Ben Veshi: How Hargrave Builds College-Ready Guards

Hargrave Military Academy head coach Ben Veshi joins Cory to give a straight, inside look at prep school basketball, player development, and college placement in 2025. Veshi explains Hargrave’s structured, military-style environment, why it accelerates maturity and on-court performance, and how the program’s two-a-days, weight room cadence, and ~50-game schedule prepare athletes for college intensity. He breaks down today’s recruiting reality—why the summer evaluation period and a program’s reputation/relationships now drive offers more than fall open gyms, how the transfer portal and NIL changed timelines, and when a D2 full ride can be the smartest path to a future D1. Finally, Veshi details what it actually takes to be a Division I guard right now: tight handle, credible shooting, physical defense, and floor leadership. If you’re a parent, player, or coach weighing NEPSAC vs Elite Prep League, post-grad options, or the best route to college basketball, this conversation cuts through the noise and gives you a clear plan to follow.

💡Key Topics

• 📌 Military-style structure → on-court gains (prep school basketball, player maturity, accountability)
• 📌 Summer recruiting > fall open gyms (transfer portal era, NIL, coach relationships)
• 📌 Hargrave development model (two-a-days, weight room, ~50 games, elite skill work)
• 📌 Placement strategy (right-fit D1/D2, scholarship math, reputation & events)
• 📌 D1 guard requirements (tight handle, shooting credibility, defensive physicality, leadership)

🏀 About Ben Veshi

Head Coach, Hargrave Military Academy (Post-Grad). A Marianapolis Prep alum and former Catawba player/coach, Veshi has a decade at Hargrave and leads one of the country’s most demanding prep environments, producing college-ready athletes through structure, skill development, and high-level competition.

🔗 Connect with Ben Veshi

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/hargravebasketball/
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/ben.veshi/
Twitter | https://x.com/HMAVBB
Twitter | https://x.com/HargraveHoops
Emai | veshib@hargrave.edu
Website | https://hargrave.edu/

🔗 Connect with Cory:
 
Website | https://www.prepathletics.com
Twitter | https://twitter.com/PREP_Athletics
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/prep.athletics/
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/PrepAthletics
Email | coryheitz@gmail.com
Phone | 859-317-1166

🔖 Subscribe to the PREP Athletics Podcast:

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Transcript

Cory Heitz (00:00)
Welcome to this week's episode of the prep athletics podcast. I'm proud to have joining us coach Ben Veshi who's been the head coach at Hargrave military academy. This is now his third year. He's been there 10 years total, excuse me. And he grew up in Massachusetts and actually spent four years at a prep school in NEPSAC Marianapolis. I'm sure a lot of y'all have heard of that. and then he went from there to CATAWBA college and then he coached at Marianapolis, the CATAWBA before he got back to Hargrave. And I've known Ben for a long time.

Placed a lot of players at Hargrave over the years and it's a different situation. And it kind of talks about the military angle and how that is in this current day of 2025, the academics they do, the tons of development and gym time their kids get in, which has been the fact for a long time and, much, much more. So it's really good having that conversation. Couple of side notes. You'll see me in the video. If you're watching this, I'm wearing a Xavier basketball sweatshirt. one of the prep athletics players, Michael Wolf, it's playing there now.

Michael spent his time at Bridgestone Academy before he signed with Xavier. So we support all the members of the Prep Athletics family who have NIL stores and I'm just going to start wearing the stuff on the air and I know Michael gets a little cut of everything that we buy and all the players do. So if you see these sweatshirts in the future just know we are supporting members of the Prep Athletics family and then on my lap here I don't know if y'all can see it but we've got a new puppy. This is bananas.

Right? Kind of hard to see. I don't want to wake her up. She slept in my lap, the whole podcast, and we got her about five days ago and she kept it cool during the podcast. Didn't bark, which is good, but we'll see how she matures and if she makes future appearances. So we got Maple back there who's jealous that we have a new member of the family. We got bananas here, four month old puppy, little long haired, Dachshund and Ben VESHI on the podcast. So yeah, a little bit extra show notes there, but thanks so much for tuning in.

Enjoy this great podcast with coach Ben Veshi at Hargrave

Cory Heitz (02:22)
Ben, welcome to the podcast.

Ben Veshi (02:25)
Appreciate you having me, Cory

Cory Heitz (02:26)
Yeah, it's good to have you on and ⁓ tell me where you grew up and what got you into basketball.

Ben Veshi (02:32)
Absolutely. I grew up in a small town called Webster, Massachusetts, about an hour southwest of Boston. And it's funny, my grandfather's really who got me into basketball. He played in his own right. He actually served. And I've got the newspapers of him scoring 20 a game on base in Korea.

And so he put a hoop in the backyard for me. And ever since then, I've just been in love with the game.

Cory Heitz (03:06)
And then you ended up going from Webster to Marianapolis prep. Did you go there as a freshman or did you transfer there?

Ben Veshi (03:12)
I went there as a freshman. So I was there for all four years. ⁓ Played for an outstanding coach in Dave Vitale. We made it to four straight NEPSAC championships. We won it my freshman year, Class D, and then three straight Class B. ⁓ Back then it was, you know, ABCD. ⁓ So Class B, we lost three straight years of the championship, but four straight trips was pretty nice.

Cory Heitz (03:42)
That is nice. What was that conversation like when you were a kid to where you your family decided to go to the prep route?

