Next Play Basketball Program will be hosting their annual Hoops for Hope 3v3 Basketball Tournament this Sunday, Oct. 22, in an effort to raise funds that will benefit the Access 2 Success Charity for Nigerian youth.

The event will take place from 12-4 p.m., at La Salle College High School, located on the 8600 block of West Cheltenham Avenue in Wyndmoor. Next Play, which holds AAU teams and summer basketball leagues, is bringing the day of basketball and charity back for the first time since 2021.

Tournament brackets are based on age groups with combined grades; there will be a 3rd-4th grade bracket, as well as a 5th-6th grade, 7th-8th, 9th-10th, 11th-12th, and an adult bracket for people above the age of 18. Sign ups to participate or spectate are available until the day of; If interested in going, visit www.nextplaybasketball.com/charity.

“At La Salle we say ‘kids enter to learn and leave to serve,” said the Head Coach of La Salle Basketball and Co-founder of Next Play, Ryan Ansel. “A mission of mine is not only to help kids develop as players, teammates, and leaders, but to also help them realize their opportunities and how they can help others by giving back.”

Andrew Lovedale, founder of the Access 2 Success foundation and a native of Nigeria will be in attendance to deliver some words for the event. 

“A big goal of mine is to create more awareness,” Ansel said. “A2S is big in the Charlotte, Davidson area where Andrew is at, but I’m trying to bring it to Philadelphia just to expand their impact and reach.”

Lovedale graduated from Davidson College in 2010, where he played alongside NBA All Star and former league MVP Stephen Curry. He grew up playing in sandals, poorly made shoes, and would even play barefoot at times, and would collect and send home used shoes from the Davidson basketball team during his time in college. 

What started as collecting shoes to support his hometown, eventually became the A2S foundation, where he now works with a mission to provide sustainable programs that generate positive change for Nigerian children and their communities.

“It went from giving shoes, to running basketball camps, to bringing entrepreneurs over from the U.S." Ansel said. “Now [A2S] has grown to help Nigerian communities start businesses and get them investments from the states; the whole goal is to provide them with an opportunity to provide for themselves – it’s pretty great to see the work he has done and his vision.”