Local middle schoolers look to grow the game of basketball

When Windermere Prep eighth grader Olivia Ikeda and Horizon West Middle eighth grader Morgan Bridges showed up to the Orlando Magic’s game against the Chicago Bulls Monday, Dec. 23, they didn’t have a clue what was in store for them.

It had been a few weeks since they had applied to Nike’s Game Growers program, but the girls hadn’t heard anything back in a while except for the fact that they were named semifinalists.

The silence was broken, however, when the duo got free tickets to go see the Magic play, and that’s where they noticed something was up. All of a sudden they were surrounded by cameras and told the good news — they had won.

“When we signed up for this we thought there were going to be a ton of people, and we didn’t think it would be really easy,” said Olivia, 14. “We thought we could make the semifinals, but we didn’t think we could win.

“Then we went to the game and we found out and I was just shocked — I didn’t think we had won,” she said.

The new Nike’s Game Growers program is a collaboration with the NBA and WNBA to grow participation in basketball among young girls across the country.

Between Friday, Oct. 18, and Friday, Nov. 15, eighth-grade girls submitted their ideas on how to grow basketball participation, and the WNBA and NBA teams would select their Game Growers teams (two girls per team) to join them in attending the Game Growers Training Camp at Nike’s World Headquarters in Oregon toward the end of this month. 

Once there, Olivia and Morgan will refine their ideas alongside the leagues and Nike — as well as GENYOUth. There’s an added bonus: selected teams will present their ideas at the WNBA Draft in New York City in April 2020.

A FRESH IDEA

One day when Olivia and Morgan were hanging out, the two ran across a post on Instagram about the Game Growers program.

It was then and there they decided to give it a shot and told their parents after reading up on the program. 

After a quick brainstorming session, they landed on an idea of making an app — appropriately called MO Movement. The “MO” refers to the initials of their first names, but also stands for “Motivating Others,” Olivia said.

“It’s basically a one-stop shop,” Olivia said. “Some of the features on this app would include open gym dates and times, some local camps, tryout information for AAU teams, game information and you can also develop your own avatar and unlock rewards to give you access to more features on the app.”

The app — which the two hope will get up and running successfully with the help of Nike and the leagues — was the very first idea Morgan and Olivia came up with, and it makes sense to run with an app for a world of digitally astute pre-teens and teenagers, Morgan said. 

"We thought we could make the semifinals, but we didn’t think we could win. Then we went to the game and we found out and I was just shocked — I didn’t think we had won."

— Olivia Ikeda

“We feel like that our generation is always on their phones lately,” said Morgan, 13. “We thought it would be a good idea, because most people (would rather) get apps than actually go to an open gym or go to something. They can just go on the app on their phone and do it conveniently.”

Another part of developing the app was to give back to the sport Morgan and Olivia have loved for years.

Both girls play on the same AAU team — Hoop Dreams Elite — which is also how the two met one another and became best friends. Meanwhile, at their respective schools, Morgan was named captain of Horizon West Middle’s first basketball team while Olivia has made a name for herself on the varsity team at Windermere Prep.

It’s their passion for basketball that has kept them busy with the game for the last few years. While both hope to eventually get to the next level, they also want to change the game for the better by helping other young players like themselves.

“It will mean a lot, because we’ll be able to say we changed a lot of people’s lives,” Morgan said. “We don’t really care if it’s about the money or anything, we just want girls to feel OK. A lot of girls don’t have a lot of self-confidence — a lot of girls I know are really tall, but they think it’s not OK to be tall. I want girls to know that it’s OK to be tall.

“We want this to reach nationwide,” she said. “We want every girl to see this.”