Ben Veshi (03:49)
Well, you know, I had grown up at St. Anne's. So was in Catholic school. I was a private school kid. You know, it's funny, my parents actually were like, hey, if you don't do Marionapolis, you're to have to go to Bartlett, which was the local public school. And I was terrified because I didn't know what I was going to wear every day. So used to wear any uniform. ⁓ So it was really a no-brainer. It was between Marionapolis and a couple other ⁓ private schools like St. Peter Marion.

up in Worcester and then St. John's over in Shrewsbury. But Marionapolis was 10 minutes from home. You know, and they had a, again, they had a lot going on. It made a lot of sense to go there.

Cory Heitz (04:32)
And since you went to prep school, right. And now you're a prep school coach. Like what, what benefits did you get from your time there at Marianapolis?

Ben Veshi (04:40)
Honestly what was great about it is from a culture standpoint like I got to be in classes with students from Mexico and Taiwan and you know Luxembourg and all these different places that you just it's a melting pot of culture and you get to learn from so many different people right you get to have class with someone from California.

If you've never been west of the Mississippi, that's like a whole different country. So you got to have all of that experience. And you did it in a setting that really pushed you to want better for yourself. You wanted to look sharp when you're wearing that shirt and tie every day. And you wanted to have, hey, man, this is a really cool tie. I can't wait to break this out today.

Cory Heitz (05:08)
Mm-hmm.

Ben Veshi (05:37)
You you learned how to tie different knots to try to out, you know, out duel your your classmates and things like that You know academically you really had to focus, you know smaller class sizes meant that that ⁓ You know, you didn't want to be the person that stood out for the wrong reasons But if you were struggling you had the opportunity to improve with direct communication with your with your teachers so it was a it was an awesome environment and and you know, it's funny like

A lot of the stuff that I learned, a lot of the stuff that I did at Marionapolis, I still apply to the day to day here at Hargrave. ⁓ The setting might be a little different, but the values, the principles, the mission, it's all still the same.

Cory Heitz (06:20)
Yeah, love that. a great way to coach prep school is if you went through it. think that's just a great benefit. And then, you know, when your time ended at Marianapolis, you chose to play at Catawba College down in North Carolina. Who else are you looking at and what led to your decision to sign with those guys?

Ben Veshi (06:37)
So it's funny, I really was at the middle of my senior year and I was like, oh man, I don't know if I'm going to play college basketball. I was a good high school player. I helped contribute on those teams, but I wasn't really being recruited at a super high level. So my options were really, I was fortunate that my mom works at a small division three school called Nichols College in Dudley, Massachusetts.

Through her work, I was able to ⁓ earn tuition exchange. And there was a whole list of schools all throughout the country. ⁓ And I ended up settling on four schools to take a visit to and actually go through the application process and see what happened. And one of them was UMass Amherst, that's where my dad went. ⁓ One was Nichols because that's where my mom worked. ⁓ One was Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Maryland and the other one

And it just so happened that going into my senior year of college, my mom's boss at Nichols was a Catawba grad. Worked at Catawba. He was actually a college basketball coach at one point. He worked at Memphis under Tick Price. So he was kind of, you know, saying, hey, you got to go check out Catawba. Go check out this school in North Carolina. It's a really awesome place. So we took the trip, right? You know, we were.

family vacation to Williamsburg. We drove five hours down to Catawba, drove five hours back in the same day to Williamsburg and ⁓ had the opportunity to meet with Coach Jim Baker and my mom's boss kind of set all that up and he said, hey, it might not be the easiest thing in the world, but if you come to Catawba, you'll have an opportunity to walk on and play with our team. And I think that for me, that was a big deal.

I didn't get to meet the coaches at any other place that I visited because I wasn't a prospective student athlete in their eyes. But to have some face time with Coach Baker really solidified that Catawba was the right place for me.

Cory Heitz (08:46)
Yeah, love it. What a great experience. And that tuition exchange, I'm assuming Nichols would let kids come there for free. And there were other schools that would let their staff kids go for free. I never heard of that before. That's pretty neat.

Ben Veshi (08:57)
And the irony of it all, is that I was actually upset ⁓ because going into the time I was applying for colleges, know, schools like Syracuse and Gonzaga and like the University of Washington were on the list. But then Nichols got put on some kind of probation because I guess that they were sending too many people out and not enough people were coming back in. ⁓ So, you know, I had to had to change. ⁓

the list of schools that I wanted to really look at. And fortunately, Catawba was on both lists, so it all worked out.

Cory Heitz (09:29)
Perfect. Yeah. Things usually do work out, don't they Ben? All right. After graduation, you coached at Catalauba, you coached at Marianapolis. What did you take away from those experiences that you're using now at Hargrave?

