This St. Joe’s Prep senior created a high school basketball showcase to stage the area’s top talent

The idea for Gavin Pennington, a St. Joe’s Prep senior and founder of streetwear brand The Illest Club, to stage an invitational of some of the area’s top boys’ basketball talent started as a conversation over breakfast at the Pennington family table.

“It started off as, sort of, a joke,” said Gavin’s father, Damon. “And then it’s like, you know what, let’s have a really cool invitational tournament.”

Just a few weeks after the idea was discussed, Gavin secured a gym and sponsors and recruited players t for the Illest Elite Invitational.

“We’ve been locked in on this and pushing it for the last two to three weeks,” Gavin said. “So everything that’s been getting done, we’ve really just done on the fly. That just shows how determined we are to have a great event.”

The invitational is set for Saturday at Peak Skills Basketball in West Berlin, Camden County, from 4 to 9 p.m., with a $20 admission. The rosters — four teams of eight players — include prospects from Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey, and New York.

One notable player planning to participate is Roman Catholic rising junior point guard Tyler Sutton, who is ranked No. 23 in the nation by ESPN. The sophomore scored a game-high 20 points in Roman’s 41-34 loss to Father Judge in the Catholic League championship in February. Sutton holds scholarship offers from St. John’s, Penn State, and Iowa, among others.

» READ MORE: Sophomore Tyler Sutton steers Roman Catholic’s ship as starting point guard

The event also features two 2024-25 Gatorade Players of the Year, in Joshua Obiora, a junior forward at St. Georges Technical in Middletown, Del., and Jordan Ellerbee, a senior guard and teammate of Gavin, who played three years on varsity at St. Joe’s Prep.

Instead of dividing the teams by region, Gavin randomly assigned players to teams.

“You’ve never seen these top players play all together,” Gavin said. “They’re usually on different high school teams, or if they’re on their AAU team, it’s probably respective to where they’re at. I thought, ‘How about I just mix it?’”

» READ MORE: This St. Joe’s Prep senior already has his own clothing line. His favorite rapper, Lil Baby, is a fan

 The games will have seven-minute quarters. Players on the winning team will receive a package of clothes from The Illest Club and a medal.

“There’s going to be a DJ, the players are going to be introduced out onto the court,” Gavin said. “There’s going to be big crowds.”

Gavin, 18, who will enroll at Howard University in the fall, already has ideas for next year. He hopes to use the invitational as a springboard to create a travel team, called Illest Elite, to compete at different events around the country.

“We’re planning to go to [Pennsylvania], Jersey, D.C., Chicago, Atlanta,” Gavin said. “We’re going to go to all these different cities and bring this team around, and we’re going to win tournaments that are not orchestrated by us.”

Through the invitational, Gavin and Damon want to give more attention to local prospects who may not otherwise receive it. In addition to in-person attendance, the event will be streamed on Gavin’s YouTube channel, @whynotgav, which has more than 6,000 subscribers.

“A lot of kids aren’t able to showcase their talents like some other people are,” Damon said. “They’re not put on a platform. We’re trying to allow them to share the platform that Gavin’s already established.”