HOOPS stands for “Celebrating Original People in Sports.”
Deshaun and Sherman Joseph want to see more Indigenous athletes succeed on the world stage.
The husband-and-wife duo are the founders of Indigenous Hoops (short for “Celebrating Original Peoples in Sport”), a national basketball program for Indigenous youth that started as a regional league for the Tulalip Tribe.
“It all started with a little girl wanting to play basketball,” Sherman Joseph said of her and Deshawn Joseph’s oldest daughter, who wanted to play basketball when she was little. She didn’t have a team to join until Deshawn Joseph started coaching her.
“She needed something for herself to have an outlet and something to look forward to,” Sherman-Joseph said.
In 2014, when the Josephs’ oldest daughter was a freshman in high school, the Tulalip community was affected by the Marysville Pilchuck High School shooting. Among those shot were tribal members, including a local teenager who was close to the girl.
“They grew up together,” Sherman Joseph said. “So it really just opened our eyes. [see] what we haven’t done enough [in the community]. Maybe we just sit around doing nothing. ”
To better support the youth in the area, the Joseph family began working hard on their existing basketball program, Unity Basketball, which they founded in 2010. Mr. and Mrs. Joseph’s daughter was part of the first Unity team. and eventually expanded it into her second program. , Indigenous HOOPS, founded in 2021.
Charmaine and Deshawn Joseph said that while the overall goal was to give Indigenous children an opportunity to showcase their talents and athletic abilities, Indigenous hoops also strengthened the spiritual development of Indigenous youth. He said he also hopes to support health.
“Early in the pandemic, we realized that there was a huge gap in tribal youth and that mental health rates were decreasing and suicide rates were decreasing due to tribal exploitation. [gone] Up. So we wanted to create something that would be a beacon of hope, something for kids to look forward to,” said Deshaun Joseph.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, suicide was the second leading cause of death for American Indians and Alaska Natives ages 10 to 34 in 2019.
“Life is bigger than basketball, especially when it comes to mental health,” Deshawn Joseph said, adding, “As a young American Indian who lived on a reservation and probably didn’t have as many opportunities as others, , basketball served as an outlet for me.”
Sherman-Joseph said Indigenous HOOPS not only supports youth mental health and all the life skills the program teaches, but also provides participants with a sense of belonging.
“It gives me my own family of my own making and building,” she said. “It’s more than basketball, it’s just family.”
Sherman and Deshawn Joseph, affectionately known around the league as “Mama Shaar,” said they treat the players like their own children.
Their oldest daughter no longer plays basketball, but the small team her father started coaching for her has since grown into a national program that encourages Native youth to attend college and sign with college teams. became.
“It feels like it’s like a powwow, bringing the whole nation together,” Deshawn Joseph said. “But we’re there for the kids to play the sport we all love.”
