MADISON- Ryan Dupree continues to leave a legacy. The former high school and college basketball player died Sept. 4, 2021, of COVID-19 at age 24, but he’s remembered and honored in a special way with the first and hopefully annual RD3 Legacy Basketball Tournament scheduled for Aug. 13 at Bob Jones High School with tipoff at 9:00 a.m.

The 3-on-3 tournament will feature both a high school division and adult team division. Registration is open until Aug. 9 with the fees set at $60 per high school team and $80 per adult team. Each team can have four players on its roster.

The event is the brainchild of Tom Runnion, current athletic director at Bob Jones and former basketball coach within the Patriots’ program where Dupree played for the Patriots wearing the coveted No. 3, thus the name of the tournament as his teammates called Dupree “RD3.” Dupree’s parents Anthony and Peggy approved and support the idea of keeping their son’s legacy ongoing.

“He always said he wanted to use basketball to spread the word of his strong spiritual faith,” said Peggy Dupree. “We will have T-shirts for each player in the tournament that read ‘In Jesus’ Name He Played. Leave A legacy.’ Ryan was a leader on and off the basketball court and always worked towards his goal of becoming a coach and spreading the word of Jesus.”

After graduating Bob Jones in 2015, Dupree signed a basketball scholarship with Snead State Community College and later attended Belhaven College to continue playing basketball. He also earned a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi State. He was hired as an assistant basketball coach at Shorter University in Rome, Ga. and in September of 2021 was diagnosed with COVID-19. He father traveled to Rome, located Northwest of Atlanta, to pick up his son and bring him home. His condition quickly worsened, and he was immediately taken to a local hospital where he passed away of COVID related pneumonia within 24 hours.

A GoFundMe page was set up on behalf of the Dupree family and those funds have been used to establish the Ryan Dupree Scholarship Fund. The faith-based scholarship looks for the qualities of leadership, integrity, teamwork and service. The first recipients of the scholarship fun will both attend the University of Alabama. Those awarded the $1,000 scholarships were Danielle Cupero a four-year basketball player at Bob Jones and who will study communicative disorder and speech pathology, and Evan Lott, of James Clemens High, who will major in business at the Capstone and also signed to play on Alabama’s wheelchair basketball team.

The tournament is based on round-robin play moving to a single elimination format. The high school division is arranged for players in grades 9-12 with the adult division any player post-high school.

Each player in the upcoming 3-on-3 tournament must register and bring a signed waiver to the event. Payment for entering can be completed via PayPal @RD3Legacy.gmail.com or Venmo @RDsLegacyScholarship. Money can be deposited directly into the scholarship fund at Redstone Federal Credit Union or be sent by check at RD3 Legacy Scholarship Fund c/o Peggy Dupree, P.O. Box 1949, Madison, AL 35758.

Questions regarding the tournament can be e-mailed to RD3Legacy@gmail.com.