Ben Veshi (09:43)
Um, you know, I think that, that starting at Marianapolis, right? Like it was, uh, it was really cool to go back home. Right. And, and, you know, you got that level of, of comfortability. Um, you know, was, I was in grad school at the time, um, at Nichols. Uh, I was actually going to be a volunteer assistant with them. Um, until my old, uh, my old assistant coach, Andrew Vitaly, uh, at Marianapolis gave me a call and said, Hey, I've got an open assistant spot. You know, I can.

pay you about $4,000. I was like, yeah, I'm in. I didn't even give it a second thought. I enjoyed playing for Andrew. having the opportunity to go back to Marianapolis was really special to me. And I ref soccer and did all these different things to try to make money. And then I started, I got to campus, was doing open gyms.

started to rub elbows with the girls coach there, who was really successful in her own right. And actually, it's funny, our girls team at the time, we had a girl going to Providence, a girl going to New Hampshire, a girl going to Boston University. So it was a really talented group. And she was in her first year and didn't really have much of a staff. And she was like, hey, do you want to come be an assistant? And I said,

Yeah, sure. mean, why not? don't know the ins and outs of the women's game, but I'd be more than happy to learn. And what I learned is that playing the post is miserable if you're not used to it. I was basically a practice player. And at 5'10", I was the one working with the post. So I was running up and down the floor, rim to rim. And I was like, I want to go back to running top of the key to top of the key. But what it taught me?

right, is that it taught me how to coach different people, right, and understand that, you know, coaching is not a one size fits all thing. ⁓ You know, so being able to hold people accountable, right, but treat them with respect and, you know, that was a really eye-opening thing for me. You know, it's funny, I asked, he doesn't remember this, but Jamie Sullivan, the head coach at Worcester Academy, I played against him.

back in the AAU days and he bumped into me and I was like, yeah, I'm helping with the girls too. And he's like, I was like, I don't really know how to, how to coach me said, coach them like athletes. So that's exactly what I did. And it was great advice. And it was, it was awesome to do that. Right. And luckily, you know, I was able to make my way back to Catawba for the next step in my career. Unfortunately, it was a time after coach Baker just got, let him go and

The new head coach Rob Perrin came in and gave me a couple tasks for my interview ⁓ to be a volunteer assistant for him for two years. But what I really learned there was how to run a program. The ins and outs of the day-to-day operations, ⁓ doing things on a shoestring budget, because at Division II you don't really have a lot. Learning how to really evaluate players and people in the recruiting process.

I think is probably ⁓ one of the biggest takeaways that's still applicable here at Hargrave now. But when you don't have a war chest of scholarships at your disposal at a Division II school, you got to really make sure that you're recruiting the right kind of kids and the right kind of fits for your program. And a lot of that I learned during my two years at Catawba.

Cory Heitz (13:32)
Well, let me piggyback on that. We're going to get to Hargrave in a second, because you recruit players at Hargrave now. You recruited players at Katawba. When you walk into a showcase or an AAU gym and you've got all these games going on, and you walk up to a game and start watching, can you tell pretty quickly who's a Katawba level player, who's a Hargrave level player? How long does that take, or how do you learn how to figure that out when you walk into seeing a random game at an event?

Ben Veshi (14:01)
I think that the real cheap answer is that you do your homework early so that it's not random. I do think that there's some to that. But I'll find myself, especially in the summertime, I know who I need to see. But then I'm not going to leave the gym. I'm a gym rat. I love being around the game. So I'll just sit down and I'll watch. It could be a random 16s game. It could be a 17s game. But you can tell pretty quickly.

Cory Heitz (14:07)
Okay. Okay.

Ben Veshi (14:31)
Right? Knowing that, again, it's a snapshot evaluation. It could be that young man's best moment. It could be their worst moment and vice versa. ⁓ But you start to look at some of the different things. Right? Like, is he talking on defense? How does he move? How does he act with his teammates? Things like that, that ⁓ the skill, right? It's all relative.

Cory Heitz (14:38)
Right.

Ben Veshi (14:59)
You know, I think that the biggest difference is you can tell who's an NBA player and who's not. ⁓ But then in today's day and age, right, like the kid that could go to Catawba, right, he's also probably a low major player, right? He's probably one inch taller than a D3 player with the same skill, right? And at Hargrave, we want all three of those guys, right? You know, so I think that it is important to be able to...

quickly pick up on things like that.

Cory Heitz (15:31)
What is something a player might do at one of these ⁓ events that once you see this one thing happen, they're off your list? Like, is there a deal killer for you that you might see among someone you're recruiting?

Ben Veshi (15:41)
It doesn't always show up in the games, but the way that they talk to their parents, the way they talk to their coaches, ⁓ the reality is that as prep school level coaches, you spend so much time with your players more so than with your own family. So it's important that you're around the right kind of people. It doesn't matter if you can score 25 points a game, but if you're the wrong kind of person, we're not going to recruit you here.

Cory Heitz (15:47)
interesting.

Yeah, love it. Now, now's your opportunity to give your pitch on Hargrave Military Academy, both as a school and a basketball program. So for those of the folks out there that never heard of you guys, what would you like to say to them about what you got going on?

Ben Veshi (16:26)
⁓ First, I would like to say that Hargrave Military Academy is an incredibly special place, right? And it is not what you think, right? This is not ⁓ a reform school, right? This is an opportunity for young men to become the best versions of themselves in a structured environment, right? ⁓ Are we unique? Absolutely. Our guys wear a military-style uniform, right? We have a regimented daily schedule from

6 a.m. to 10 p.m. and you get into a rhythm and you are going to be held accountable for your actions both positively and negatively. ⁓ But I also have learned right now in my 10th year here at Hargrave that everything that we do for the whole person dramatically impacts your performance on the court in a positive way. ⁓

you know, we in the basketball side, like it's the best part of their day, right? Because, you know, they get to kind of be quote unquote themselves, right? But they're going to go out there and they're going to play incredibly hard, right? And they walk into historic Walter Davis Gymnasium twice a day for ⁓ skill work and then practice. And they see the 31 NBA players, right? They see.

the 300 plus Division I players that have come through here, right? They see the Hall of Famers, the coaches that coached here that went on to coach in college currently. ⁓ You know, when you get to basically work out in a basketball museum, right? ⁓ You know, we're old school. We don't have AC in the gym, which is a nice advantage for us. Opponents aren't used to that. ⁓ But it's an incredibly special place.

