There’s a long-held belief that when you play competitive sports, the game you play can often be the vehicle that takes you to different parts of the state, country or other parts of the world. That is definitely the case for Dennis Witkowski, Nick Brown and Emily May — each of whom have a long affiliation with both the sport of basketball and the western communities.
Dennis Witkowski — You may be able to take the man out of Wellington, but you can’t take the Wellington out of the man. Such is the case with former longtime Wellington resident Dennis Witkowski, who was the grand marshal of last month’s Wellington Holiday Parade.
While Witkowski and his wife Maureen now live in Palm Beach Gardens, after living in Wellington for 40 years, he was well known in this area for his 35-year run as the director of the annual holiday parade, as well as the owner of one of Wellington’s early restaurants.
Outside of parade circles, Witkowski is also a former college and professional basketball player.
At 6-foot-8, it’s easy to see why he was such a prominent figure on the hardwood. He played college basketball at Fordham University in New York. After graduating in 1969, he had a two-year stint as a member of the Washington Generals (aka, the New Jersey Reds, the Chicago Demons and the United States All Stars), the regular “opponent” for the Harlem Globetrotters. Witkowski played alongside Frederick “Curly” Neal and Meadowlark Lemon, two of the greatest Harlem Globetrotters of all time.
His memories of their exploits on the court bring a smile to his face.
“Being with the Globetrotters was like being a part of one big family,” recalled Witkowski, whose nickname was Wit. “There was a closeness to our group, which included both teams, our referees, the public address announcer, and others.”
As a member of the Generals, he was a member of the original “jet-set” crowd — a genuine globetrotting basketball player.
“In two years, I played in 500 basketball games in 45 states and 15 countries. We often played seven days a week, and sometimes two games on a Sunday,” Witkowski recalled.
One of the most memorable stretches of basketball for Witkowski took place in England in the summer of 1970.
“We played 10 games in seven days at the Wembley Arena in London,” Witkowski said. “Two of our games were broadcast live on the BBC. People thought that we were the second-best basketball team in the world.”
On that same European tour, he’ll never forget the trip to Rome.
“In Rome, we played in an open-air arena under the stars in an ancient Roman coliseum, where the court was surrounded by statues of great Roman athletes,” Witkowski said. “The Italians love basketball.”
While on the road with the Globetrotters, he helped break a social norm.
“Sam Sawyer and I were roommates on the road,” Witkowski said. “We were the first inter-racial roommates with the Globetrotters.”
There was life in basketball for Witkowski after leaving the Globetrotters organization.
“After playing for the Generals, I signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pipers of the old American Basketball Association,” Witkowski said. “After the Pipers folded, I played some pro basketball in the old Eastern League.”
After retiring from playing basketball, Witkowski got involved in the restaurant business, where he started as a singing waiter at the Red Onion in Manhattan. He’s still in the restaurant business. Witkowski, who was the original owner of Cobblestones in Wellington, is one of the owners of the Stadium Grill in Jupiter.
Nick Brown — The varsity boys basketball team from Wellington High School has won one Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) state championship. That championship — a 57-56 victory over Oviedo’s Hagerty High School — took place on Feb. 28, 2015. The captain of that team was Nick Brown, who stood 6-foot-3 and was the team’s center. His memories of that win are strong.
“I scored no points, but I played defense, grabbed a number of rebounds and had many assists,” recalled Brown, a junior on that team.
While Brown is currently back in the western communities, where he works as an athletics program coordinator for the Wellington Parks & Recreation Department, basketball has been very good to him since being crowned a state champion nearly 10 years ago.
“After high school, I played three years of college basketball at Elms College in Massachusetts,” Brown said. “I lost a year of college basketball because of COVID-19.”
After graduating from Elms in May 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in sports and business management, Brown moved to eastern Europe, where he played pro basketball, beginning in October 2020.
“I played a season of pro basketball in Yerevan, Armenia,” recalled Brown, now 27. “It was a beautiful place to live. I played for two teams with very American-type names: U.S. Dallas and the Supersonics.”
After returning from Armenia in February 2021, he worked part-time for the Village of Wellington and as a clerk at Dick’s Sporting Goods.
“I helped sell many basketballs while working at Dick’s,” added Brown, whose favorite basketball to play with is the Wilson Evolution.
Then, in the fall of 2022, he accepted a brief, three-week basketball-playing opportunity in the Dominican Republic.
After returning home, Brown then started working full-time for the village, where he helps coordinate many athletic initiatives, one of which is the youth basketball program.
His final organized basketball stint was in 2023 when he played with the Fort Lauderdale Herd.
Even though Brown’s formal competitive days are in his past, he’s proud to say that he can still dunk the ball.
Emily May — The sport of basketball has been very good to former Wellington resident Emily May — and vice versa. As a basketball player, she is a former high school and college player, and a playing alum of the Wellington Wolves travel basketball organization.
As a former basketball player in high school, club and college, a current high school head basketball coach in Miami-Dade County and as an assistant college coach — now at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens and previously at Barry University in Miami Shores — basketball has allowed May to travel as far west as Montana, as far north as Chicago, as far south as Key West and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and to Europe, specifically to England’s most southwesterly outpost, the Isles of Scilly.
May, a 2012 graduate of Berean Christian School, had a four-year collegiate basketball playing career within the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Sun Conference. Her college basketball playing career started at West Palm Beach’s Northwood University (now Keiser University) and concluded at St. Thomas University. In her four years, she was a three-time Sun Conference All-Academic basketball selection, a national NAIA Basketball Scholar-Athlete and was selected to the Sun Conference All-Tournament Team in February 2017. During her collegiate basketball career, she was also a three-time team captain.
Upon graduation from Berean, she was the school’s all-time leading scorer in girls basketball.
May, 30, graduated from St. Thomas University in May 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in marketing. Two years later, she earned her master’s degree in communications arts. She is currently a full-time teacher at Westminster Christian School in Palmetto Bay, near Miami, where she teaches public speaking and mass media. She is also the head coach of the girls varsity basketball team and an assistant coach for the girls varsity volleyball team, which won the FHSAA Class 2A state championship in mid-November.
May also maintains a role as an assistant coach for the women’s basketball team at St. Thomas, serving under head coach Candace Walker. May is also one of the coaches for Miami Impact, an all-girls travel basketball organization in Miami-Dade County.
In recent years, May has returned to Wellington every March to help coach the Miami Impact teams that play in the March Madness basketball tournament hosted by the Wellington Wolves.
“It’s always fun returning to Wellington and to be a part of the Wellington Wolves’ March Madness tournament,” she said.
May’s world travels are expected to continue this summer, when she is planning another coaching trip to England.
