The Barn
“It’s true what they say. If you build it, they will come. Even to the middle of nowhere Coldwater.” - Jeremiah Williams
Photo by A.J. Arambula
Jeremiah Williams didn’t hear spirit-like voices from a cornfield. He wasn’t haunted by a basketball team with unfinished business. When he built the makeshift basketball space dubbed The Barn in a literal barn on the farm he was renting in the backwoods of southern Michigan it was for his own sanity and well-being. Quickly though, The Barn became an inspiration.
An ex-professional turned coach and trainer, Williams found himself in the middle of nowhere when the world shut down in 2020. The former G Leaguer and Canadian FIBA player was coaching at Olivet College in rural Michigan, a job he took in 2017 and won the MIAA championship for the first time since 1968. He was also running a training program called Truth Sports that he founded with his wife. With nowhere to hoop, he got curious about the barn in the backyard. It led to a Home Depot project (and he should really get his own commercial from them) to clear out the dirt and cobwebs and start getting buckets. Word spread quickly about The Barn on Instagram and Tik Tok. It was a time in which hoopers were desperate to play. Gyms were closed. Rims were removed in parks and playgrounds. There was no vaccine and a great deal of uncertainty.
Williams’ ingenuity was an inspiration that is the spirit of basketball, from the days of knocking out the bottom of a peach basket to the plastic crates with the bottom cut out that get mounted on telephone poles and street signs in black communities. By all means, get a bucket. As news spread of Williams’ barn, he received inquiries from other people in Michigan asking for tutorials to transform their barns.
“The next few weeks, he had a barn,” Williams said of a man who reached out for intel.
The Barn is still active, but Williams and his wife have moved to Charlotte to better serve their community, which is part of the initiative of Truth Sports: “to serve underprivileged youth that lack the resources which would give them the opportunity to benefit from a high level/organized sports program.” But, Williams will be back in Coldwater in the summer. He’ll be back to getting buckets in The Barn and accepting traveling challengers. In fact, as life keeps taking him to different parts of the country to grow the game, he hasn’t stopped dreaming of more Home Depot projects.
“I’m waiting for my second barn,” he said. “One of these days. As soon as we get a nice size backyard it’s up.”
The following is our conversation about the origin and impact of The Barn.
What’s the origin story of The Barn?
When they shut the gyms down, in Coldwater the only place you can play basketball is the rec center. It’s a beautiful space. They have four courts. It’s at least a six million dollar facility. When they shut that gym down we decided to start the project.
I’m from Grand Rapid. I’m from the city. We don’t do all the private land. We don’t do the barns. The barns are meant for hay. For the animals. This barn was in our backyard. The barn was at least 10 feet from the house. One day we got adventurous, checked out the barn. See what was in it. We walked in the barn and it was real dusty, but the first thing I noticed were the high ceilings. I was immediately thinking this could be something. This could be the perfect basketball facility.
I just went out and I had the water hose and started cleaning up all the dust. It was horrible. It was just a bunch of mud. I’m like “I don’t know how this is gonna work, but I’m not doing anything anyway.” Finally got it cleaned out. The surface looked good. It was at least 20 to 30 years old. But it was still in good shape. The base was solid. We purchased new beams to make it stable. I made it a Home Depot project. I got some plywood, laid it down first. Sanded it. Got it polished. Things like that. I took at least a day to study all the details of the lines. I wanted to get a high school court, college, and NBA. I drew the lines. Spray painted the lines on and then added the basketball hoop.
The basketball hoop, again, a Home Depot project. I grabbed a solid, strong piece of wood. Sanded it down. Polished it. Painted it. Did the lines. I bought a breakaway hoop on Amazon. Obviously, you’ve got guys in there dunking and you don’t want them to break it.
Was there ever any broken rims in The Barn?