Right. You know, we compete at the highest levels of prep basketball. ⁓ And, you know, for me, right, being here as long as I have been, ⁓ you know, it's really cool to see each team each year kind of figure things out at the same time, different times, right. Like, but when that moment clicks, right, it's just a reminder of like how incredibly awesome.

this place is to see a group of 15 to 17 young men that have probably never met each other before leave in March and May and they're brothers, right? They're best friends for life. Like they're still in group chats to this day, 10 years later, all in different parts of the country, different parts of the world. But you truly become brothers with your teammates while you're here.

Cory Heitz (19:11)
Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I've been there many times. You and I have worked with plenty of players of ours that have chosen to go there. And I don't really recommend many kids to Hargrave unless they've got kind of that grit factor. Because I think the first time I saw you guys practice, that was your team that won the national championship. I think 14 out of the 14 guys went D1s. It was it was a knife fight. I don't I still don't think I've been to a practice where every single player in the team went D1. The only one that didn't was Brooks Ely, my kid.

who went Glenville State for two years and transferred to Northern Kentucky. So you had, what is that? Nine guys, nine D1 guys, didn't even start every game, right? Which is crazy. And then you've got on the walls there all the NBA players that have come through there, all the coaches that are now at the collegiate level. But, you know, I do mention to certain kids like, do you want to look into a military academy for prep school year? And about one out of every 20 will say, yeah, I'm interested in that.

Are you seeing a trend with kids out there now in 2025 to where they're either they're still open to military or is it getting tougher to convince them because you know they just don't want that adversity or what what are you seeing on your end when you're recruiting kids?

Ben Veshi (20:24)
I think that you're still going to find the right kind of person at the end of the day. what I think is, is become more challenging isn't necessarily who we are, but it's who other program, like who other programs are, right? There are more prep options than there were 15 years ago. There are 10 years ago, even five years ago, right? Like there are different situations.

And, you know, what we tell ourselves, right, because we do have to cast a very wide net because it still is about one out of every 20, right? You know, the second you talk about cutting your hair and shaving your face, a lot of guys are like, coach, thanks for your time, but we're going to look elsewhere. And we get it, right? And, you know, I think that at the end of the day, we end up with the right kind of kids for us, right? ⁓ And, you know, if someone is willing to let a haircut

Cory Heitz (21:06)
Yeah.

Ben Veshi (21:20)
come in the way of them achieving their dreams or not, that kind of kid probably wouldn't make it here. Because if we're worried about our hair, what are you going to do when it's 6.15 and you've got to wake up for the 15th straight day in a row and you're just tired? You've to wake up. You've got to be able to push through some of that adversity. And if you do it, you come through on the other side and you've achieved every single thing you wanted to achieve before coming hard.

Cory Heitz (21:49)
Yeah, and guess what? I'm sure you use this in your pitch too. Every college at basketball program, you're going to be getting up early almost every day of the week, whether it's for workouts, conditioning, weights, extra study. So like it's

It's the uniform is the biggest difference, right? And cutting shaving your hair. And I've said it before on this. I'll say it again. I was never military and I went to a military prep school, a military academy, served five years in the military, right? Served my country deployed to the Middle East. And I still don't feel in that military, right? And I did all that stuff. So look on the wall, look on the website, see everyone that's gone to Hargrave, right? Don't have to do it's not for everybody. But if you're a serious player that wants to compete every day,

have great coaching and training like this place is tried and true. They won national championships, know, Ben's been there a long time. So I'm neutral, but I just want to let you know, and I'm told the military coaches have come on here. You guys have something special to the general public out there. Don't be scared of this, right? If you're going to play in a college, it's going to be tough. You're going to be wearing uniforms, whether it's, um, you know, a suit and tie for games or a sweatsuit or whatever. This is the same thing, just different.

right? And you're going to come out better, stronger, and more prepared to contribute right away. So anyway, just my pitch for you.

Ben Veshi (23:02)
And

I was going to add to that too, Cory, like the hair grows back, right? It might not for me, ⁓ but you know, the hair definitely does grow back. So again, you're exactly right. And what we do here, right, it might be different on a day to day, but what it is, right, it prepares you for college basketball, right? We're doing two workouts a day. We're going to class.

Cory Heitz (23:28)
Yeah.

Ben Veshi (23:30)
You've got to figure out meals, Like, you know, we're in the weight room four times a week. It's, it's, it is college basketball. The only thing that we don't stimulate here that you'll get in college basketball is a social life. Right. But everything that you're doing here prepares you for those situations to where like, you know, you're gonna, you're going to be responsible. You're going to make the right decisions. ⁓ You know, and, and the reality is that like anybody can do this for seven, eight months. Right. Like.

