Former Temple star Shizz Alston Jr. gives back to the program that launched his basketball career

Shizz Alston Jr. has long been looking for an opportunity to give back to the community that set him on the path to playing professional basketball.

Last summer, he got the call that set it in motion.

Patrick Grant, a close family friend and head of the nonprofit youth organization Hood Enriched, reached out, asking if Alston was available to help run workouts at the Hank Gathers Recreation Center on Tuesday and Thursday nights.

“I went down there and saw the passion he had with it,” said Alston, who played at Temple before going overseas. “It was the same passion he had coaching me [growing up]. I’m like, ‘I want to get into this. I want to help these kids see that it is possible to have a good college career and play professionally.’”

His first charitable step was buying brand-new gear for all the children in the program, which regularly competes in rec leagues around the city. The shirts, jerseys, hats, and shorts feature two logos: the blue-and-red Hood Enriched lettering and Alston’s “SA” branding.

Then came helping organize the program’s first basketball camp, with help from Grant, which ran from June 21-24 at West Philadelphia High School. Alston also sponsored the camp, which was for first-graders all the way up through middle school.

New York Knicks forward Cam Reddish and five-star prospect Justin Edwards of Imhotep Charter paid visits and spoke with campers before participating in games and drills.

“We never really had a camp,” Alston said. “That was something I wanted to introduce to the program, just to get kids from all different ages, to get everybody involved and meet each other.”

Alston, 25, grew up playing for Hood Enriched alongside former Penn State guard Tony Carr, Josh Sharkey, who played for Samford, and Ahmad Gilbert (Rider). The older group featured Dionte Christmas, Temple’s fourth all-time leading scorer, and Maalik Wayns, who played three seasons at Villanova.

Hood Enriched takes pride in offering free opportunities for youngsters off the court. In recent years, Grant has taken groups to museums in Washington and Boston. In November, a group went to Baltimore’s Great Blacks in Wax Museum.

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Alston helps with funding for gear and travel when he can. So does former Penn coach Jerome Allen, who founded Hood Enriched in 1999 before later handing it off to Grant. They also receive donations from others in the neighborhood.

“It’s just a sense of community,” Alston said. “We’re trying to make well-rounded athletes so when they get to college, they don’t have to worry about trying to make sure you’re eligible. We want to start now. … Everything is free. You bring your kid to Hood Enriched, you just drop them off, and we take care of everything.”

His earliest memory growing up in the program was taking a basketball business trip to Italy with 15 other Hood Enriched kids at 7 years old — one of three summers they ran the trip. Allen helped to fund all travel expenses.

The teams that visited Italy were more advanced and he was playing up in age group, but the opportunity, in hindsight, helped inspire Alston to give back nearly two decades later.

Grant coached Alston until he was 18 years old. By that point, he was a top-150 player in the country at The Haverford School and entrenched with the Team Final AAU team. But Alston would put on his Hood Enriched jersey every time he was back in the city.

Alston played four seasons at Temple (2015-19). He led the American Athletic Conference in scoring as a senior (19.7 ppg) and set the school record for career free-throw percentage (.895). He was not selected in the NBA draft but spent time at Sixers training camp before taking his talents overseas. An injury and the pandemic hindered his first year in Greece.

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This past season, Alston played for the Kangoeroes of the BNXT League based in Mechelen, Belgium. He played with former Penn forward A.J. Brodeur and Myles Stevens from Princeton. Villanova’s Phil Booth also plays in the league for Filou Oostende in Belgium.

Alston’s plan is to play next season in Italy, then make one more run at the NBA, hoping to land on an NBA Summer League roster. As for the future of Hood Enriched, he wants to expand the program. Next year, they intend to host the camp at The Haverford School.

“I want to make it big,” Alston said of the camp. “I want to have this from the Main Line all the way through Philadelphia. I want to have kids of all different colors, shapes, sizes, and heights. I’m trying to make this one all-inclusive program tying in my Haverford School background to my North Philly background.”

By the end of the inaugural camp, Alston was given framed Hood Enriched No. 10 jerseys as a gift. One was his original childhood jersey and the other was an updated edition featuring his SA logo, retiring his number across the program that launched his basketball career.