JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Ronnell Durante didn’t know what to expect when he got on board with it.
He had experience on the men’s side of the American Basketball Association, but Durante wasn’t familiar with the women’s side of the game.
He spoke to Marsha Blount, the founder of the Women’s American Basketball Association and that led to a wild idea.
Why not launch a Jacksonville team into the WABA, an organization that was entering its fifth year.
The Jacksonville Force are a first-year entry into the semi-pro WABA league. And that first year has gone very, very well for Durante, the coach and owner of the team.
The Force (11-1) will face the Los Angeles Hamms on Friday at 9 p.m. in the WABA Final Four in Augusta, Ga. A win would send them on to Saturday’s championship game against either the Midwest Sound or the New England Trailblazers.
Durante admits that he thought the Force had a shot to be solid in their inaugural season but didn’t expect this. It’s creating more opportunities for women through basketball and doing so locally.
“We’ve had one lady that went overseas already, and we have four or five more with opportunity to do so after this,” he said. “We’re trying to bridge that gap and give the locals still something to be happy about and see the talent that they thought was not doing anything or maybe lost. But it’s not lost, it’s right here.”
Shaquita Snow was an excellent player at Orange Park High School before going on to play at Florida Southern. When she became a mother, basketball went on the backburner and real life began. When the opportunity to join the Force presented itself, that allowed Snow to segue back into the game and include her children in her passion.
“They love it. They’re always talking about how mommy’s hooping,” she said. “They’re like, ‘Mommy, are you going to the gym?’”
That’s a theme of the team, Durante said. Numerous players were stars in high school or college, but that was a different period of life. Some players still have professional basketball expectations. For others, the opportunity is just about playing the game that they love competitively with a chance to blend family with basketball.
“Not just a second chance, but to play in front of their families, a lot of these ladies have to go overseas and play most of the time. Their family doesn’t get to see it,” he said. “So, being local and families get to see it, we’ve had a great participation for most families as far as being at the games and food after the game.”
Many players have ties to the area. Antoinette Bannister was a star at Potter’s House Christian before going on to play in college at North Carolina, Florida and East Carolina. The opportunity is beneficial to every player in different ways.
Some players would like to use it as a springboard to an opportunity overseas. Others like Bannister, now a teacher locally, have used it to keep playing the game at a high level and create chances for other women in town.
“This is just something to just bring women back out to know like, ‘Hey, I can still play.’ I may not be able to go overseas or may not be able to do certain things, but I just want women to know here in Jacksonville that they’ll always have something to come back home to, and this is what we want to build here in Jacksonville.”