Seven members of the Nike Elite Youth Basketball League’s Scholastic League are participating as a tournament partner for the 2026 event. Those teams will play several games counting in its Scholastic league standings and a few will also take on local teams.

Coming with them to play in those games are many of the top four- and five-star prospects of the sophomore, junior and senior classes in the country.

“Each year we try to ‘out-do’ outselves from the year before with regards to the level of talent participating and I think we have achieved that again,” FTTH found and president Eric Horstman said. “With 10 5-star and 20-plus 4-star players on one court over the weekend, our fans will get to see some high-level talent that will eventually be playing professionally.

“As of last week, we will have 5 of the top 20 teams in the nation in Dayton over the MLK weekend.”

Three players ranked in the top-25 of the 247Sports Composite as of Wednesday and listed as five stars are participating at this year’s event.

The top rated player of the group is Arafan Diane of Iowa United (Utah). The 7-foot, 1-inch, 290-pound center is the top ranked player at his position and 14th overall ranked recruit in the country. He is signed to play at Houston.

Alex Constanza of SPIRE Academy is the 20th ranked recruit in the country and No. 2 player in Ohio. He is signed to play at Georgetown. Jaxon Richardson with Southeastern Prep out of Orlando, Fla., is the 22nd ranked prospect and fifth overall small forward in his class. He holds several power conference offers but has yet to commit.

Other top-ranked recruits that have been rated as four stars include:

Four-star recruits include:

Margaretta features three-star Dayton signee Julian Washington and local fans can see the senior play on Jan. 19 at the event.

More five-stars that are 2027 recruits also will be present. Southeastern Prep features the top-two ranked juniors in the country, 6-foot-10 C. J. Rosser and 7-foot-0 Obinna Ekezie Jr., and also has No. 23 Beckham Black on the roster.

SPIRE has No. 11 King Gibson, and Dream City Christian has No. 13 Malachi Jordan.

Four-star juniors include No. 28 Tyran Frazier and No. 55 Godson Okokoh of Iowa United, No. 32 Devin Cleveland of La Lumiere, No. 70 Joshua Tyson and No. 143 Bryce Curry of Lakota West, No. 78 Keaundre Morris and No. 85 Chris Brown of Dream City Christian, No. 81 Darrell Davis of SPIRE, No. 87 Marri Wesley and No. 122 Griffin Starks of Southeastern Prep, and No. 90 Trevor Manhertz of Christ School (N. C.)

Top ranked sophomores include four stars Mateen Cleaves Jr. of Dream City Christian, Stra Zelic of Wasatch Academy, and Keonte Smith of Northridge.

More than 100 players have competed at past FTTH events and have gone on to play in the NBA.

2026 Beacon Orthopaedics Flyin’ to the Hoop Schedule

Friday, Jan. 16

6:30 p.m. — Dream City Christian (Ariz.) vs. Wasatch Academy (Utah)

8:15 p.m. — SPIRE Academy vs. Reynoldsburg

Saturday, Jan. 17

11:30 a.m. — CATS Academy (Mass.) vs. Dream City Christian (Ariz.)

1:15 p.m. — Cincinnati Wyoming vs. Huber Heights Wayne

3 p.m. — Lima Senior vs. Brunswick

4:45 p.m. — Wasatch Academy (Utah) vs. Cleveland St. Ignatius

6:30 p.m. — Southeastern Prep (Fla.) vs. Lutheran East

8:15 p.m. — Fishers (Ind.) vs. Centerville

Sunday, Jan. 18

11:30 a.m. — Utah Prep (Utah) vs. CATS Academy (Mass.)

1:15 p.m. — Iowa United (Iowa) vs. Dream City Christian (Ariz.)

