PITTSFIELD, Mass.—The intense and competitive basketball games at Pittsfield’s Dorothy Amos Park aren’t just your average pickup games. They’re part of the Beat the Streets summer basketball league.

“Last year, there was a lot of violence going on in the neighborhood,” Dashine Moore said, a local resident who founded the league last summer. “So I thought about starting a basketball league to keep some of the kids busy and out of trouble, so that’s what I did.”

The league meets four days a week at the park on Pittsfield’s Westside. All games are refereed, scored, and have a game clock.

Moore said they had nine teams at the height of the season last year, and new players are always welcome.

“I don’t have to know you or anything,” Moore said. “You come with five people, the team roster is up to eight, and I’ll give you a uniform, I give you the top and bottom of the uniform, and you play.”

Each night is open to a different age group, so everyone has time to play at least once a week.

“Some of the kids that are better in basketball do AAU, but then other kids don’t have anything,” Moore said. “So I try to do this for everybody.”

Moore is glad to see the league become so popular, and he hopes it continues to be a positive outlet for the city’s youth.

“All the programs that we used to have, we don’t have those anymore,” said Moore. “We used to have the youth initiative program, that’s what I came up under. There’s not a lot of people out here leading anymore so I’m just trying to give the community something positive to do.”

Anyone interested in joining the league is welcome to come to Dorothy Amos Park for games Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evenings at 6 p.m., as well as Saturday mornings at 10 a.m.