New Champions Crowned in Fourth Annual Hoops 4 Hoops East End 3's Basketball Tourament

Rumson earned the crown at the fourth annual Hoops 4 Hope “East End 3’s” 3-on-3 basketball tournament on Saturday at Sportime Amagansett.

The trio of Finn and Theo Carlston and former East Hampton High School basketball great Brandon Kennedy-Gay defeated Unaccompanied Minors to win the tournament that supported Hoops 4 Hope’s mission of helping underserved communities all around the world, but in particular, Cape Town, South Africa, and Harare, Zimbabwe. Proceeds of the tournament help provide young people in those two cities with the fundamentals and opportunities necessary to be happy, healthy and safe, both emotionally and physically.

“It was a great tournament,” H4H co-founder Anthony Allison said. “I’m extremely grateful for the support. It was just a straight up good time, a good turnout and I think everybody had a good experience, for sure. We’re looking forward to doing it again.”

Allison said this year’s tournament saw greater participation than last year’s, and that led to a bit more energy.

“I think everybody came ready to play, ready to go,” Allison said. “It was good ball. They got a lot of games in.”

Allison thanked Joe Gonzalez, a coach from up the island who’s knowledge of basketball and running such tournaments is always big boon to the group of volunteers who run the tournament every year.

The H4H model and curriculum are based on the seven tools of an Ubuntu champion, which are focus, sense of humor, self-awareness, responsibility, integrity, self-esteem and teamwork. Co-founder Mark Crandall said that was on display throughout the tournament, from the adults and teenagers playing in the games, to the under-aged youth looking to play in the tournament. Instead, Crandall said they play a game of DOG, a shortened game of HORSE, with the kids who also got a little 3-on-3 game in themselves eventually.

“It was a superb day,” he said. “The Ubuntu spirit was really felt throughout the great volunteers we have, from East Hampton Sports Camp to the use of the Sportime Arena where we do our events which is always helpful. Since we’re raising funds for what we do we always want to make it a low-cost event. We’re hoping that this will now be a part of a series of many events as we’ve had some really nice interest from a lot of different people.”

Crandall said that a team came from Westchester to play in the tournament and enjoyed it so much that they invited and Allison to come out and put on a similar event out there. Another idea was to hold another 3-on-3 youth basketball tournament closer to the basketball season and get the area’s many schools involved.

“That's really what this all about, rolling up our sleeves, putting in a lot of hard work and having a lot of fun,” Crandall said. “We have programs now in 70 different schools in Zimbabwe and South Africa. We’re even pushing into the schools in Zimbabwe because they lack the means for what would be a normal phys ed class. So normally we’d meet with the kids after school to create safe spaces for them. Now we’re able to push in on the teacher’s break times to give the teacher a break. There is such a youth bulge there in Africa, it’s the youngest continent where the majority of people are under 30 years old. So the schools are packed and many times it’s not safe for the kids to play. Of course we have our amazing All-Star and MVP mentors on the ground there, and aside from playing basketball, they’re reading or playing chess right on the court.”

Last year, not soon after the unexpected death of one of the founding directors of H4H, many local businesses committed to the reviving many of the organization’s courts in Zimbabwe which was a huge help, Crandall said.

“These are high density urban areas where there are not a lot of safe spaces for kids to go to,” he said. “So it’s much more important make those places as safe as possible.”

Crandall said that he and Allison will be announcing more local events, some big, some small, in the coming weeks to keep H4H more visible than just a few weeks in the year.

More information on Hoops 4 Hope can be found at hoops4hope.org.