Not everyone has to have the path of going from Hargrave to a service academy to service of our country, right? ⁓ We support that wholeheartedly if that's what guys want to do, but ⁓ any of our guys that have come through here, right, like, you could do this for eight months. And then when you got a long Thanksgiving break, a long Christmas break and you play almost 50 games, you're not really on campus that much after October hits.

Cory Heitz (24:11)
Yep.

You guys play 50 games a season. In seven to eight months, does that mean you get out of school earlier than June? Explain that to me.

Ben Veshi (24:29)
it'd be pretty close.

So it's a lot. We're basically playing an NBA level schedule in terms of three or four games in a week. And the guys, we.

We try to schedule them so that it's not 50 high level games, right, all at the same time, because that's just, that's a lot on guys. want to make sure that they're prepared for college, right? Like we don't want to be the reason that someone's career is cut short. You know, the way that youth basketball is in this country, like you're going to play more, right? You're not going to practice as much. ⁓ Even though the practice is here, like you've seen.

they're probably more intense than some games. So we're really strategic about that, but we want to create as many opportunities for our guys as possible to get recruited. ⁓ So playing that many games allows us, Cory, you're already going to George Mason, right? For example, like,

Cory Heitz (25:25)
yeah.

Ben Veshi (25:44)
you know, this team we're going to play like, I think we're going to be pretty good. Like you're going to work out today and then you're going to rest during the game. We're going to get, going let someone else have an opportunity tonight. And, and you know, the guy that has that opportunity to step up, like they're prepared for it because of how we work for it. And like that can dramatically change the next four years and the next 40 years of their life. If they, if they, you know, perform well, they find the right fit. You know, then, then we have an opportunity for them to go to college because of that.

Cory Heitz (26:14)
Well, let's piggyback on that. So talk to me how you do placement with your players these days with the transfer portal, NIL, the game getting bigger. I know in the old days you guys had like a dedicated guy that would be making the phone calls, keeping everything tracked. How do you guys doing that in 2025 then?

Ben Veshi (26:32)
So we are, as a staff, we have a document that we just compile all that information into, right? When we hear something on a guy, when we have a conversation about a kid, we make sure that everyone's on the same page so that we're all saying the same things to the same coaches. And if something's different, we don't wanna make our miscommunication the reason that that young man can't pursue that opportunity because the opportunities are few and far between right now.

for high school players. And what it's done here is it it creates a weird tiring dynamic to where it's June and July and we are finishing up our roster for the current year while also getting guys, you know, still finding them a home. Like our last guy in the 25 class signed in mid July, right?

Cory Heitz (27:30)
Wow.

Ben Veshi (27:31)
whereas it's almost, you know, unheard of five, six years ago, like you had your early guys, and then you had your guys that would go on the spring and you might have one or two trickle past that late signing period in April. ⁓ that you had to try to find a home for. And now it's, it's like, you know, you're going year round, trying to help these guys achieve the goals that they set out to achieve. ⁓ and, and it's, it's.

allowed us to have more direct conversations with guys, right? know, it's every young man that comes to the hard grave, right? They want to go division one, right? It doesn't matter if you're the top player on the team, if you're the last guy in the rotation and the last guy on the bench, it doesn't matter, right? You're going to exhaust every division one opportunity before you even think about division two and division three, right?

Cory Heitz (28:03)
Mm-hmm.

Ben Veshi (28:26)
six, seven years ago, that was probably okay, right? Because you know, the spring, crazy things happen, more opportunities become available. Now, we're telling guys like, hey, I know that you believe that you're a mid-major player, right? And you could be, but these are the schools that are recruiting you right now, okay? This Division II school is offering you a full scholarship. If you're a Division I player, go prove it, brother.

Cory Heitz (28:56)
That's right.

Ben Veshi (28:56)
We're going to

support you wholeheartedly. Like this school checks enough boxes for you, right? That yeah, they're not on ESPN every night, but that's okay, right? They're going to give you an opportunity to play as a freshman, right? You're to be able to pursue the degree that you want to pursue. It's not too far from home, right? I know that's important to you, right? That you want to be closer to home and you don't have to pay to go to school, right? Like

you got to get that immediate return on this investment. And if you do what you believe you're capable of, what we believe you're capable of, you're going to be able to have that opportunity to transfer, right? You know, where, where I think that what it does is it lengthens the transactional phase of the relationship you have with your families, right? Like everything is still transformational.

But at the end of the day, like families come to Hargrave because they want to go to college for free, right? The reality is that, you know, six, seven years ago, it could be as simple as, hey, you know, this is where I'm going, right? Like, and we support them right now. It's all just a happy, you know, we're there for them when, when days aren't great. We're there for them when days are great. But now it's like, hey, 12 months after a kid leaves Hargrave coach, I'm in the portal.

Cory Heitz (29:59)
Yeah.

Ben Veshi (30:21)
Like, do you think that you could help me out? Right? Absolutely. Because we have that network to do it. But it it elongates that part of the relationship, right? Which in turn also allows us to be transformational for a longer period of time as well.

Cory Heitz (30:25)
Yeah.

Yeah, I love that. They're always part of the family, right? And you're to take care of them. Ben, talk to me on this, like ranking importance now. Is it the summer period before they show up? Is it the open gym period? Is it the games? Is it showcases? Is it your relationships with college coaches? Like how would you rank like what the most important thing is today in placement?

Ben Veshi (30:59)
So.

