On one of the last Saturdays of summer, Apex for Youth descended on Sunset Park with a day of hoops and harmony. The nonprofit’s “Hoops Over Hate” 3-on-3 basketball tournament and its back-to-school Field Day brought hundreds of young people and families together for a celebration of mentorship, teamwork, and possibility.
While families gathered on the main lawn for activities with Apex partner organizations including Mixteca, Womenkind, and the Brooklyn Book Bodega, small teams battled it out in a tournament on the courts above.
That’s where Ackie Brown, 17, a volunteer in Apex’s youth summer league, swapped his coach’s whistle for a player’s jersey. He recruited his Berkeley Carroll classmates James Kirben and Dylan Angel, and the three stormed through the bracket to win the championship. “It feels great,” Kirben said. “We had the chemistry to play together since we were little. It was over when we showed up.” Dylan added simply: “Good team basketball. That’s what gets it done.”
Unlike the one-day tournament, Apex’s basketball programming is normally built around 5-on-5 play, with one mentor coaching six kids every Saturday through the summer. “You don’t often think about athletics as mentorship,” said Yaya Yuan, Apex’s director of programs. “But for a young person who maybe isn’t a classroom learner, athletics is a vehicle to build confidence, to build agency, to build belonging.”
For Skylar, 11, a student from Staten Island, the day was about redemption. He had lost in a Chinatown tournament last year but returned to Sunset Park determined. This time he held a first-place trophy, quick to thank his teammates: “I want to give credit to Aiden, Ian, and Andrew. They really helped me push through.”
Apex has made Sunset Park one of its anchor neighborhoods since 2019, focusing on small-group mentorship in elementary school, one-to-one mentorship in middle school, and extending support through young adulthood. Nearly half of Asian American families live at or near the poverty line, about 70 percent of residents have limited English proficiency, and nearly 20,000 young people in the neighborhood are between ages five and 17. Yuan points to the long-term impact: 95 percent of Apex youth build lasting relationships with a trusted adult, 93 percent embrace their strengths and identities, and more than half achieve greater economic stability than the families they grew up in.
That sense of belonging is also what draws volunteers like John, 24, who coaches a team of six each summer. “Honestly, it’s just wanting to give back to the community,” he said. “It’s fun to watch how these kids collaborate and work together at a young age. It’s something I wish I had more opportunities when I was younger. I’m just doing my best to be a role model.”
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