketball and baseball programs, Hill knew he couldn’t keep up with the uptick without adding more coaches and volunteers.
“At the [start of UYKQ], I was at every practice, every game, and doing all the administrative work from behind the scenes; it wore me down. I had to figure out how to make my work sustainable because it was clearly outgrowing me,” Hill said.
“I started to get others involved and create part-time work for others, so that I could still have some flexibility and a work/life balance for myself because I have a family also,” Hill added.
Today, there are about 60 coaches and staff with the organization, 40 associated with basketball programs and 20 with baseball.
“With more kids, you need more coaches, more uniforms that you have to order, more games to manage, more demands, more games to schedule,” Hill said. “ When people show up, there’s an established expectation that our families have now. They’re not supposed to see the process, they’re supposed to just come in and have an amazing experience.
“We have to continue to live up to that regardless of the obstacles that we face on a day-to-day basis,” Hill added.
Today, three travel baseball teams play in seasons that effectively run from April to July, consisting of a 10U team of ages 9 and 10, 12U ages 11 and 12, and 14U ages 13 and 14. Their softball program, which runs through the same annual time frame, also offers 10U, 12U, and 14U age groups.
The travel basketball teams that have just been added consist of six boys’ teams divided into age groups of 8-13 and two girls’ teams of 10U and 13U.
“We’re still looking for more girls, but we’re going to move forward with what we have with the expectation that we will grow and establish the program as we continue to move forward,” Hill said.
Tryouts for travel basketball will likely be held annually every August, and the season spans from September to April. Like the baseball and softball teams, basketball travel teams compete under the name of Germantown Warriors.
“My son, Roshan, has been approached by several other AAU teams, but I felt obligated [to stay],” Barnes said. “I wanted to support Haneef, his team, his work, and what he’s doing in the community.”
UYKQ now has access to gyms with multiple courts, such as Springside-Chestnut Hill Academy and the Elite Sports Factory in Manayunk, where they can conduct team practices, summer league games, clinics, and other basketball-related events.
They also provide developmental clinics in all their sports for children just beginning to play the sport.
Educational opportunities in UYKQ consist of their after-school program and summer enrichment camp.
In their after-school activities, they interact with children in grades K-5 to teach life skills such as teamwork, self-esteem building, and sportsmanship while holding mentor group sessions that address everyday issues and challenge students to discuss them.
UYKQ holds this program at their Rittenhouse Street location and at their partner schools, Henry H. Houston Elementary School and CW Henry Elementary School in Mt. Airy. Cook-Wissahickon Elementary School in Manayunk will soon be a partner school, too.
Their Summer Enrichment Camp is a 6-week camp that provides opportunities for summer activities such as field trips, swimming, nature walks, sports, STEM, and more for children ages 6-10.
Even when kids age out of the organization at 16, UYKQ keeps them close by providing opportunities to stay involved with the organization and wants to build upon it even more.
“We want to extend our age range to keep our high school students engaged, and some things I already award them with are summer jobs and summer internships,” Hill said. “It’s intentional that when the kids who play in my basketball league that age out, can now come work at my basketball games and do things such as keep score. I have to give back; it’s only right.”
“The best thing I heard from one of my twelve-year-old athletes is him telling his mom that he wants to work for Urban Youth when he gets older,” Hill added. “That’s touching because the image he has of what we’re doing; he wants to be a part of that.”
Sign ups are currently available for their fall basketball clinics for ages 7-16, held on Saturdays from September 14 to October 26 at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. To see more details about programs, registration, and contact information, visit the organization’s website at https://www.urbanyouthkq.com/.
