The pandemic has plagued the Native American Reservations especially student-athletes. School districts with high Native American populations have cancelled athletics, which resulted in very limited exposure and opportunities for Native American student athletes. Tribal Basketball Circuit Director Jon Yarrow was moved to help the community out by organizing an individual showcase.
The Tribal Athletics West Coast Desert Individual Showcase was formed. The event took only a month to fill up with (40) High School Girls and (70) high school boys. Yarrow contacted multiple media outlets, scouting services, and college coaches to scout the event. The outlets include NDN Sports, Arizona Preps, Jr. All-Stars Girls Basketball, BallerTV and Reel Team Six, plus multiple college coaches.
The event is hosted at SAGU-American Indian College in Phoenix. The event is broken up between two days. The first day the athletes are put through an intensive skills clinic led by Coach Ephraim Sloan. Coach Sloan did a phenomenal job in pushing the athletes with his intense workout, and provided expert instruction and breakdown. After the skills clinic portion, the athletes will be put through one-on-one, two-on-two and three-on-three mini half-court games.
The second day is where it looks to be competitive with five-on-five games. The more the event gets along, more of the prospects start to relax and emerge. Arizona Preps is grateful for the opportunity to provide a platform for Native American Student-Athletes, since our Senior Editor Anthony Ray is of Choctaw Heritage and publisher George Courtney is Kanaka Maoli.
We look forward to covering more of the Tribal Athletics Native American Basketball Circuit.
