From basketball courts at local parks to empty volleyball sand courts, sports facilities in Fremont frequently go unused. Washington High School rising junior Arihanth Prabaharan has recently come up with a solution.
Prabaharan created an app, Unbenched, which helps bring people together in Fremont who want to participate in pick-up games. The app has grown to more than 70 active users and reaches multiple neighborhoods, with the majority of users being between the ages 14 and 40.
He first got into pick-up games through playing basketball casually with his friends and noticed that many courts were consistently empty at parks. “Lots of parks weren’t as active as they could be,” said Prabaharan. This led him to look for existing tools that could help the community.
After researching apps to connect people and start pick-up games, he found that other platforms mainly listed open gyms that required entry fees and were further away, rather than providing information on local, free courts in Fremont. Prabaharan also recognized that for those in the community, it was difficult to build connections with each other. He wanted something which could serve as a bridge between individuals and help build bonds through sports.
The combination of these issues influenced him to start creating Unbenched, which he worked on for five months before launching in early June. The hardest part of creating the app was “getting the vision I had for the design and platform right, like the logo, the fonts, the style, etc., and just going back and forth for adding in small features,” said Prabaharan.
He wanted something which could serve as a bridge between individuals and help build bonds through sports. This combination of needs influenced him to start creating the app Unbenched, which he worked on for five months before launching in early June.
The app had a slow start but began to grow in popularity after Prabaharan started to actively promote through social media. He gives credit to the Bay Area Gujarati Christian Fellowship for sponsoring his first organized game, which played a major role in drawing out a large crowd.
As Unbenched became more popular, individuals began to post their own games, and the amount of users grew rapidly. Basketball and volleyball are the most active sports in the app, but it offers a variety of others such as badminton, tennis, soccer and pickleball. The wide range of options serves to accommodate players of all skill levels and interests, allowing them to participate in sports they enjoy playing.
Prabaharan is also thankful for his friends who have supported and helped him spread the word by commenting on social media posts and inviting other players to pick-up games. When asked about what he enjoys most about the app he created, Prabaharan said, “Seeing people brought together through sports and meeting new people in the community.”
In the future, he hopes to expand and have 200+ users on Unbenched. But Prabaharan’s main goals are to make sure that the courts in Fremont are being used as best as possible, promote healthy, active lifestyles in the community and have users build connections through the app.
Prabaharan’s advice for young athletes who want to start their own community initiative is simple. “Stay persistent and always be able to adapt and know when something isn’t working out.”
For more information on Unbenched visit, unbenched.co.
