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For boys basketball captain Dwayne Curtis, travelling more than 30 minutes for home games and practices is just the way the ball bounces.

A senior at the Washington, D.C.,-based charter school Kamit Institute for Magnificent Achievers, Curtis and his teammates have been travelling all season to the Laurel Boys and Girls Club gymnasium for a court they can call their own.

"It's hard at times, but we really want to play so we have to go there," D.C. resident Curtis, 17, said. "I love the game so much it doesn't matter anymore."

Curtis doesn't have a choice about the location as the charter school's gymnasium is beyond derelict. There is no running water or heat. The only air circulation comes from broken windows. Chartered in 2000, the 225-student school shares the same building, a former public junior high school, with two other charter schools.

So beginning this season, Laurel Boys and Girls Club President Levett Brown, also the volunteer athletic director and head coach of the charter school's basketball team, has been busing the 30-plus members of the boys' junior varsity, varsity and girls' teams to Laurel for all 11 home games.

Brown, a Laurel resident, said he first learned of their situation several years ago when he met them at a Boys and Girls Club summer basketball league. He then became affiliated with the school and decided to let the school use the gymnasium free of charge.

"If it wasn't for the [Laurel] Boys and Girls Club, we don't know what we'd be doing right now," said assistant coach Danny Sanders, a Hyattsville resident.

Beginning in mid-October, the team practiced in Laurel more than twice a week until its first game in December. Because the team does not belong to any athletic conference, it can choose its own opponents and schedule.

In addition to the travel, Brown said the team has a strict "no pass, no play" policy where grades are checked every Friday and anything lower than a C means no playing time.

"A lot of kids I get weren't able to make it in other schools for one reason or another," Brown said. "So we use the basketball schedule as an incentive to get kids to make the grade."

But Curtis said it's a regiment he's willing to accept, as he's hoping to get scouted for basketball by colleges and major in sociology in hopes of starting a home for neglected adolescents.

"It's my last year so if I don't do the travelling, then I'm not going to play," he said. "I have to set up a schedule to keep my grades up, which is hard because I'm a senior and trying to get into college."

Brown said allowing the team to use the facility is in line with the organization's inclusive policy that lets other youth groups call the club home.

"I love to help kids and give them a chance," Brown said. "It's a lot of work, but it's well worth it."