The IU Police Department plans to formalize a basketball team and play anyone who can field an opposing team.
After informally playing against the Bloomington Fire Department at Assembly Hall and IU Residential Programs and Services in campus gyms, IUPD now welcomes any group of students or office on campus or in the community to challenge the department’s official team, Capt. Andy Stephenson said.
He hopes to have the team solidified by the first of the year.
“It’s just another one of our community engagement ideas,” he said. “It’ll help us build relationships, and what better way to do that than athletic competition?”
Stephenson initially posed the idea of a formal basketball team in meetings with RPS representatives last year and received their support.
“So we went with it and organized some games,” Stephenson said. “But in light of our recent loss to the fire department, I want to be a little more competitive. We are here to win.”
Officer Ryan Skaggs, who agreed to coach the team, is a night shift patrolman who teaches bike patrol and defensive tactics and works security for the IU men’s basketball team.
He has played with temporary IUPD teams against the BFD at the halftime of two IU Basketball Salute to Service Nights, as well as a few games against RPS.
“I’m actually not even very good,” Skaggs said. “And I’m probably not a very good coach, either. I know some of the terminology, so that helps. At least it sounds like I know what I’m doing.”
He said he plans to have his brother, who has coached middle school basketball, draw up a few plays — the pick and roll sort.
Laughing, Skaggs said the real strategy is to recruit the youngest, most in-shape officers and cadets they have.
“We’re not going to cut people from our team if they’re not,” Stephenson said, also laughing. “It’ll be open to anyone who wants to play.”
Stephenson said IUPD will take care of coming up with a court. Opposing teams will just have to show up and play.
While Skaggs most immediately looks forward to winning, his long-term goals include playing intramural teams and maybe convincing an IU basketball player to become a police officer.
Skaggs said the IU basketball managers usually put together a good intramural team, and he’s not sure if the IUPD team could beat them. But there’s more to it than winning.
“Honestly, I’m just looking to have fun, and I’m looking to show people that we’re just normal guys playing basketball,” Skaggs said. “We’ll turn ankles like anyone else.”
The games will be an outreach opportunity for people in the bleachers, too, Stephenson said. When IUPD played RPS last year, students and RPS employees came out and watched the game with police officers, dispatchers and cadets.
“Everybody could mingle and kind of razz each other a little bit,” Stephenson said.
For now, IUPD is trying to find officers who want to remain a semi-permanent fixture on the team. Skaggs said the recruitment process may be difficult because of the long shifts everyone works, but he is determined to play.
“We’re definitely going to be looking for fans,” Skaggs said. “So keep an eye out.”