3 p.m. — Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary vs. Cincinnati Moeller

4:45 p.m. — La Lumiere (Ind.) vs. Lakota West

6:30 p.m. — Upper Arlington vs. Kettering Alter

Monday, Jan. 19

11:30 a.m. — Christ School (N. C.) vs. Iowa United (Iowa)

1:15 p.m. — Margaretta vs. Northridge

3 p.m. — La Lumiere (Ind.) vs. Utah Prep (Utah)

4:45 p.m. — Warrensville Heights vs. Kettering Fairmont

6:30 p.m. — Indian Hill vs. Tri-Village

When: Jan. 16-19, 2026

Where: Trent Arena, Kettering

Tickets: www.flyintothehoop.com/tickets.asp. $11 general admission per day, $21 reserved seating per day, $68 general admission three-day pass, $123 reserved seating three-day pass

For more information: 937-704-9670 ext. 112, www.flyintothehoop.com

St. Cloud celebrated an exciting milestone for youth sports and community recreation on Saturday with a ribbon cutting ceremony officially opening the new St. Cloud Little League fields ahead of the February season kickoff.

The morning event brought together city leadership, state officials, Little League families, and community members to celebrate the upgraded facilities just in time for the upcoming spring season. The improvements include new fields, enhanced lighting, fencing, updated dugouts, and expanded parking—investments aimed at supporting local athletes and families for years to come.

Among those on hand for the ceremony were St. Cloud Mayor Chris Robertson, members of the St. Cloud City Council, City Manager Veronica Miller, and St. Cloud Police Chief Doug Goerke. The event also drew support from the state level, with Florida State Representatives Erika Booth and Paula Stark attending to show their backing for youth recreation and community-focused infrastructure.

The US Supreme Court will hear two challenges to state laws restricting transgender participation in youth sports, marking the justices’ first return to transgender rights since last year’s decision in United States v. Skrmetti.

The court in Skrmetti upheld a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors, but declined to answer whether transgender individuals constitute a quasi-suspect class deserving of higher judicial scrutiny.

The youth sports cases could give the court’s conservative majority an opportunity to answer that question and grant states wider discretion in imposing transgender-related regulations.

At issue in the cases being argued Tuesday is whether states may categorically bar transgender girls from competing on girls’ sports teams based on biological sex — and whether such policies should be reviewed deferentially, as the court held in Skrmetti, or subjected to heightened judicial review.

“What’s happening in Skrmetti, and what might happen here, is just saying, no, this isn’t sex discrimination at all even if the government is using sex,” said Yale Law School professor Douglas NeJaime. “And that is a real narrowing of decades of sex equality law.”

Skrmetti represented a setback for transgender rights, five years after the landmark victory in Bostock v. Clayton County for nationwide workplace protections for LGBTQ+ individuals under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Prior to Skrmetti, lower courts had been able to interpret Bostock broadly, Nejaime said. But last year’s decision limited Bostock’s reach, and the cases now before the court could result in further retrenchment on sex discrimination issues by the court.

“I hope that the court will see the stakes are really about sex equality,” said Kate Redburn, professor and director of Columbia Law School’s Center for Gender and Sexuality Law.

Joshua Block, senior counsel with the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project who will argue on behalf of one of the transgender respondents, acknowledged the loss in Skrmetti made the job of defending transgender rights harder.

“Look, we’re not hiding the ball in acknowledging that we have an uphill battle here,” Block said.

But, he said, critics misunderstood why that case got to the high court in the first place.

“There is, I think, this false narrative that people only defending the rights of trans folks have been trying to propel the issue both in the courts and in the court of public opinion, and I think the opposite is true,” Block said. “Why were these laws passed in the first place? They were passed to roll back the rights of transgender people. And I think it’s been a wildly successful strategy.”

Wider Stakes

Block said it was a “surprise” the justices moved so quickly to take up the transgender girls sports cases just weeks after resolving Skrmetti on narrow grounds.

“Five of the justices in Skrmetti were unwilling to sign on to a broader decision,” Block said. “I think the question is, are they going to take the same approach here or not?”

NeJaime said there’s reason to think the court might not.

“You had three justices on the record in Skrmetti saying no suspect class for trans people,” he said. “You might have some justices like Chief Justice Roberts or Justice Kavanaugh that maybe aren’t ready to completely go there.”

