Hoops for Hope: A New School-Wide Tradition

Written By Julia and Rebeca, Grade 10, as part of the MYP Journalism Elective, led by Mr. Josefino Rivera

In this edition of our Student Journalism series, MYP Journalism Elective students Julia and Rebeca dive into the story behind Hoops for Hope, a student-led 3x3 basketball tournament held at ISP last March. They explore the event’s success in raising funds for cancer patients and the plans to improve the tournament for the 2024/2025 school year.

Hoops for Hope, a student-led 3x3 basketball tournament that took place last March at the International School of Prague, is already in the works for the 2024/2025 school year. Originally founded by the Athletics Council in collaboration with Hearts of Hope, the 3 week-long event raised 34,000Kč for cancer patients at Nemocnice Motol in Prague. Under new leadership, Athletics Council and Hearts of Hope plan to bring it back, stronger than ever.

“As soon as that 3x3 tournament was stated, everyone was like, yup, that’s what we’re doing,” Ms. Plicka, the Athletics Council advisor said.

The tournament ran in four Upper School pools and one Middle School pool, each with four teams. Teachers were also invited to participate within their respective divisions. Each win gave a team three points, and then the top two teams advanced to a knockout-style matchup. The eventual winners of the tournament were the ‘3 Guys’ team.

It was really fun when you have friends cheering and people you know playing. It built community, to have adults who teach us having fun with us.

Liam, a Grade 10 spectator

The tournament fostered a sense of community amongst students and teachers alike, bringing together grade levels and school divisions, on and off the court. “The fact that the money is going to a good cause is also really important for ISP too,” Liam continued.

Every player participating in the event had to pay 100Kč to join, but the majority of revenue was generated through a student-run bake sale occurring day-to-day. Hearts of Hope used their Instagram platform to spread information and encourage students and teams to wear certain colours daily in order to raise awareness for various types of cancer.

“We can do something that really focuses on educating the members of the community” Sofie, leader of Hearts of Hope, said, “That way we can destigmatise [cancer] and create an open conversation around it.”  
 
Aiming to improve the event, Sidney and Aviana, the leaders of Athletics Council, formed the fundraising committee with Shauna and Rebeca as leaders. By incorporating Hoops for Hope into a new committee, the aim is to better distribute the workload associated with organising the event.

We hope to make Hoops for Hope better mostly by having people specifically dedicated to that event. Last year, there were people helping out with the event that had other priorities.

Shauna, Grade 11

In addition to the fundraisers committee, both the Athletics Council and Hearts of Hope are making some changes in order to expand and improve the tournament. “We’re planning to incorporate more Student/Teacher teams, promote more female participation, have better Middle School promotion [and] keep it within 2 weeks. At the end, it got a little long and unorganised,” said Ms. Plicka.

All of these improvements were direct suggestions from past spectators and participants, and things both Athletics Council and Hearts of Hope are giving priority to through new leadership. “We’re already starting with transitioning our senior leaders into our next leaders. The younger students can see how it works and keep improving as it goes along,” Ms. Plicka continued.

The planning for Hoops for Hope 2025 is already underway, and planning will start after the break, making this event into what now will be a yearly tradition at ISP. “Growing up at ISP, there have been so many traditions and events that have been held annually and to know that this event could flourish into that is really cool to think about,” Sofie said.