The Army National Guard sponsored a 3-on-3 basketball tournament in Grambling State University’s Intramural Center. It was a function of the National Guard Bureau national advertisement portion. Too Tough, a team composed of New Orleans natives, won the tournament. Members included Stephen Lacy, Jamel Chawn Forbes, Travis Donald, Ryan Smith, Kendrick Williams, Mario Louis and Peter Dumas. Kevin Weaver was the team’s coach.
Weaver decided to coach because he has an old football injury, a bad knee, and he figured his opponents might be more mobile than him.
He said as the coach, his main job was to keep his players motivated. “I told them no matter if we are up or down, to keep their heads in the game. We did not have time for internal arguments, and at the end of the game, we should leave with no regrets,” said Weaver.
Since the members of the team always play sports together, they decided to enter the tournament. Williams was the person who came up with the name of the team.
Weaver said, “He came up with Too Tough because we are a tough group of guys. We are all big. We work out. We are mentally tough. It showed during the tournament we were tougher than our opponents.”
Louis, a senior majoring in accounting, said the members of Too Tough are friends and we always play together, so it seems as if they have been preparing for the tournament for the past four years.
“It was just another game to us. We have chemistry. We have played together for so long we can anticipate the other’s moves and know what each brings to the table. We have a bond,” he said.
Although they often win when they play others, they do not enter too many tournaments.
Army National Guard recruiting retention supervisor 1st Sergeant Nolan Meadors said, “It was one of our best advertising campaigns. The tournament was pretty awesome, great.”
Meadors said the tournament had a good turnout and yielded good results and was a great way of getting the National Guard’s name out.
At least once or twice a month, there are different types of tournaments and activities, such as volleyball.
“Such activities give students something positive to do on weekends,” said Terry Lilly, director of Intramural Center.