I think that the summer period is probably the most important right now. ⁓ And then, honestly, after that, I would say that our reputation as a program, ⁓ coupled with our relationships, is probably the next level. ⁓ Then you've got your games, right, with us being in the elite prep league and playing in all the national prep.

Cory Heitz (31:07)
Interesting.

Yeah.

Ben Veshi (31:30)
events like, you you're playing in the right events. You're playing in front of multiple college coaches almost every single night in those games ⁓ to where like the games do become important. ⁓ The issue is that, you know, if they're outside of the signing window, then it's like, you know, now you're, you're still just, you're hoping that you can continue that string of success when it comes time to sign. I think that what's become less important.

but still matters are the open gyms in the fall, right? Like, you know, I remember a time, I mean, shoot, I can go back to September 9th, 2016, right? This was my first live period at Hargrave and there were 25 coaches on the sideline, right? You're talking like Chris Mack, Rick Stansberry, ⁓ assistants from North Carolina, everywhere, right? Like now, now it's like,

Cory Heitz (32:03)
interesting.

Ben Veshi (32:29)
If you are finding out about a kid on September 9th, you're so far behind, right? Like it's almost like you've missed out on, maybe your top four or five guys. And now you're just going back to the well and you're to go to a place like hard rave because you know, the year over year, we're going to have guys that are, you know, high caliber players, high caliber people. so you're willing to make that quote unquote fishing expedition. ⁓ that is become increasingly rare.

Cory Heitz (32:35)
Interesting.

Ben Veshi (32:59)
Right? You know, because the way that people are doing their high school recruiting, you prioritize guys. If you miss on them, you're like, well, it's October 13th. Do we want to just try one more swing at a high school kid that might be the right fit, might be good enough? Or do we just, hey, let's focus on our team right now. We'll revisit some high school kids in January, but come March, right? Like we are full, full on portal for at least 30 days. Right?

⁓ so I think that, that the importance of, of having a really big summer is, is paramount. ⁓ you know, like we, even did it this past June. ⁓ we did the scholastic period and that's normally not something that we would do, because at that time our roster is in flux, right? You know, when you, when you turn over almost your entire roster every single year, ⁓ if you don't have enough guys to go out there and compete, like you don't want to have the negative.

Cory Heitz (33:43)
Cool.

Ben Veshi (33:59)
impact of that exposure where, know, we're not ready. We don't look really good. Like we're to go in there off of one practice, maybe with a group of 10 guys that are playing together for the first time ever. Right. ⁓ But it was really, it was really good for us to do it this summer. And it's something that I hope that we can continue to do year over year, provided that we're in the space to be able to have that opportunity for our guys.

Cory Heitz (34:25)
Yeah, I love that. Now, how many teams do you have there?

Ben Veshi (34:28)
So we have one right now. ⁓ We are actually ⁓ planning to add a second team sometime in the next calendar year to where for the 26, 27 year, we'll have two teams. And then we have a varsity, a JV, and a middle school team under us.

Cory Heitz (34:49)
Okay, gotcha. Welcome to this. mentioned the EPL and you come from New England and you go after a lot of kids that are looking at New England options and then EPL options. So what is your pitch when a kid says, I want to be in New England and be around, you know, more high quality or high quality teams and there's more college coaches that come up there. Obviously you've had success over the years, but what is your comeback to that?

Ben Veshi (35:15)
And it's really difficult for me personally, right? Because I'm a NepSAC guy. Like I grew up in NepSAC. Like I have so much reverence for what guys like Jason Smith and Jerry Quinn and Mike Hart and Jamie Sullivan, I mentioned them earlier, but like guys like that have done over the years with NepSAC basketball. ⁓ But I think that what we talk about here as a league, right, is that

Cory Heitz (35:21)
Yeah.

Ben Veshi (35:45)
you're not just competing in New England, right? Like you're going to get out, you're going to have a team in our conference from Canada, right? Like all the way down to Georgia. And you're going to get to go and play in different events in different regions, right? You know, like we were going down to Atlanta this year to play an EPL league stop, right? We're going to Ohio twice. You know, you get the DC market. In addition to going to New England a couple of times a year.

Um, and, and what it does is, is the league as a whole, it's, it's come a long way, right? Like Chris and Jack Heron have done an incredible job with building the elite prep league from what was a seven team league four years ago, um, to now as a 13 team league that's going to feature, uh, new additions like Spire and Western reserve, um, along with, know, your, your Hargraves, your Fork Union, your Mass Nut and your Mount Zion.

⁓ you know, you've got a really talented group of schools and that's going to attract college coaches too. Right. ⁓ the weather's a little bit warmer down here. Not, everywhere in the league, but it's a little warmer than new England. ⁓ but, but no, the reality is that there's high level prep basketball everywhere. Right. And, and we, know, with the elite prep league, like, ⁓

Cory Heitz (37:07)
Yeah.

Ben Veshi (37:11)
We believe that we are the best league in the country from a competitive standpoint, from a top end talent standpoint. ⁓ Do we have the same tradition and history of the NEPSAC? Absolutely not, right? But we're competitive every single year, right? We're battling with the NEBL and NEPSAC AAA, AA, whatever it is,

We're here to show that we might be the new kids on the block in terms of ⁓ a conference. ⁓ But we've got some prep school stalwarts that have been successful for a long time in this thing.

