Participants warm up before the John 3:16 3-on-3 Boys Basketball Tournament May 4, 2019, at Columbus East.
The Republic file photo
Five years ago, Mark Hunter and a couple of his friends started the John 3:16 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament to honor and raise funds for a scholarship in the name of his son, the late Sgt. Jonathon Hunter.
Jonathon Hunter, a 2011 Columbus East graduate, was killed in a suicide attack Aug. 2, 2017, while serving with the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan. The 23-year-old was just 32 days into his deployment.
But what his father was hoping would become an annual event was derailed by the COVID pandemic the following year and logistical concerns the next couple of years. But on Saturday, the Hunter family will host the second John 3:16 3-on-3 tourney at East High School.
“They had COVID, and by the time that was over, it was so hard to get a gym without a bunch of restrictions,” Mark Hunter said. “So we just kind of laid back for awhile. It’s not hard to do at all now. We just have to rent the gym. We just put it on hold for awhile. I just felt it was time to get it going again.”
The inaugural tournament on May 4, 2019, drew 39 teams and about 150 players and raised about $8,000 for a scholarship fund through the Heritage Foundation. Organizers had decided to move the event to July the next year to avoid several conflicts.
“The first time we planned it, it was on prom weekend,” Mark Hunter said. “We weren’t even thinking about that. But we still had a lot of teams. We had a lot of sponsors and concessions. This year, we have some corporate sponsorship. I have some generous sponsors this year. We did the first time, too, but everybody jumped on board and wanted to help.”
The cost to play is $60 per team, with a maximum of four players to a team, and includes a t-shirt and three guaranteed games. There will be age groups for kids through high school-ages, plus recreation and competitive divisions for ages 19-39 and divisions for 40-49 and 50-and-over. Players of all ages also can participate in a 3-point contest.
Games begin at 9 a.m. Saturday. Registration starts at 8 a.m. Saturday, and is available until that time at facebook.com/jonhunterscholarshipfund
