Layups, slam dunks, jump shots, free throws—there are lots of ways to score points in basketball. 

For Mikayla Paquette, A25, they’re one reason she has found the sport exhilarating since she first dribbled with ease in grade school. 

At Tufts, the 6-foot-1 center competed on the Jumbos team that went on to win the 2023 NESCAC Championship and advance to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. 

But recently the most important score she shoots for is contributing to the lives, and aspirations, of youth. It’s a mission she has built into Community Hoops, an organization she founded last June to, as she puts it, “empower the next generation of basketball players through skill development, civic and community engagement, and mentorship.”

Community Hoops’ after-school and weekend camps attracted 40 kids, ages 8-14, from the Medford and Somerville area to Cousens Gym, with Tufts varsity women’s and men’s basketball players serving as coach mentors. 

This April, Community Hoops also offered longer, six-hour clinics focused not only on skill development, but also on setting and achieving goals. And this summer, she will pilot a version of Community Hoops in South Africa. 

The camps and clinics reflect Paquette’s vision of helping young people find a sense of community. Recently honored with a regional Billie Jean King Youth Leadership Award, she champions opportunities for kids to enjoy sports and, at the same time, develop a positive view of themselves—and of others.

“We must choose to lift up everyone around us, to love and care for one another, in whatever way we know how,” she says. “For me, that way is basketball.”

How did you first connect civic engagement with basketball?

My ideas started to grow at Tufts because of my major in sociology and civic studies. I’m also a Tisch Scholar. But my interest really stems from my upbringing. My dad always says that life is a team sport. I had the idea of bringing my passion for basketball together with a project that strengthens communities. I put a proposal together that was awarded an Engaged Athlete Fellowship from The Team, a nonprofit that bridges civic engagement and college athletics, and thanks to that funding, I was able to spend a year developing my ideas into Community Hoops 

What’s the central goal of Community Hoops?

My goal is to give youth a positive sense of themselves, and of a team, using basketball as that common focus and activity. What I tell the kids is that the skills that we’re teaching you can apply to any of your interests in life. I also want to create the sense that we’re all on the same team. Everyone is getting better with you. To me, the basketball court is common ground. No matter who you are or your skill level, you can communicate through the love of the game and by simply playing together. 

How does Community Hoops express who you are?

As a young Black woman growing up in predominantly white schools, I was always kind of categorized as, oh, she’s here because she’s good at sports. Community Hoops is rewriting that narrative for me, and I hope it is one I can instill in younger kids, especially Black and brown kids. There’s nothing more rewarding to me than knowing I could inspire a young person through basketball. If I can be a role model for one kid, that one person means the world to me.

To help draw even more local youth to basketball, you are working with Artists for Humanity to paint the court at Medford’s Tufts Park. What was your idea there?

When I was thinking about various opportunities for Medford young people to enjoy basketball in their own community, I thought of designing something for a court that might capture their enthusiasm for just informal, outdoor games. The design for this court combines elements of what I see as fundamental to the sport. The flames to capture the “heat” of a lively game, and the basketball in the middle at center court comes with a pair of outstretched wings, to signify that you can kind of fly, both in basketball, and in life. It’s expressing all the aspirations we want to encourage in young people.

What are your plans for bringing Community Hoops to South Africa?

My family lived in Johannesburg for a couple of years, so we have deep connections there. When I was there last March, I laid the groundwork to work with three organizations: Kliptown Youth Program in Soweto, where Thulani Madondo, the founder, has been a mentor to me for years; The Comeback Mission, in El Dorado Park; and Soweto Basketball Academy, the first program of its kind in South Africa.    

All three of these organizations perfectly align with Community Hoops’ mission to empower young people and bring them together.