Cory Heitz (37:50)
You know, I'm thinking just off the top of my head, we need to have a showcase at the palestra, ⁓ NepSAC versus EAPL and see who wins like the SEC Big East challenge. Someone smarter than me with more connections should put that on, but that would be interesting.

Ben Veshi (38:04)
I was

gonna say, does prep athletics want to sponsor that?

Cory Heitz (38:08)
potentially. I

don't know if I had the big bucks for that, but someone out there can make some money and man, think about the college coaches. Think about the environment. I think Philly or DC would be kind of halfway for everybody. Think about that. putting that on. Yeah, I'll let you find the guy that can make that happen and let you share that with him. All right. One big question that families ask me a lot is, know, compare these two schools and how much development will my son get there? So what's your pitch? You know, I know Benson Lynn, who we sent there.

Ben Veshi (38:22)
be a great weekend of basketball.

Cory Heitz (38:39)
You had to kick him out of the gym because he was in there too much training, too much and not doing recovery, right? He was the extreme. But walk me through what your players are going to get as far as development, working with coaches, one-on-ones, etc.

Ben Veshi (38:51)
So everything that we do, we're going to do with a coach there. When you're in the weight room, you are following a structured weight plan that's tailored to you in terms of how much you can actually lift. We're going to go through the same exercises, but obviously, you can push more weight than I can. So you're working out with someone actually teaching you the right form. Someone actually.

counting your reps to make sure that you don't shortchange yourself, right? And then the same thing happens on the court, right? Like I give a lot of credit to our staff, right? Our associate head coach, Luke Rosinski and our assistant, John Mevin, right? Like those guys have been with me since day one of being the head coach here. And like John played here back in 2017, 2018 for Lee Martin and what these guys do like

It's college level skill work. know, we're in here the way our daily schedule works out. Like we have a dedicated block of time that is all about the individual, right? It is about you, right? Your improvement, not our team, right? We're not going to take time away from your time for team practice or anything like that. So every single day, right? You are guaranteed one individual workout.

Right. Then we're going to practice, right? Then we're going to practice. that's, know, again, it's about the team, right? But you're going to get two highly competitive sessions on the court every single day. And even though we're a military school, right? ⁓ When I told you you're accountable for your actions, right? That's both good and bad. Right. So if you are doing everything you're supposed to do in the classroom, right? You're handling your business on the military side of things. ⁓ You can come back to the gym.

Cory Heitz (40:19)
Wow.

Ben Veshi (40:48)
after study home, right? Our coaches are in there, right? You know, where they might not necessarily put you through a super physically intensive workout because recovery does matter, but like, Hey, you know, you're a seven footer, right? And you're really great with, with your right-handed hook, but you're struggling with your left, right? We're going to spend 45 minutes working on your left, right? We're going to, we're going to spend time with you mastering a specific part of your game.

that can help translate to college or it's gonna help your recruitment. It's also gonna help us as a team, right? But you as an individual, right? You're gonna have ⁓ professional hands helping you every single day, at least once a day, if not up to three or four times a day, right? Like we have guys right now that are, you know, Benson Lynn Jr., right? Where they're in the gym at 5 a.m. before Reveille at 6.15.

Cory Heitz (41:37)
See you

Ben Veshi (41:48)
They're going through our skill work at 8 a.m. They're going through practice at 3.30. And then they're back in the gym on the gun for 30 minutes at night before bed. That kind of stuff is huge. So we have the framework from a coaching staff side that you're going to be treated as a college basketball player while you're here. The skill work you're going to do trickles down from college.

And we're also going to create those opportunities for you to get back in the gym, right? Like if you want to get on the gun, you just want to get some shots up. That's great. Right? Like, like we would love for you to end your day doing that. Right? Like don't go overboard because you got to come back and we got two practices in the next day. ⁓ but, but you know, we've created opportunities within our schedule for additional individual growth.

Cory Heitz (42:41)
That's big time. You know, I always talk to families about quality versus quantity, right? Because some places now be like, you got 10 hours in the gym or we got 12 hours in the gym. And I say, if you're going hard in game speed, you might last 30 minutes before you gas out. Sounds like what you're saying, Ben, is throughout the day, you're going to have quality and quantity together with what you guys are offering, which is pretty unique.

Ben Veshi (43:03)
And what you'll see around this time, right? Like we're into preseason. We've had a couple scrimmages. The guys that come back in the evening, that number dwindles a little bit more once you actually get into game play. Because again, like you are tired, right? Like that 8 AM skill work and then that 330 practice, like that's why those evening and morning sessions are 100 % optional, right?

Cory Heitz (43:21)
Yeah.

Ben Veshi (43:31)
want you to if you want to be there, we'll be there. Right. But if not, like, let's not overdo it.

Cory Heitz (43:37)
⁓ A couple more questions. If you're a post-grad there, what's your academic requirements? What are your academic requirements?

Ben Veshi (43:42)
So our guys, our post grads will go through ⁓ four classes every day, right? ⁓ What those classes are depend on where they are in terms of NCAA eligibility, right? Which most post grads that we're seeing now, like they're qualified. It's a lot. think it's, there are more opportunities to get qualified before post-grad year academically. ⁓ So then it's like, all right, well.

you're preparing to be a college student athlete. So we're not going to let you just mail it in academically this year, right? So, fortunately, one of their four classes is weightlifting. you know, that works for them. But then there are other three courses, right? Like our guys are taking a speech course that is essentially public speaking for athletes. You know, when I talk to families, I talk about Zach Eadie and the Elite Eight a few years ago when Purdue finally got to the Final Four.

