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‘Nothing like this around here’: Pickup basketball gym to open in May in Massachusetts

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7 months ago

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‘Nothing like this around here’: Pickup basketball gym to open in May in Massachusetts

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Hanover is home to a pair of high school basketball teams, girls and boys, that churned out winning seasons this winter.

The town is set to welcome in a new wave of hoops next month.

The California-based ‘Pickup USA Fitness’ franchise is opening a facility in Hanover, located at 285 Circuit St., in mid-May. It’s a “basketball-focused fitness club,” said owner Jay Medeiros, that offers members 10-minute pickup basketball games with two referees, plus access to weights and cardio machines, and eventually a youth developmental basketball league.

“There’s really nothing like this around here,” said Medeiros, a Hanover resident.

How do the pickup games work?

Ten-thousand of the 14,000 square-foot facility is dedicated to the basketball courts, Medeiros said. There is one full court, one junior-sized full court and a half court for 1-on-1 training and warming up.

Upon entry to the gym, members will submit their names into the online queue at the front desk to get into the next game. Games last 10 minutes and are played 5-on-5 on the full court with two referees. The winning team stays on the court, and players from the losing team have to re-enter the online queue to get back in, and it’s first come, first serve.

The wait won’t be long, Medeiros said, as games take just 10 minutes.

“It’s game, after game, after game,” he said.

“By saying it’s a ‘Better Way to Play’ (the company’s slogan), you’re taking out the people calling their own fouls, people arguing (over calls) and games taking longer.”

How much does a membership cost?

Pickup USA Fitness will offer one membership plan, the ‘All-Access’, at $49.99 per month.

All-Access, of course, designates that members are permitted to use the basketball courts, weight room and cardio machines.

Pre-sale memberships will be on sale in early-May, Medeiros said. He expects there to be limited-time deals upon the gym’s opening soon after.

When will Pickup USA Fitness be open?

Medeiros did not announce a specific day of the opening, but he gauged in mid-May. (We will update this page when it becomes official).

The facility (basketball courts and weight room, both) will be open Monday-Thursday from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m; Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Some of the basketball courts can be occupied for open gym and personal training in lieu of pickup games, if reserved by members ahead of time. The facility also has a ‘Dr. Dish’ self-rebounding machine available.

“If your kid is a gym rat, they can come here after school and shoot around for five hours if they want to,” Medeiros said. “You go to gyms that have basketball courts and sometimes they use it for other things than just basketball. … Here, basically, it’s (basketball) every single day.”

“This is going to be the cleanest gym you’ll be in,” he said. “We want to hear the sneakers squeak on the floor when you’re playing.”

Who is Jay Medeiros?

Medeiros is the owner of the Hanover location, one of the 20 new facilities PickUp USA Fitness sets to open across the country this year.

He has lived on the South Shore for over 25 years, the last six in Hanover. He grew up in Taunton, then moved to Quincy in 1997. A lifelong basketball fan, Medeiros still plays pickup and, in the past, coached his two kids in travel leagues and AAU.

His son Jackson, a high school senior, was on the team at North Quincy High the past four years.

Upon researching how to advance youth basketball training, Medeiros stumbled into an online advertisement for PickUp USA Fitness. He filled out a franchise-opening agreement in October, 2022. Nearly two years later, it’s now on the verge of debuting.

“I always wanted to have some sort of a place for people to play or train,” Medeiros said. “I didn’t envision something of this size, but here we are.”

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