OKMULGEE, Okla.- The College of the Muscogee Nation (CMN) will be hosting the 2025 American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) basketball tournament in Okmulgee. The tournament will feature different tribal college teams throughout the United States. It will be a three day tournament running March 24-26. Admission fee of $5 per day will cover all three gym locations and the children age three and under will be free.
CMN’s Marketing Coordinator Marissa Lewis (Mvskoke) and CMN’s women’s coach/Criminal Justice Instructor Cheryl Najera (Mvskoke) spoke about the tournament preparation.
There will be a welcoming banquet on March 23rd for the tribal college teams and registration at Tulsa’s River Spirit Casino. They will be served food, listen to stomp dancers from a ceremonial ground, and entertainment from Actor/Speaker Chance Rush.
Coach Najera commented on the inclusion of cultural experiences.
“I’m excited to show other tribe’s athletes some of our traditional Creek ways and how we operate here on the reservation, so that’s what I’m excited for,” Najera said. “We want them to know how excited we are to welcome them to our Muscogee Nation.”
This year AIHEC has 17 male and 12 female teams that will be playing in this tournament.
“When we go out to the tournaments held elsewhere we’re talking to people from other tribes that we haven’t met before and learning things about their culture so I think having all the tribal communities from here and then with our high Indigenous population here in Oklahoma I think it’s just going to be a great experience, it’s something I’m happy to be a part of,” Lewis said.
Games will be divided into three gyms, they will start at 8:00 a.m each day of play. Games will be held at the Brock Gym (Okmulgee High School), Dunbar Gym (Elementary School) and Mvskoke Dome. On March 24 pool play begins. On the 25th the tournament play begins and on the 26th the Championship game will take place at the Mvskoke Dome.
Najera has been preparing CMN’s women’s team for this tournament and she is excited to be playing in front of their home crowd. She hopes to have a good fan turnout.
According to Najera, CMN has good athletes this year and they are excited to play.
According to Lewis and Najera, CMN hosting the tournament has been in discussion since 2024. She said CMN’s goal is to host the 2028 AIHEC student and basketball conference. This is the first time the AIHEC National Basketball Tournament will be held in Oklahoma.
Preparation for the event included budgeting, finding partnerships for gym use, and finding lodgings. CMN was happy to have the Okmulgee Public School, Dunbar and Mvskoke Dome help for gym locations.
CMN’s President Dr. Randall spoke with Nike N7 founder and former general manager Sam McCracken in a meeting to sponsor the tournament. McCracken agreed to do so for this year’s AIHEC basketball tournament. This year each team player will receive a Nike N7 backpack and N7 souvenir shirt.
CMN also has four different sponsorship levels, platinum, gold, silver and bronze. They are happy overall to get the sponsorship on the National level and they feel like a lot of sponsors want to be part of this.
“This is the first time that we’re hosting a National basketball tournament so it’s been a learning experience for all of us but I think we’re doing a good job and we’re really excited to make all of these connections with the community with our sponsorships,” Lewis said.
“We are showing people outside of the reservation that we are here, and that we have a lot to offer,” Najera said.
“We’re just ready to welcome people and let them know, non-native and native that we’re doing big things and we love our students.”
For any questions about the time, locations and anything within the AIHEC basketball tournament you can contact CMN’s Project Manager/CMN’s AIHEC Tournament Director Mykalia Frank at 918-549-2865 and her email is mfrank@cmn.edu
Schedules of the basketball tournament will also be on the CMN’s website, just click on the AIHEC logo.
