WILLIAMSBURG — Local business owner Kenya Williams used to coach for the basketball program at Williamsburg Christian Academy (WCA). Now, he’s creating new opportunities for local basketball talent to continue to develop and grow at the next level.
The basketball team is called the Triangle Shooters. The team will be based in Williamsburg and will be competing in the American Basketball Association (ABA) starting in November 2022. The team will be using the WCA gym where Williams once coached.
“I realized that a lot of the guys that I’ve known, and even a lot of the younger guys; when they stop playing basketball, they think it all stops when they stop in college,” said Williams. “Some of them want to go to the NBA, or to another league, but a lot of them don’t know there are other opportunities to fulfill their dreams. There are other avenues and this is just another pipeline for them to fulfill their dreams.”
ABA is a semi-professional basketball league. The Triangle Shooters will be joining the Mid-Atlantic Division; a division that now consists of 22 teams. The regular season stretches from Nov. 2022 to March 2023 and consists of 20 games: 10 home games and 10 away games.
“This is a big area that is known for soccer, but we have a lot of talented basketball athletes in the area as well and sometimes they think that they have to go to other areas to play basketball,” said Williams. “Well, you have a lot of local guys that still want to fulfill that dream. So why not give them another opportunity. So this is it.”
Williams says that a big motivation for this new ABA team is the desire to help guide and nurture young players so that the team can help place young athletes on the path to success. The long-term goal is to create a stepping stone for local talent to achieve their goals of playing in the NBA G-league, overseas, or even at the highest level in the NBA. He’s motivated by stories of talented players who almost made it to the next level.
The Williamsburg Shooters now have a venue to play basketball, a long-term mission, and a head coach already picked. Former Assistant Coach at Virginia Union University Hannibal Tuck has been offered the position. The team will most likely hold tryouts in May 2022 with the age limit for basketball players being 18 to 40 years old. Williams says that that he sees the first game as a community event. Tickets to watch games will be around $10, and the team is looking for sponsors in the area.
For more information on Triangle Shooters, locals can follow the organization on Facebook.
Those interested in sponsoring the team or receiving additional information can email the organization directly at: triangleshooters1@gmail.com.