I did have a situation where I went on a trip for a camp. I came back and the hoop was broken. I’m like who the heck got into the barn? At first we didn’t have stairs to the barn. It was on the second level. The original barn, the door was small, probably five by five. It was one of the old barn doors where you had to pull it to the side and duck in.
But then it became a hazard. You had to climb a ladder. It was a progression.
I love the before and after time lapse that you posted, just seeing the transformation.
At first people didn’t believe me. Like why would you turn a Barn into a gym? Yo, but that’s the coolest thing! Especially this generation, they just think “let me get in the gym.” When you and I were growing up it was like “let me find an outdoor court we can hoop on.” If we didn’t have a hoop we’d use an orange crate. Use the boxcutter to cut the bottom out and stamp it to a pole and that was our basketball hoop. For me, it was like you can play basketball anywhere.
We used to play basketball in the house without a playhouse hoop. You know, our grandparents weren’t happy about it. We would stamp holes into the wall, grab an iron hanger and shape it into a hoop. Grab a pair of socks and we start hooping. It was just about let’s play this game.
When I saw The Barn, yo, this is literally a dream. Once the hoop was in there I was posting videos and just being creative. People started catching on. I started training out of it. I had people coming in from Detroit. That was the furthest I had someone traveling in the beginning.
I don’t know if you know where Coldwater is?
Oh, I looked it up. It’s not like it’s just outside a nearby city. It’s in the middle of southern Michigan, well away from Detroit or Ann Arbor or Grand Rapids.
I’m trying to think if there’s an attraction… no. Maybe auctions. [Laughs]
I was coaching college basketball at Olivet College. I moved out there and basketball was just not a thing. People enjoyed it, but when you have these smaller school districts you have multi-athletes, kids that play three or four sports. In the city, you’re really focused on playing one or two sports.
It’s crazy how the project of The Barn changed that entire community. There were certain kids that were primarily focused on baseball that dedicated their time to mainly basketball. And then, it also brought the community together which is amazing.
During the shutdown basketball was the sport that the government had to get involved in and take the rims down because they couldn’t stop people from wanting to play this sport, but it’s still something you can do in isolation.
We got some backlash early on during the quarantine time. They see me in there with a friend playing one on one. Me and my friends, we stay close. We weren’t going out or sneaking around and going to bars or anything. So when I posted a video of us playing one on one people were like are you crazy? Hey, for the love of the game you can miss me with all that.
You couldn’t just stay in the house and do nothing. That would drive you insane. The project itself allowed me to have some sanity and peace.
At the same time, I’m seeing out in Venice, the Veniceball people are building the survival hoops. There’s the dude who was doing rural hoops, setting up routines on his farm equipment. People all over were figuring out creative, safe work-arounds. The Barn was among them.
Who were the visitors who made pilgrimages to The Barn?
One in particular, Bionic Brooks. He shot a video in The Barn. Ashley Polacek. She’s from Canada. My former teammate Gilbert came out too. He’s from Canada also. It’s probably a six or seven hour drive from Canada. I’d get DMs all the time to come out and train. They’d be from Oakland. It sounds great, but we’re in the middle of nowhere! You’re going to trust me with your life right now?
It’s true what they say. If you build it they will come. Even to the middle of nowhere Coldwater.
What did The Barn mean to the community? Even ongoing to now?
Just being able to play the game, for me, was my joy. Building something out of nothing, I think that brought a lot of light to a lot of kids' eyes. Anything you want to do, as long as your heart is into it, and you dedicate the energy, it can happen. Don’t let someone say you can’t do it. Don’t let a virus stop you. If you really wanna do something, go out there and get it.
I think especially for the Coldwater kids because they are in a small community. When you’re in small communities, there is a tendency to have small minds. I think when we were there it was moreso like ‘they’re not from here and they’re making something out of nothing.’ It’s going viral. Social media is not everything, but when kids see someone you know going viral, it’s an inspiration. I just think the project was an inspiration to other people’s ideas and allowed them to believe in themselves along their journey.
