Wrangell students are about to get their hearts pumping Monday when Team Hollywood Celebrity Streetball comes back to town.
“Playing at this level, at this high of a level, it makes you grow as a person, mentally and physically,” Roman Adams said. He mentors youth with Team Hollywood Celebrity Streetball and is a soccer athlete who’s played internationally. “It’s just fun seeing them [the youth], not even just play soccer, but play basketball. And just being able to talk with them and how they’ve grown up in Alaska, and just talk about the things they’ve been through, done, seen and what they do in their free time.”
Team Hollywood Celebrity Streetball visited Wrangell once before, in early 2023. They aim to end bullying and promote building self-esteem through inspiration, motivation and encouragement.
The team consists of professional athletes (some from the National Basketball Association and the National Football League), musicians and actors. But next week Wrangellites will get to meet basketball and soccer players.
Three-on-three tournament
Not only will students meet the stars, but all ages and genders can choose to participate in a draft.
They’ll set up a three-on-three tournament Monday night, to be held right after acknowledging Veterans Day.
Team Hollywood President Pete Adams said they teach students that it’s not about having the best players. He said, to win, the student captains have to recognize everyone has their own strengths and they have to coach to those strengths.
“What happens when the game is over?”
Adams said Team Hollywood has been around for 23 years and it all started when he was working with players of the entertainment-oriented basketball team, the Harlem Globetrotters. He realized he wanted to give more.
“What happens when the game is over? What happens when sometimes youth go home to abusive situations? Our youth are bullied, our youth are in conflict and they don’t know which way to turn, which way to go,” he said.
So, he designed Team Hollywood to be a mentorship program for youth, even through technology and long distance.
“There’s literally not a single day that goes by we don’t hear from youth,” Adams said. “We would like to try to guide and protect. Some of the comments youth have made to us, ‘I was getting ready to make a bad decision, and I thought about the jersey I signed.’”
They bring jerseys for youth to sign if they make a commitment to fight bullying.
Mentoring is Adams’ calling
Adams said mentoring is his calling. He spent 30 years as a mentor through the Jackson County Family Court system in Missouri.
“It makes me think outside the box,” he said. “Not everyone has the same background. Not everyone started the same.
Other athletes headed to Wrangell are Major League Soccer player Khalid Jones, college basketball player Liam Johnson and college basketball coach and former NBA star Chucky Brown.
“He’s excited to be there,” Adams said. “For Chucky to be there, this is not normal because he’s a head basketball coach and we’re in basketball season, and they have a game November 14.”
“…encouraging our children who are struggling…”
Before the ball hits the court though, the athletes will visit all Wrangell schools and speak with the students.
Tribal Administrator Esther Aaltséen Reese with the Wrangell Cooperative Association said local youth are eager.
“I think giving our youth the opportunity to come in and learn; and that kind of a structure like we used to have in our community, is just really beneficial,” she said.
Reese said their ancestors had apprentices, for activities like carving and weaving.
“This is another opportunity to mimic that kind of format that our people used to have of the master apprentices, whether it be for basketball, whether it be these athletes coming in and encouraging our children who are struggling in one area or another in their lives,” she said.
Though the big day with the students is Monday, Team Hollywood will be at the Wrangell High School Gym on Sunday from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. to shoot hoops and kick the ball around.
They will also have NBA merchandise available at discounted prices while here.
