The second annual Dylan Isaacs Memorial Basketball Tournament took place in Ohsweken at the Dajoh Youth and Elders Centre from Thursday, August 22 to Sunday, August 25, 2025.
The event was held in honour of Isaacs, a 30-year-old Six Nations man who was tragically killed while leaving an NFL stadium in Miami, Florida back in January 2024.
Following his death, friends approached the family with the idea of hosting a basketball tournament in his honour, knowing it was something Isaacs’ always wanted to do.
“He’s always talked about wanting to do a tournament and getting the youth involved in basketball,” said Cecelia Sky, Isaacs’ aunt. “He loved all sports, but basketball? That was probably his favourite.”
“One day last year, me and Cleveland posted a photo of a tournament, just to see what people thought, and we ended up getting a lot of interest in it and we really decided, ‘okay, we’re going to do this thing,’” added Ryan Maracle, an organizer for the event and one of Isaacs’ friends. “We started the process and worked with the Dajoh, and we ended up getting a lot of support from the community as well so that made it easy.”
During this year’s four-day tournament, nine teams from all over North America came out to participate. While the competition was through the roof, the women’s championship title ultimately went to team Bigfoot, while the Renegades took home the men’s championship.
“There was a lot of good competition last year, but this year there were a lot of new faces, so that only made it more interesting and it was a lot of fun,” said Duelle Gore, one of the Renegades team members. “It’s cool because it’s already grown since last year and so I think everyone who came here this weekend, when they go home, they’re going to tell their friends and it will just grow through word of mouth and I think that’s exactly what we’re looking for.”
Just like in 2024, a Smoke Dance competition took place between the semi-finals and finals, attracting 95 dancers to the community centre.
Austin Hill, another one of Isaacs’ friends and an organizer for the tournament, said that this year they also decided to add something new to the community event ; a youth skill camp for Six Nations children ages ten to 14.
“The whole thing kicked off on Monday with our youth skill camp, and each kid got a free pair of shoes and basketball,” he said. “Hockey and lacrosse are the main sports here and it’s so expensive, but with basketball, you just need a pair of shoes and the ball, right? So that’s what we gave them and it was all free of charge, even the camp, and that ran until Thursday.”
Gore, who was also one of the basketball players who helped teach the 30 youth participating in the skill camp, said he was happy with how it turned out.
“It went really well,” he said. “We taught them all the fundamentals and we taught them how to just have fun with it. It was cool for me, because I’m actually from Florida and so it felt like I really got to introduce myself in the community too.”
Hill added that none of this would be possible without the work of the organizing committee, the sponsors, volunteers, and of course, the community.
“We can’t do this by ourselves and there are just many people, including our sponsors and our volunteers who made this happen,” he said. “Even the community too, the gym was packed for the playoffs and the atmosphere was just incredible, you know?”
“I just think Dylan would be so proud of what our community did,” added Maracle. “We have this beautiful gym here and we haven’t had anything like this happen before and now we’ve done it twice, and it’s just gotten better. I’m just so happy and I know he’s so proud of us.”
Susan Sky-Isaacs, Dylan’s mother, also added that she was happy to see how the tournament turned out.
“It was a nice tournament,” said Sky-Isaacs. “It seems to have really built even from last year and the whole thing was just great, this was Dylan’s dream… his thing, really, and I think seeing this level of basketball has helped our community open their eyes to the sport. The kids were just excited and wanted to come and watch, and then the ones who did the camp got to come and see them play, it just brightened their eyes even more. Now they see what these players can do and how they can travel around, so that’s really nice.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