Redburn said the conservative justices seemed eager for a second shot at the constitutional questions they dodged in Skrmetti. But, Redburn said, even a narrow ruling could encourage legislatures to justify discriminatory laws as grounded in biology rather than stereotypes.

“The fear here is that the court is going to authorize states to legislate in discriminatory ways against trans people, but also against women in general, based on biological differences,” Redburn said.

The cases being argued Tuesday arise from challenges to laws in West Virginia and Idaho. In West Virginia, the Fourth Circuit ruled the state’s “Save Women’s Sports Act” likely violates Title IX’s ban on sex discrimination. In Idaho, the Ninth Circuit blocked enforcement of the nation’s first categorical ban on transgender women and girls in female sports, a law that also allows sex-verification challenges.

The Trump administration has urged the court to side with West Virginia and Idaho, as has the conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, which is assisting the states.

John Bursch, senior counsel and vice president of appellate advocacy at ADF, said the ACLU’s attempt to moot the Idaho case shows they fear the majority may take a broader approach than it did in Skrmetti.

“Just based on their briefing, I expect the primary approach will be duck-and-cover,” Bursch said.

The cases fit within a wider slate of litigation in which ADF has argued for expanded state authority and limits on the reach of transgender rights, including in disputes involving religious employers and parental objections.

Bursch said the court’s June decision signals growing judicial support for those arguments.

“I think the Skrmetti case really puts a lot of wind in our sails,” Bursch said.

West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey said victory would be a holding that the legislature acted constitutionally — a decision, he said, that would allow other states to pass similar legislation modeled on West Virginia’s. The state’s arguments don’t seek to move any of the court’s analyses “beyond the athletic playing fields of this country,” he said.

A decision upholding the laws would immediately be felt in the more than two dozen states that already restrict transgender participation in youth sports. But it could also encourage the Trump administration to pursue litigation against other, largely Democrat-led states in an attempt to enforce the president’s February executive order on restricting transgender participation in women’s sports, according to Tres Cleveland, co-chair of the higher education practice group at Thompson Coburn.

“Other than immigration enforcement, this issue is the cornerstone of what the president ran on,” Cleveland said. “What he will do with this decision and how far the administration will go in feeling vindicated is yet to be seen.”

The cases are Little v. Hecox, U.S., No. 24-38 and West Virginia v. B.P.J., U.S., No. 24-43, set for argument on 1/13/26.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — When you think of living in the desert, winter sports may not be the first thing that comes to mind – but it does for some kids in New Mexico.

“I love that you get pucks and it’s competitive. My dream is to be the Chicago Blackhawks’ Stanley Cup-winning goalie,” goalie Kieran Abhay said.

Abhay and his teammates on the New Mexico Warriors youth hockey team are all excited for the Winter Olympics, which start Feb. 6. Seeing pieces of themselves on the biggest athletic stage inspires them and others to keep playing.

“It sparks interest in the locker room about all, ‘My team is going to be your team and my players are better than yours,’ and it’s just it’s awesome to watch,” head coach Tom Terrel said.

It also reminds people in New Mexico that we have our own professional teams.

“I think more families are going to think, ‘Wow, we actually have hockey in Albuquerque,’ and once we kind of hammer that down, they’re going to roll over here and out to Rio Rancho,” said Kyle McKenzie, head coach of the New Mexico Ice Wolves.

Since the Ice Wolves have first calling New Mexico home in 2019, McKenzie said more and more people have been coming in, including families.

“We expect in a couple of years to double the size of everything on this side. Right now, we’re at about 110 kids. We hope to be at 300,” Terrel said.

The hockey hype is growing and impacting our local rinks, like The Mac in Rio Rancho, where the Warriors, Scorpions and now the University of New Mexico Lobos all play.

“It’s honestly brought in more business for the youth programs, just seeing these guys and then interacting with them on a daily basis, seeing them going to the locker room, seeing how they approach the game,” MAC employee Wayne McNatt said.

Hockey’s most recent expansion was the New Mexico Goatheads, which announced its name recently.

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