Breaking Barriers Through Hoops

For many who have advanced through Tommy Amaker’s basketball program at Harvard, one common theme is prevalent: a challenge to excel beyond the basketball court and truly make a genuine difference in the community.

Two former members of the program, All-Ivy standout Brandyn Curry ‘14 and team manager Mike Evans Ed.M.’11, have exemplified this message through prolonging their relationship outside the walls of Lavietes Pavilion.

For Evans, the idea to develop his own non-profit called Full Court Peace preceded his time in Cambridge. The former Hamilton College graduate was playing professionally in Northern Ireland in 2006, a country embroiled in political tension amongst Protestants and Catholics even in the post-Good Friday years. While in Belfast, Evans recognized the opportunity to transform his passion for basketball into a unifying force for children growing up in this polarizing milieu.

“Basketball there was not tied to a religion,” Evans said. “...The youth basketball community was very small, so it was an opportunity to unite Catholic and Protestant youth together. That was the catalyst for the idea.”

A few years of hard work later, Full Court Peace began to see a noticeable impact in Belfast as basketball served as a vehicle to reduce animosity and bridge together largely isolated groups. Children were bonded together through sport, and Evans recognized an opportunity to expand his “pilot” project across the globe. In the past 10 years, Full Court Peace has organized service trips to Cuba where Americans and local Cubans work together to revamp run-down basketball courts. In addition, the non-profit organizes cross-background camps and leagues in Fairfield County, Conn., where socioeconomic gaps are amongst the largest nationally.

Full Court Peace organizes youth camps in Fairfield County, Conn., bridging together children of a variety of backgrounds. By Courtesy of Mike Evans/Full Court Peace

“The repeated interaction, the repeated winning and the repeated losing creates bonding for the kids,” Evans stated. “...What we’re trying to do now is to have more of our trips to represent what we do in Connecticut, which is bringing together the have and the have-not communities.”

Shortly after turning over control of the Belfast program in 2009, Evans enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Education with hopes of elevating his non-profit and boosting his knowledge in sports diplomacy. Here, the former overseas athlete decided to remain invested in basketball and became a student manager for the Harvard Men’s Basketball team in 2010-11.

For Brandyn Curry, it was Evans’s persistent dedication to the sport that first stood out when the two first met. The Huntersville, N.C., native had just come off a stellar rookie season for the Crimson.

“You could tell [Evans] was an extremely hard worker, going to school and working hard for us,” Curry said. “He would also be working hard playing basketball, he would shoot after and work on his own game. So you could tell he really loves the game.”

The numerous conversations between the Crimson star and graduate student manager continued even after Evans earned his degree from the Ed. School in 2011 and the future sociology graduate signed his first overseas professional contract in 2014. While still cementing his basketball career first in Holland and later in Germany, Curry began to explore options for giving back and quickly connected back to Evans’s work with Full Court Peace.

“I am in a position where I am fortunate to be able to do what I want to do for a living, to get to play overseas,” Curry said. “I definitely want to give back as much as I can... I had been keeping up with Mike [Evans] and everything and I looked more into what he was doing and it was just perfect.”

Curry added that the core philosophy of Full Court Peace as an organization to unite people of varying backgrounds particularly stood out to him.

“Basketball has done a lot for me, it has changed my life and it took me to places I never would have been without it,” Curry said. “It is such a powerful game and using it to change the lives of kids all around the world, it is how I should give back.”

In the past 10 years, Full Court Peace has renovated several basketball courts in Cuba and helped developed the sport through youth involvement. By Courtesy of Mike Evans/Full Court Peace

The former Crimson guard’s contributions to Full Court Peace extend beyond his financial donations as one of the non-profit’s only monthly donors. Through his relationship with Wendell Maxey—a sports media veteran who worked with Brandyn during his first two years playing professionally overseas—Curry was able to partner with a Boston-based apparel company called XvsO Sports.

This company, in which Maxey is now the VP of Marketing & Media, specializes in representing memorable sports plays as works of art on t-shirts and posters. Examples of memorialized plays include the ‘Minneapolis Miracle’ catch by Vikings receiver Stefon Diggs or Duke legend Christian Laettner’s “The Shot”.

“There are these plays that might capture a moment in time but there is usually a story,” said founder and designer Mark Guarino. “If you put the moment in context you [realize] what the story is all about. It is usually what makes it more interesting.”

In recent years, XvsO has also sought to partner with athletes like Curry in order to create customized shirts of their most renowned moments. For the Harvard graduate, three shirts were created under his name and available currently for sale: The ‘Lefty Dunk’ play in Harvard’s defeat over Yale on February 18, 2012; Curry’s ‘Game Winner’ while playing for Dutch team Den Bosch in 2015; and most recently, the ‘Corner Three’ in the 2018 DBL Championships in Holland.

This project became more than just a commemoration of the Crimson alum’s personal moments. Here, Maxey and Curry recognized an opportunity for the t-shirts to be used as a platform for good. In reaching back to Evans and Full Court Peace, the two decided to form a partnership where a portion of the sales for Curry’s shirts would go toward Evans’ non-profit.

“The amazing thing was that Wendell and Brandyn came to me, and said that if there was to be a charitable component to it, [they] wanted to incorporate Full Court Peace,” Evans said.

“It was a win-win for all of us,” Maxey added. “...if people support what [Full Court Peace] is doing, they can purchase a shirt even if it is not for them. The shirt is basically the canvas. And what happens between those lines with Mark [Guarino]’s creativity as a designer and us saying, let’s collaborate and work with some people.”

This initiative has continued to today as Curry transitions to playing in the top-tier French professional league for ESSM Le Portel this season. Throughout this process, many working around Brandyn have appreciated his desire to contribute to organizations like Full Court Peace and help fellow athletes realize a larger perspective to their careers.

Brandyn Curry '14 was an all-Ivy standout player for Coach Tommy Amaker during his time with the Crimson. By Robert F Worley

“Brandyn really sees the opportunity to go beyond his own achievements by starting to promote some of these other amateur athletes,” Guarino stated.

For Curry, much of this mentality and willingness to engage in partnerships like that between him, XvsO Sports, and Full Court Peace connect back to his time in Cambridge under the guidance of Coach Amaker.

“Coach Amaker is really big on being more than just a basketball player, really being a role model, taking an initiative to give back to your community, because we are all blessed to attend Harvard University,” Curry said.

This Crimson connection made on the basketball court nearly 10 years ago has lasted to the present, connecting together shared goals between business and non-profit. With all three parties—Full Court Peace, Brandyn Curry, and XvsO Sports— still in their developmental trajectories on and off the court, it is the appreciation for the role of sport and basketball that has been the unifying factor throughout this collaboration.

“I see firsthand how powerful the game of basketball is,” Curry concluded. “...Basketball brings us all together and I think it is a really powerful tool when used the right way.”

—Staff writer Henry Zhu can be reached at henry.zhu@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @Zhuhen88.

—Crimson editor Amir Mamdani contributed reporting.