Keeping Track of Flint Hoopers Across the Globe

Like many sports fans tend to do, one day Allen Seales was on his couch watching basketball and started wondering what some former Flint hoopers who are still playing in college or professionally are up to these days. 

“I’m a sports addict, I just love watching sports,” Seales said. “I was randomly just watching some games and thought about some of the players that were continuing to play right now, just thinking of their stats, and just remembering all of the past players that came from Flint and their success.”

But Seales took those thoughts further than just looking up stats for his own curiosity – he decided to begin sharing what he found by launching an Instagram page called @Flint.Hoops to make it easy for others who similarly want to keep track of local athletes.

“I just wanted to give these players that are still playing right now some recognition,” Seales said. “I thought it’d be a cool idea to keep the community informed, so that was kind of the inspiration behind it.”

Since launching, the page has featured regular updates on players in professional leagues and playing college basketball. That includes players like Miles Bridges and Kyle Kuzma, who are playing in the NBA, Jayden Nunn, who is in the NBA G League, and several players in international leagues: Monte Morris (Greece), JaVale McGee (Australia), Glenn Cosey (Lebanon), Javontae Hawkins (Turkey), Thad McFadden Jr. (Spain), J.D. Tisdale (Canada), Terry Armstrong (Colombia), as well as more than 20 players who are currently playing at different levels of college basketball. 

Although Seales started the project himself, he also has a strong contact list to source information from as he was a Flint basketball standout in his own right. He played at Flint Northern, graduating in 2009. He also played baseball at Northern before moving on to college. He played college basketball briefly at Mid-Michigan Community College and also walked on for a semester at Central Michigan before switching to playing club basketball. Just being a part of city basketball in a place like Flint that has so much tradition means a lot to Seales.

“Just having that rich history of talent that’s come from here and a lot of players who’ve had success, it means a lot not only for the city, but even the state,” Seales said. “We take a lot of pride in being from Flint. It’s huge having that history of players before us and having the younger generation see that there are things outside of Flint, there is a chance to succeed and to do what you dream about and do what you love past high school, past middle school. Your dream can happen.”

Although Seales experienced playing at Northern, a basketball powerhouse, his fondest memories of basketball in Flint actually extend earlier to youth leagues. 

“I played with Flint Affiliation, and having that community with weekend games and weekend tournaments was a great memory,” he said. 

He also mentioned that, when he was in school, he got to see that generation’s pro and college stars, including Mateen Cleaves, Morris Peterson, and Kelvin Torbert, around the city and that gave him inspiration as a young player.

Now, Seales is the assistant director of recreation at the University of Detroit Mercy. He graduated from Central Michigan and then completed his master’s in sports administration at Wayne State. His passion for sports has helped him build a career in athletics – which is another important model for young people to see. It is possible to have a career in sports without being a pro athlete. 

“That was my dream, continuing to play basketball past college, I had dreams of the NBA as every young kid may have,” Seales said. “Once you get to college, I think that exposure helped me, seeing other possibilities, different career paths where you can take what you love, if it’s basketball or any other sport, and do things with it. There are people from Flint like Clavontae Brown and Jarell Brown who do basketball training and coaching, there’s people like Eric Woodyard who is at ESPN, they’re showing those paths too.”

Seales encourages anyone interested in Flint basketball to follow his Instagram account. They can also message the page with player updates or information about others who are playing professionally or collegiately somewhere. He said that he also plans to increase who he provides updates on as current high school players move on to college opportunities next year. Since launching, he’s already heard from people who are appreciative of the project, and he hopes it just keeps growing. 

“I know a lot of times in the inner city or anywhere around Flint, we see a lot of news about violence and other things,” Seales said. “So I’m just putting something positive out to the community. Hopefully it helps the players that are away from home, keeping them motivated to continue their dreams and continue to have success. I just definitely wanna make sure that they feel supported and share something positive for the community.”