Pierrefonds basketball coach gives back to the community that lifted him up

Nowadays when Serge Kongolo arrives in his old neighbourhood in Pierrefonds, he's greeted with smiling faces and handshakes.

The younger kids know him as a coach and look up to him like an older sibling. Their parents greet him like a nephew who they haven't seen in a while.

• Click here to donate to West Island Community Shares as part of CBC's Christmas Sing-In charity drive

"It's a close-knit neighbourhood, a loving neighbourhood with people that have grown together for a long time," says Kongolo, as half-a-dozen kids buzz around him laughing, chatting and trying to grab his attention.

But Kongolo remembers a time when he wasn't as comfortable here. 

"It started off kind of rough, you know it was a lot of gangs at first."

Kissing the court

Fifteen years ago, Kongolo and his mother moved to this neighbourhood after arriving in Canada as refugees from Congo. 

"Over the years they've built community centres," he says. "That's helped the kids to have something to do other than being on the streets."

"Two years into me living here they built a brand new [basketball] court and I still remember coming back from school with my friends and we went to the court and we kissed the court. We were so excited, because we were like 'Wow we get to play basketball anytime.'"

The new courts in his backyard gave Kongolo the opportunity to play as much basketball as he could handle but it was a community centre called Carrefour 6 à 12 that gave him the chance to play on a team.

The community centre is one of 40 organizations helped by West Island Community Shares.

Carrefour 6 à 12

Carrefour 6 à 12 started out 25 years ago in a church basement, but today it is located in a renovated residential home directly across the street from École Perce-Neige. 

The centre's director Carole Legault says children from more than 62 countries come regularly after school.

For Kongolo that meant playing basketball.

An example to follow

Legault says Kongolo is one of the centre's success stories. 

He started playing basketball on a team through an opportunity with Carrefour 6 à 12 and eventually turned that into a scholarship at Keyano College in Fort McMurray. 

Later he played for the Bishop's University in Lennoxville and represented the school at the 2015 national championship tournament. 

Now that his competitive playing days are behind him, Kongolo has decided to come back to his former neighbourhood and coach the next generation.

Kongolo says programs like Carrefour 6 à 12 are central to the health of the community, and the lessons he's trying to pass on from his experience are bigger than just basketball.

• Why we chose West Island Community Shares as our charity this year

"The biggest issue wasn't for me to help them to learn to play basketball, I use basketball as a platform to show them that life is more than that and in this neighbourhood there are a lot of single parent households, Kongolo says.

"We have to teach, in the black community, kids how to be men, and how to build families."

New season starts in January

Back on the community court, Kongolo makes a pass to Assiante Bah. She grabs the ball like a natural and makes a smooth lay up. 

Young girls, like the boys, are also given a change to pursue their sporting dreams thanks to Carrefour 6 à 12.

"I look up to Serge, I see what he accomplished and how he did it, I can do it too. I can even go to a higher level than him," Bah proudly boasts.

Hearing Bah, Kongolo smiles. "I do see myself in them, I see the drive, the ambition to want to make it further and further."

The new basketball season for Kongolo and the kids at Carrefour 6 à 12 begins in January.

• Get all the details about this year's Sing-In and charity drive here
• CBC Christmas Sing-In choir gets set for 37th concert