Homere & Ham to Square Off in Juneteenth Charity Basketball Game

All proceeds from this event, will go towards helping kids afford AAU youth basketball.

DULUTH, Minn.- Thursday, June 19th, marks the national celebration of the federal holiday, Juneteenth.

Right here in Duluth two local leaders are putting together a charity basketball game to commemorate the occasion with a notable Duluth Denfeld Alum playing in the game.

Duluth Denfeld boys basketball head coach Phill Homere and Liza Williamson are constructing the first Juneteenth charity basketball game.

The captains of the teams will be Homere and Minnesota Vikings fullback CJ Ham.

The two teams competing in the game will be built from players that have made an impact in the community.

“I reached out to CJ Ham, and he said that he would love to be a part of it. As well as, he’s bringing another Vikings running back to play with him. So, we’re looking at it as, a basketball game where we’re just gonna get community members, I believe we have three police officers, three of them are from Fond du Lac that is going to be playing in this event and we are really looking forward to it and we want it to be almost like, something as far as, guys just out there enjoying themselves, having fun,” Said Homere. “We feel like it will be a good chance for us to raise awareness and play the great game of basketball.”

All proceeds from this event, will go towards helping kids afford AAU youth basketball.

“The goal is, we would like to raise funds as far as individuals that can’t afford tennis shoes, especially like being around in the west side we run into that a lot. As far as playing basketball tournaments, going down to the cities to compete, we run into a lot of kids that’s not able to afford it because of that it makes them not want to play AAU basketball,” said Homere. “Our goal is, if we can raise some money to help with that, that would be great.”

The Juneteenth charity basketball game is next Friday, at Duluth Denfeld high school.

Game time is at 7 p.m.