Panthers are about more than basketball

The Long Island Panthers basketball program, which started out as a basketball clinic for Lorenzo Jenkins’s three young daughters nearly 30 years ago, has become a fixture in the Lake view community — and Jenkins is determined to keep it that way.

Jenkins, who played basketball while growing up in Brooklyn, trained each of his daughters as they played for Malverne High School. When he helped his eldest, Tanesha, earn a basketball scholarship, he realized he could do the same for other youths as well.

The Panthers started out focusing on training young women, but has since expanded to become co-ed, while also offering a tennis program. Jenkins trains children from third grade through high school in the Malverne school district, teaching them how to become not only good athletes, but good people as well.

“I see them learn how to be mentors and leaders,” Jenkins said. “We just try to encourage that leadership foundation, and understand that we’re all the same, we’re all one. We help each other just be good sports — win, lose or draw.”

Jenkins coached Kenetta Muhammed from seventh grade through her senior year at Malverne High, before she went on to play basketball at North Carolina A&T University, and eventually Post University, on a full scholarship. Muhammed described Jenkins as an uncle to her, and when she tore an anterior cruciate ligament, he coached her through the entire rehabilitation process.

“He became part of my family,” Muhammed recalled. “Him coaching me, it was just natural and organic.

“He always reminded us how to act off the court — from how to carry ourselves as young women, and then how to act in front of other coaches and teams,” she added. “He always stayed on us about our character traits as people, too, being kind to people.”

Muhammed works as an accountant and financial adviser in Georgia, and now wants to use her talents to give back to the program that was so important to her. She helped organize the Panthers into a nonprofit organization with a board of directors, which she serves as secretary, and is helping the program secure additional funding and resources. Up to now, Jenkins has often supplemented the program from his own pocket.

“Sometimes you have kids and parents that may be struggling, that don’t have the finances to get the kids what they need,” Jenkins said. “So I figured, you know, help relieve some of that pressure from the parents.”

“The least I can do is help him,” Muhammed said. “Coach has been so consistent — 20-plus years and he’s still in the same community. He’s been anchoring down in a community, forging relationships with people, and he’s well respected. He hasn’t run; he hasn’t gone anywhere. When the going gets tough, he gets tougher. The least I can do is lift some of that off his shoulders.”

Jenkins said he has no plans to slow down, and wants the Panthers to provide access to financial-literacy programs, and Athletes Helping Athletes for tutoring.

“It’s just me not knowing how to sit my butt down,” he said. “My program and these kids are my ministry. It’s my calling. It’s what God put me here to do. I don’t know how to not care about their well-being.”

On Aug. 25, the Panthers hosted a “Back to School Bash” at Harold Walker Memorial Park, donating 200 backpacks filled with school supplies to kids who needed them. They also announced the winners of three $500 scholarships. During the event, kids played basketball and neighbors enjoyed free snacks — one even decided to cook several dozen hot dogs and hamburgers for the participants. Excitement was in the air — and next year the event is going to be much bigger, Jenkins said.

“To see these kids getting the supplies they need, it was amazing,” he said. “I don’t think I was able to sleep that night, I was so happy.”

Jenkins said he knows he has provided the kids in his program with a safe place to grow into adults, and the Panthers’ new organizational structure will ensure that the program will continue to be there for the children of Lakeview and Malverne for generations to come. “It’s very exciting to see that the program has a chance to continue to grow, even if I’m not here,” Jenkins said. “That is my mission at that point, is to make sure there’s still a program here. Whether coach Jenkins is a part of it or not, I want it to continue in the community.”