In April, the If Not For Them film crew visited Kansas City’s Archbishop O’Hara High School, where we filmed some special scenes for the docuseries. The school itself closed in 2017, but the gym is now home to Missouri Phenom Basketball, and we had the pleasure of meeting several of their young women who assisted in our shoot.
Why Archbishop O’Hara? Well, first, it has a cool, old gym. In fact, the school is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. And second, we found out that the Raytown Piperettes practiced there in the mid-70s!
If the Piperettes sound familiar, that’s because they are one of the incredible AAU teams we cover in this docuseries. We also talk about Alberta Lee Cox, a decorated player and coach who led the Piperettes in both roles.
Cox also coached a group of women in preparation for the 1972 Olympics. The Olympic committee eventually decided not to include women’s basketball that year, but several players from that mini-camp went on to represent the U.S. in the World Championships and Pan American games. One of the most high-profile was future National Team assistant coach and Kansas head coach Marian Washington.
The Phenom, and a few other special guests, helped us look back to the old AAU days through some clever recreations and fast-forward to today. Their 17U club participates in Nike’s Elite Youth Basketball League or EYBL, which is one of the top amateur circuits in the country.
The Phenom also have an impressive alumni list which includes players like KU’s S’Mya Nichols and South Carolina’s Maryam Dauda as well as WNBA players Sug Sutton and Napheesa Collier.
We cannot wait to share more about this shoot, but want to thank the Phenom and the other volunteers for helping the vision come to life! You can check out photos from our shoot on the Gallery page.
