High Post Hoops
Fansided

Ariel Atkins gives back with basketball tournament in her hometown

By Jenn Hatfield

UNCASVILLE, CT - OCTOBER 8: Ariel Atkins #7 of the Washington Mystics plays defense against the Connecticut Sun during Game Four of the 2019 WNBA Finals on October 8, 2019 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)
UNCASVILLE, CT - OCTOBER 8: Ariel Atkins #7 of the Washington Mystics plays defense against the Connecticut Sun during Game Four of the 2019 WNBA Finals on October 8, 2019 at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2019 NBAE (Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

What to do when the star is busy winning playoff games?

Washington Mystics guard Ariel Atkins has wanted to host a basketball tournament since her college days at the University of Texas. On September 21 and 22, she finally got her chance in her hometown of Duncanville, Texas, about 15 miles southwest of Dallas. There was just one problem: Atkins couldn’t be there.

“I messed up on the dates,” Atkins admitted after a practice in late September. She had based the date on when the WNBA playoffs ended last year, which was her rookie season. But last year’s schedule was condensed to accommodate the FIBA World Cup, and this year’s WNBA Finals stretched into October. So, during her own two-day tournament, Atkins was 1,200 miles away in Las Vegas, preparing for Game 3 of the Mystics’ semifinal series against the Aces.

More from High School

In her place, Atkins’s mom and a few coaches she trusts helped run the tournament, which featured 14 varsity and 4 junior varsity teams. “It went really well,” Atkins said. “… It was a really fun event for the community and the city … to come out [and] enjoy some good basketball.”

Each team played three games in a round-robin format at Duncanville High School, Atkins’s alma mater, and there was even a live DJ to help keep the energy high. “It’s kind of like hosting a mini festival,” she explained.

Atkins was extremely excited to finally host her own tournament, implementing a business plan she had started developing as a collegian and replicating an experience she had treasured as a young player. Growing up in Duncanville, “I enjoyed going to tournaments,” she recalled. They were “events where you know people are going to come to. You got parents, you got younger kids, you got spectators, you got coaches, friends of coaches. Basketball tournaments create a lot of, I guess, static in the city.” For a high school player, that static can create an electric environment to play in—and for a professional player looking to give back, it can also present a golden opportunity.

While every team entered the tournament eager to compete against some of the best local talent, the weekend also focused on benefiting the community. Rather than the round-robin format, Atkins had hoped to set up a bracket in which each team would represent an organization of its choice in the Duncanville/Dallas area. The grand prize for the winning team would be a donation to the organization it represented.

“The kids will be giving back in that aspect,” Atkins told former WNBA star Dev Peters on Peters’s YouTube series, Check Up. “They’re playing for themselves, but they’re really … playing for whatever community or organization they choose.” She added that she expected people associated with the featured organizations to come to the tournament and root for their teams: “It just builds a community … but it’s still basketball. So it kinds of brings those two worlds together.”

Amid the demands of the WNBA season, Atkins ran out of time to figure out the logistics for the bracket. However, she still managed to turn the event into a fundraiser for the community by hosting a supply drive for two local organizations.

She explained, “For me, [the event] was a good way to not only have a girls’ basketball tournament, but to have an event to where I know people will come to and then they will be able to help with whatever I said I wanted to do … [or] anybody in the city wants to do.”

Atkins plans to repeat the event in future years, perhaps with the bracket format in place. “My goal [this year] was to really get it off the ground and get it going,” she explained, “and next year it’ll be something different. Then the year after that we’ll just pick up and try to … make it bigger and bigger.”

As Atkins becomes a bigger and bigger star in the WNBA, this effort is just one indication of how grateful she remains for the city that made her—even if she couldn’t quite show it in person.

Love our 24/7 women’s basketball coverage? Join our Patreon now and support this work, while getting extra goodies and subscriber-only content for yourself.

Home/Washington Mystics