Arrington Continuing Family Tradition In Steel City

For Steel City Yellow Jacket Jason Arrington, basketball has always been a big part of his family. Arrington has now turned that family tradition into a professional career right here in Pittsburgh with the Steel City Yellow Jackets.

Family. These are the people in your life who are always there for you and lead you on the right path to succeed. Whether they are related by blood or not is inconsequential as they are always there for you and always want what’s best for you. In many families, traditions are passed down from generation to generation with the older generations passing their skills and talents on to the younger generations as they try their best to continue the family legacy.

For Steel City Yellow Jacket Jason Arrington, basketball was that family tradition that was passed down.  Arrington is the youngest of four children and every single one of them played the sport of basketball. His father introduced him to the sport and it is something that has stuck with him since he has been four years old.

“[Basketball] was a family sport,” said Arrington. “My uncles always took me to the hole, no mercy. Once they started it, it trinkled on down through the family tree. My father and my Uncle O’Neil [introduced me to the game]. Uncle O’Neil set the record and now I have gone farther than he has [in my basketball career].”

As the youngest of four children, Arrington had many role models to look up to as he was growing up and maturing in the sport of basketball. All three of his older siblings played the sport and Arrington picked up tips and tricks from watching them play that he has emulated leading to his success at the professional level today.

“[All of my siblings] played before me,” said Arrington. “Even my sister played, she’s the oldest out of all of us. She was the first then both of my brothers played. They didn’t score as many points but just seeing them play I wanted to always be better.”

Arrington used these tips to help him start his high school basketball career. Playing with his uncles and the rest of his family made him a more complete player and he used that at Norfolk Christian High School in Norfolk, Virginia. Leadership was a staple of Arrington’s high school career as he was the team captain and always tried to push the other players on the team to be the best that they possibly could be.

Arrington was determined to play basketball at the next level after high school, but the college search proved more difficult then Arrington had hoped. Being from the small town of Norfolk, Virginia, Arrington says there weren’t a lot of scouts looking for guys and it effected his search for the right college for him.

“The college search was pretty hard,” said Arrington. “It’s pretty tough being from Virginia you don’t get too many scouts, It’s a tough city to get out of. But, I went to Hampton U and I went to the Apprentice School out of Newport News. I always played hard, but I kept moving from college to college so I never got settled really.”

No matter what basketball program Arrington was involved with, he tried to leave his mark. He would start out his collegiate basketball career at the Community College of Beaver County, where he started to get some more consistent playing time. He led the team in steals during the 2005/2006 season when he accumulated 109 while also finishing the season second on the team in scoring with 410 points and 15.7 points per game.

He would then transfer to The Apprentice School where for the first time in his college career he became a star on a team. He was the second leading scorer for the Builders scoring 403 points and averaging 13.9 points in his one season. He was also the most consistent free throw shooter going 88 for 118, .746, from the charity stripe.

Moving around as much as Arrington had to during college made basketball that much more difficult. Arrington says that each school you go to, you have to do your best to impress the coaches and get a feel for how they run things. With moving around all the time, he had to do this on a yearly basis and it was tough for him sometimes.

“Trying to make your place is tough,” said Arrington. “Coming in the first semester you’re just trying to get a feel for the game, get the feel of the team and the coaches. Then by second semester you’re in there. But, then coach is not really looking at you, you’re playing your hardest and then you have to try to transfer to another school and do the same thing over again. It’s pretty hard especially when you are trying to get to the next level whether it be overseas, ABA, or the NBA.”

Arrington’s countless hours of hard work and constant moving around at the college level would finally pay off when he got out of college. Arrington says he got in contact with Tony Hodges, a player for the Steel City Yellow Jackets at the time, and Antonio Reddic, who Arrington knew from seeing him play at Aliquippa. They started talking and got Arrington a try out for the team and the rest is history. One of the main things that Arrington noted was from the time he joined the Yellow Jackets, the leadership was great and it helped him gel with the team.

“Once I saw leadership through Gilly [Gil Cummings] and LB [Lawrence Baker] it clicked pretty easily,” said Arrington. “You see leadership and you start to follow that then you see people who are genuine, it’s easy to click with that.”

Arrington spoke very highly of the leadership surrounding the Steel City Yellow Jackets team and in particular Antonio Reddic. Arrington says that Reddic is the one who sets the bar for the style of play that you want as a Yellow Jackets and everyone is working to achieve that level of success on the court.

“Reddic is a man among boys,” said Arrington. “He’s willing to just pick up the game now for a year, two years he is awesome, amazing. He’s always hustling, plays hard, and never takes a play off. It’s something to look at and something to always be proud of and something to work hard for because he sets the bar high.”

Arrington feels right at home playing here in Pittsburgh with the Steel City Yellow Jackets. He follows his family legacy of playing basketball and making the most of every one of his opportunities. Whether it be on the bench or on the court he tries to keep his teammates going and encourage them in any way he can. He believes that with hard work and dedication the Steel City Yellow Jackets will be able to grow and one day they will be bigger than ever.