Kieon Arkwright has had experiences all over the world that have helped shape who he is today.
He’s proud to count his one year at St. Clair County Community College among them.
“SC4 played a big part in what I’m doing now, just my career in general,” Arkwright said. “I would say that I wouldn’t be where I’m at without SC4.”
Arkwright lives in Los Angeles, but his work training basketball players has him traveling frequently across the country, and even the globe. In March, for instance, he’ll be running a clinic in Japan. Some clinics are his own, while others are attached to the Jordan brand, as Arkwright has led camps coinciding with the shoe launches of prominent NBA stars Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Russell Westbrook, as well as WNBA star Skylar Diggins.
“It’s a great feeling to be involved still with the game, and being able to give back and help so many kids,” he said. “I wish I had the same thing that we’re able to give to these kids. We didn’t have that growing up in Flint, Michigan. Being able to actually give back and see the success of these kids, I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else.”
Arkwright came to SC4 for the 2009-10 school year after attending Saginaw Valley State University for one year. He studied general education at SC4, and played on the men’s basketball team, helping the Skippers to an eighth-place finish in the national tournament.
After one year at SC4, he transferred to the University of Texas Pan American (now the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) and continued his basketball career with the Division I program. He played professionally in Central America, winning a championship in Nicaragua, where he still runs clinics.
Arkwright was back at SC4 in 2017 as he and his teammates from the 2009-10 basketball team were inducted into the Skippers Athletics Hall of Fame.
“That was awesome, just to see the growth in everyone, and we still bonded,” Arkwright said. “Some of those guys, I haven’t seen since our national tournament run. It was just good to see everybody.”
(Photo: Kieon Arkwright, center, is honored along with his teammates from the 2009-10 SC4 men’s basketball team at the 2017 Skippers Athletics Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.)
