Helena will host the Native American Basketball Coaches Association summit for the first time, bringing together some of the states most talented basketball minds.
Jack Marshall
SWX Local Sports Reporter
HELENA, Mont. – Helena will host the Native American Basketball Coaches Association summit for the first time, bringing together some of the states most talented basketball minds.
Cousins Justin and Donnie Wetzel played a key role in organizing this event. Justin Wetzel has risen through the ranks to become an associate head coach for the Indiana Pacers G-League team. Donnie Wetzel Jr., who runs Identity Inc., a nonprofit linked with the Montana Indian Athletic Hall of Fame, emphasized the summit’s goals.
He stated, “The idea was to get different kind of levels of that knowledge and intelligence out to Montana and out to Indian country and get more access to some of our coaches and really look at the philosophy of, how do you build a culture of excellence through sports and athletics.”
The summit will feature a range of activities, with skill development sessions in the morning, standard summer tournament activities in the afternoon, and coaching clinics in the evening. Coaches like Jeremy MacDonald from Box Elder will contribute to the event.
Justin added, “So what it will look like is the morning will really look like a skill development session. The afternoon will look like more of a more of your standard summer tournament type deal. And then probably an evening component is going to be some coaching clinic stuff.”
“We are going to integrate some of our indigenous culture and, and ways of life. So, we’ll have, you know, maybe an elder there to speak and to just tap into some of the things on, what it means to be a warrior in this world, you know, and how you carry that on throughout your life,” Donnie Jr said.
The event will take place July 14-16 at Carroll College in Helena, Montana, and is open to anyone interested. Click here to sign up.