BREAKING — Aliyah Boston Just Flipped the Script on Girls’ Basketball in Indiana, and the Shockwaves Are Only Getting Louder
INDIANAPOLIS — The gym didn’t feel like a community center Thursday night — it felt like the heartbeat of a movement. Red sweatbands streaked across the hardwood, shoes screeched with urgency, and every blast of the buzzer sounded like another door being kicked open. And at the center of it all stood Indiana Fever superstar Aliyah Boston, coaching, encouraging, and commanding the room like she was building the next generation right from the ground up.
“There you go, yup, good job,” Boston shouted as young players launched themselves over bright orange hurdles. But it wasn’t just a drill — it was a declaration. Boston wasn’t there for a photo op. She was there to deliver something she once had to fight for: access.
Standing beside leaders from Eli Lilly and the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, Boston helped spotlight The Court is Hers — a quietly launched initiative back in August that has exploded into one of the most impactful youth-sports programs in the state. Its mission is simple and revolutionary at the same time: eliminate registration fees for girls’ basketball at the YMCA, remove the financial barriers that shut countless girls out, and give every young athlete a chance to play, practice, and prove who they can become.
Boston remembers exactly what that lack of access felt like.
Growing up in the islands, she said, she and her family would hustle just to get her onto a court. Raffle tickets, side sales, scraping for enough money to chase a dream. Now she’s making sure girls in Indianapolis never have to wonder if the game is “too expensive” for them.
And the result?
A surge the YMCA didn’t even dare to predict.
Last year, the fall girls’ league had 257 players. This year? 950. Nearly a thousand girls flooding the courts, filling teams, showing up to practice, and throwing themselves wholeheartedly into the sport.
One of them is 9-year-old Nia Young, daughter of YMCA Sports Director Janaule Young. Nia’s smile said it all: “It’s really fun. I love everything about basketball.” And behind her joy is a reality many parents feel but rarely say — when programs like this eliminate costs, families don’t have to choose which child gets to pursue which dream.
For moms like Deanna Dodson, who has two daughters in the league, it’s more than a program. It’s a community choosing to invest in girls with the same urgency usually reserved for boys’ sports.
Eli Lilly Chief Customer Officer Jen Oleksiw summed it up perfectly:
“When we invest in girls and we invest in sports, everybody wins.”
The Y is already preparing to ramp up participation even further this winter, riding the momentum of a fall season that shattered expectations.
As for Boston, her voice carried the kind of pride that can’t be faked:
“It’s just so exciting to talk to these young girls, to see their excitement about basketball and sports — and their excitement just to be in the same room with other young girls.”
This wasn’t just a clinic.
It was a spark.
A shift.
A sign that Indiana’s next wave of stars isn’t coming — they’re already here, sprinting over hurdles, learning from an All-Star who refuses to let any girl get left behind.
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