What’s the status of the barn now?
The barn is still in the backyard. No one is training out of it, except for a family member of mine. He’s finishing up his senior year. Aden Hathaway. You’ve probably seen videos of him training with me. He played last night and he scored 1,000 [career] points. That’s a huge milestone for him early in the season. He’s training out of The Barn still. We have the shooting machine in there. Him and his sister go in every now and then.
We’ll be back in the summer to do some stuff there.
What are you doing these days?
We decided to move south. We didn’t burn any bridges or anything. We wanted to work with more of a diverse community. It’s important to serve during our young age. So now we’re here in Charlotte doing that.
Can you tell me about your organization Truth Sports?
So Truth Sports is a faith based sports program my wife (Taylor) and I created back in 2018 that coincides with sports and mentorship for student athletes grades 3rd -12th. Our primary focus is to serve underprivileged youth that lack the resources which would give them the opportunity to benefit from a high level/organized sports program. Few examples being; AAU Basketball, Literacy, Sports Camp, Sports Clinics, and Individualized training. We're still in the beginning stages of the program. We have the basics but haven't scratched the surface of the overall vision just yet. We started the program back in 2018 as an LLC but soon realized there was a large demographic/ audience we were missing. We later started a Non-Profit in relation to Truth Sports called (B4I) Ball 4 Impact. The goal is to provide equal opportunity within sports regardless of socioeconomic status. We know there are kids being overlooked so we founded B4I to show those exact kids that they are worthy of opportunity and carry the skill and talent to be great.
What have you learned from The Barn and how has it influenced future ideas?
For me, I think it goes deep, right? Most people who have hoop dreams are thinking NBA. For me, I’ve always lived based on community. After The Barn was built and the whole project flourished it was more eye-opening to me to see there’s other people around the world who just appreciate the game. Who appreciate ideas that are built from the ground up. I think I just appreciated how we could utilize this game to have more impact in the community.
Our niche right now is camps. What we like to do is coincide the sport but also include some type of literacy in that. Whether it’s teaching kids about history or leadership development, that's what our camps are focused on.
So getting ready for summer camp season.
This summer we’ll have four camps. Our two [camps] we run in Coldwater. We’ll run one in Alabama. Possibly two or three in Sarasota, Florida.
Were there any legendary or heated showdowns in The Barn?
On average we had a pretty friendly environment in there, but yes, there were a few nights where it got a little heated. But it was always positive, right?
I had a competitive situation once. I was just the trainer, but if they could beat me they were top notch. A group of guys came from Detroit. I don’t know if you know Detroit guys, but they got a chip on they shoulder. So we ran a two on two tournament. One of my guys didn’t have a teammate so I jumped in. It was championship game and one guy was playing aggressive defense. The barn is real narrow. You have the point and you can kinda get the two 45 angles. I go to the rim and I dunk one. He’s like “alright, switch.” So he switches on me. Next guy is even more aggressive. I go in and he undercuts me. I come down and it’s like “yo, play the game right.” So they finally get the ball and he makes a move – it was a real nice move – he goes to the hoop and he gets tapped just a little bit. It’s not enough for a foul. He calls foul. I’m like “woo, are you serious?” You get it how you live, right? That’s the type of person you are. I don’t think he liked that, right? He said something to me and I got into pro style, Jeremiah 2.0. You know?
I make a move, take it back, make a move, get to the rim and dunk on him. He’s still chirping. I’m like “you’re just wasting your breath at this point.” It’s make it take it, right? It’s do or die. I get the ball and I’m bodying him, I’m bodying him, and I do a step back and I do a cross between step back for game. Hit it. I’m not the type to talk, mostly game talk for me. But that was probably one of the most heated situations. We had to keep the Barn protected.
You gotta protect home court.
You had to.
To stay informed on The Barn and Truth Sports follow Jeremiah Williams at @itsjmwilliams.