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Erica Wilson

On some level, Erica Wilson, 18, has known what she wanted to do as her senior project since she was a student at Clark Middle School.

“Well, I have an older brother, and so I’ve always thought about the senior project and I knew I always wanted to do something with basketball, because I really like basketball,” Wilson, who is now a senior at Bonner Springs High School, said.

Wilson plays on the BSHS girls basketball team. She played on the CMS team, as well.

But it wasn’t just a passion for basketball that led to her project choice of a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. It was also a condition she has dealt with since she was 8 years old.

Wilson has type 1 juvenile diabetes, an incurable disease she was diagnosed with at age 8. Her pancreas is unable to produce insulin, so every day she has to take regular and frequent doses of insulin to regulate her blood sugar when it goes too high or too low. These are administered through an insulin pump she must carry with her wherever she goes. At mealtimes, she has to be more conscientious than most, counting the carbohydrates of everything on her plate so that she can plug in the correct amounts into her insulin pump.

That’s why Wilson will donate all the proceeds from the basketball tournament she is organizing to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. The international organization works to find a cure for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. She says the added work and oftentimes monotonous routine diabetes has brought to her life is something she is used to dealing with after 10 years. Still, she knows diabetes is no walk in the park and she wants to do what she can to help.

“I know it’s hard to live with diabetes, so, like, I want to find a cure,” Wilson said. “There’s hard times, like, you just want to stop; don’t want to do anymore. But you have to.”

The tournament, which will be bracket-style, will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday in the BSHS gym. Teams of 3 will play against each other in games of half-court basketball until there is a final winner. Buy-in is $15 per team.

Wilson said she only has two teams lined up to compete in the tournament thus far, but is hoping to have from seven to 10 teams. She says she’ll also have a donation bucket at the event.

“Maybe close to $100. That would be nice,” Wilson said of how much she is hoping to raise through her tournament. The money will “help in some way.”

Wilson, who says “basketball’s, like, my life,” will carry her passion for the sport on to college next year. She and her twin sister, Emily Wilson, both received scholarships to play basketball at Friends University in Wichita. They sign with the university next week. Wilson said she’s not sure yet whether she will try to play professionally for the WNBA, but “if the opportunity comes up, that would be awesome. I would probably do that but if not, than whatever happens happens.”

Buy-in to the tournament can be done at the door or prior to the event by calling Wilson at 913-549-6343.

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