Athlete Spotlight is sponsored by Card & Associates and the Pacers Athletic Center.
Learning a game by observing the minute details of professional players may not be how most people develop their passion, but this was indeed the case for Westfield Middle School’s Keagan Finn.
“When I was little I always loved watching NBA teams compete, and I became passionate about watching their moves and ball-handling skills,” Finn says. “I wanted to be just like that and got excited to learn basketball skills of my own. That’s what got me started playing basketball. Then once I started, I was hooked on playing the sport.”
Finn’s love for the sport has been cultivated at Pacers Athletic Center (PAC) as he’s become a regular at the facility, playing for the Primetime 2028 Black team. He also played for Grand Park Premier’s (GPP) 2028 White team in the spring/summer of 2023.
“I started playing basketball at the age of 6 and fell in love with the sport,” he says. “I have played basketball on the Primetime Black team at the PAC for six and a half years. I was in the third grade and got to have Coach Braden Heil as my first coach at the PAC.”
Through the years with Heil as a coach, Finn has been able to reflect the moves he once viewed on a screen, which earned him five rings and six medals from championship brackets, in addition to the five medals received from the GPP championship tournaments.
“One of my proudest accomplishments at the PAC was when my GPP team was competing in the [Indiana Youth Basketball League] summer league championship game,” he says. “We were playing against a team that was a grade level up from us and after an intense, close matchup, we pulled off a win against them to close out the season.”
Game recognizing game is something of importance to Finn, as he loves to watch and observe the game as it unfolds, just like he did when he was first falling in love with the art of basketball.
“A memorable moment of mine while playing on Primetime was earning my very first championship ring with Primetime Black team and Coach Braden in February of 2020,” Finn says. “This moment really brought our team together as we had played some tough opponents and felt proud of what we had accomplished.”
Adopting moves from icons and competitors alike has become an innate hobby for Finn, earning him memorable core moments as a basketball player and teammate – but there is nothing like the first thrill of setting foot on the court.
