Each spring, the sound of squeaky sneakers on the gym floor ends as the Vineyard’s youth basketball travel team ends its season. But not anymore.
This year, the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) basketball team makes its debut on the Island, as part of a national travel league. The Vineyard Breakers will feature both sixth and seventh grade teams.
Head coach Irvin Jones, who coaches the fall and winter travel leagues, spearheaded the drive to create the Island league. Mr. Jones hails from Memphis, where AAU teams are common, he said.
“I started asking around if there’s ever been an AAU basketball team and nobody knew what it was,” he said. “I started the program and used the kids from the travel team because I already knew them and then we started fundraising around the Island.”
Mr. Jones wears a number of hats on the Island. He is employed full-time at the Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard and also works part-time as a DJ, often taking residence at The Loft.
He moved to the Island at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic with his wife (and assistant coach) Shawna Rose Lima, who is from the Island. Mr. Jones wanted to get involved in the community and started coaching basketball at the Martha’s Vineyard Boys and Girls Club.
“If I wanted to live on the Island, I needed to get into the community,” he said.
From there, he started coaching kids one-on-one and began refereeing games.
Mr. Jones’s love and knowledge of the game comes from growing up in Tennessee and Georgia, where he said he was surrounded by future NBA stars, including Dwight Howard, a former NBA all-star.
For Ms. Lima, who works at the Oak Bluffs School and previously worked at the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital, the group of kids and parents involved in the league has been a highlight of the process.
“This is the most committed group of parents and the best group of kids that we’ve ever worked with,” she said. “We couldn’t be happier that the community is supporting us.”
According to parent Monique Blair, who helps out with uniforms and team communication, Mr. Jones has been a blessing to the basketball community on the Island.
“We’ve been looking for a coach with a lot of background in basketball that wasn’t a parent and he’s so invested in our kids,” she said. “He just does so many fun things of them even outside of basketball.”
Mr. Jones said his passion is sharing his love for basketball with kids.
“I’m trying to get the program to feel like the NBA, with music at halftime and giving fans gifts in the stands,” he said. “I bring all my equipment to the gym and DJ for free. I do it not only for my team but for all teams.”
His favorite part of starting the AAU team has been the Island community’s enthusiasm.
“The [thing] I most enjoy about AAU basketball on the Island is seeing the wonderful smiles on the parents’ and kids’ faces when they’re in a gym and we’re playing a game and [seeing] the way the kids advance and pick up the game so well,” he said.
The first game for the seventh grade team is at the Zero Gravity Spring Tip-Off on March 22. The sixth grade team plays their first game in early April.
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