Cory Heitz (44:22)
Okay.

Mm.

Ben Veshi (44:40)
And Tracy Wolfson is holding a microphone up to him after he had 40 and 20, and he drops an F-bomb on CBS. And I'm like, man, like I get it as a competitor. I get it. You can't do it in that form. Right. So that speech class, it helps, right? Because in today's day and age, these guys are going to have microphones in front of their face, whether they play at Averitt University in Danville, Virginia, or they play at Duke University, right? Like,

you're going to have a microphone in front of your face at some point. You have to be able to speak confidently without being arrogant. You have to be able to know what words you can and can't say on a hot mic. ⁓ They're also in a seminar course ⁓ that will do some SAT prep. We still want our guys to take the SAT. ⁓ Some colleges will require it still, so it's important that.

in the recruiting space that we don't close any doors before they can even open by not having a test score or not having a sufficient test score. ⁓ So we've got that, ⁓ you know, they'll work on their college essays, right? Refining those things. We actually will bring in some guest speakers ⁓ and what we're doing with that seminar course now is it's a lot about building your brand, right? And like these guys are in

Cory Heitz (45:58)
Hmm, interesting.

Ben Veshi (46:00)
just such a special time in college athletics. It might be chaotic, but it is special for them and for them to be able to capitalize on those NIL opportunities. We want to make sure that they build their brand, they do it properly, they understand what taxes are, they understand how to read a contract, things like that. ⁓ And then their fourth class, their other academic class, it kind of varies. ⁓ We do want the guys to maybe do a little career exploration. ⁓

Cory Heitz (46:18)
Mm.

Ben Veshi (46:30)
You know, it's where like my first team here three years ago, we had a young man who's at Columbia now. ⁓ He wanted to study engineering. You know, we didn't offer an engineering course, but we have a credit recovery online provider that, you know, other students will use that, Hey, there's an intro to engineering course. Well, the class might not necessarily be about the grade that you get in it, but Hey, this is something you're thinking about doing. How much do you know about?

Right? How much do you really know about engineering? Is it something you really want to get into? You know, because if you're just so gung-ho about like, I'm going to engineering school, like I'm incredibly smart. I can get into Texas A &M or I can get into Virginia Tech. And then you're like, oh man, this is engineering? I didn't know it was going to be this. Can I change my major to general studies, please? So we allow them to have those opportunities to kind of, you know,

reaffirm their beliefs or maybe even learn something new about maybe a major they weren't thinking about.

Cory Heitz (47:34)
I love it. Thanks for sharing that. Last question. What does it take to be a D1 guard in 2025?

Ben Veshi (47:43)
I'll tell you what, takes a lot of things. But really, you have to be.

You have to be a coach on the floor, like you really do. You have to be able to make sure that your teammates are in the right position. You have to be able to execute what the coaches are asking on offense and defense. You have to be able to dribble the ball. If you do not have a tight handle, you are not going to make it to the Division 1 level as a guard. You have to be a capable shooter. You might not necessarily be a Steph Curry.

but you have to be a capable shooter. You have to be able to keep defenses honest so that they're not going to pack the pain against you. And then you have to be able to defend. You have to be able to defend, be physical. ⁓ All those things kind of wrapped into one. But I think that for Division I guards, if you don't have that tight handle and you're not 6'5", 6'6", and they can't use you on the wing, and even then you got to be able to dribble. ⁓

I think they're having that tight handle is paramount to be in a division.

Cory Heitz (48:55)
Alright, thanks for sharing that. We're going to finish up with some quick hitters here. Alright, who's the best player you ever played against?

Ben Veshi (49:03)
Dirk Rose.

Cory Heitz (49:05)
Where'd you do that?

Ben Veshi (49:07)
I was in an AAU event and just wanted to get my teeth kicked in basically. Yeah. yeah, yeah.

Cory Heitz (49:12)
Okay, and he kicked him in.

Okay, all right, how about the best player you've coached against?

Ben Veshi (49:20)
That's a question. I'd probably say Nate a ament at Highland this past year.

Cory Heitz (49:25)
Okay, what's your favorite movie?

Ben Veshi (49:29)
Good fellas.

Cory Heitz (49:31)
And lastly, what are your hobbies when you're not coaching?

Ben Veshi (49:34)
I would like to say that I'm a golfer. ⁓ I show up to the course, but I'm not very good. I'm learning, I'm learning.

Cory Heitz (49:42)
All right, is there anything you want to touch on that we didn't talk about during this time together?

Ben Veshi (49:48)
No, no, Cory I really appreciate you having me on here and having the opportunity to speak about hard grip.

Cory Heitz (49:53)
Yeah. And look, we're going to have all your contact information, the show notes, both on the podcasting page and on the YouTube platform. So if anyone's interested, they'll reach out to you guys. I'm sure the website has inquiries and whatnot. ⁓ then thanks so much for joining us in the podcast today. I wish you best of luck this year. It's good talking to you again and I appreciate coming on.

Ben Veshi (50:10)
Awesome, thanks Cory.

Cory Heitz (50:12)
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