Hank Waters: How an NBA Superfan Built a High School Basketball Powerhouse From Scratch

An Orlando Magic superfan with zero experience building sports programs just assembled three players he's convinced will be top-6 NBA draft picks — and his strategy was brutally simple: "hire the right person and let them do everything."

Hank Waters went from Orlando Magic courtside season ticket holder and lawyer to co-owner of Southeastern Preparatory Academy, transforming a struggling private school into a national basketball powerhouse in just 2.5 months. Waters details his recruitment of elite coach David Peavy from championship-winning Duncanville High School and assembly of future NBA prospects including Beckham Black (Anthony Black's brother), CJ Rosser, and Obinna Ekezie.

The episode covers the complete operation: player housing, national competition leagues, international travel, maintaining academic standards, and the financial realities of running a private school. Waters shares his bold prediction that three of his juniors will be top-6 NBA draft picks and his vision for program expansion.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey everybody, Mark Israel from Courtside, and this week we take you to Orlando, where we sit down with a guy by the name of Hank Waters who built a high school called Southeastern Prep into a basketball powerhouse. Come check it out.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

All right, well, welcome back to Courtside and continue our conversation that we started a little earlier with Hank Waters. We talked about the fact that I met you a year or two ago when you were good enough to come and see your Orlando Magic play my Houston Rockets in Houston. I think I said earlier, I think we kicked your butt. So uh all's well that ended well, and you're really nice enough to bring me down here to Orlando and return the favor. So thanks so much. I'm looking forward to going to the game tonight.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Great.

SPEAKER_02 0:45

Yep, it's a lot of fun. But you know, as we got to to know each other, I I I learned that there's more to your story when it comes to hoops and and and stuff. And I want to talk a little bit about that, but but let's just talk a little bit about, you know. So we're sitting today at at Southeastern Preparatory Academy, right? Which is a school that I'm gonna say you're involved in, and you can tell me more about it. Okay, you can tell me the the involvement. But let's talk about how we got here, not the Uber that I took from the airport, but I mean how you got here. And and I think you told me uh that it really started with with uh you know becoming a fan of the magic. So why don't you talk to me about that a little bit?

SPEAKER_00 1:25

It definitely let in from that. So I've I've been a big Magic fan ever since I moved to Orlando, which is about 12 years ago, and was fortunate enough, nothing fortunate about COVID, but when COVID hit, some seats that I'd always wanted opened up. And there are two seats right beside the magic bench, and then two seats right on the other side of the scores table because sponsors went away during COVID. And I had a great relationship with my uh my ticket guy with the magic, John Carlo. Shout out to John Carlo. And I told him for years, why don't the owners sell me two of those seats? I come to every game, I stay till the end of the game. I'm a real fan. Those seats sent empty a lot, and they did at the time. Well, because it was like a sponsor, it was like some corporate. It was corporate sponsors. So there are eight tickets there between the magic bench and the scores table, and the DeVos family, the owners of the Magic, had four, and then there's the other four were sponsors.

SPEAKER_03 2:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

And the four sponsors went away. I took two, and then a great family took the other two. And the DeVos still have the other four. But a lot of times back then, the DeVos family would hold the seats for VIPs or owners from other teams, executives from other teams. And a lot of times they would just sit empty, at least for part of the game. And I would be sitting at my courtside seats under the basket, and like I would love to be there. Right. And they were sitting empty. Give these seats to your friends and let me sit there where I'll actually be cheering for the team the whole time instead of players checking in for the game and walking by eight empty seats. It just irritated me to no end that anybody would have those seats and not use them. So for years, I would tell Giancarlo, would you ask them? I mean, would they? And it was always the answer was, no, we're gonna, we're gonna hold on to those. So when COVID happened and the sponsors backed out, Giancarlo called me immediately. He goes, You got to answer me now because otherwise they're gonna go into the the pool and it'll go based on seniority and all this kind of stuff. And I said, No, I'll take them, I'll take them, I'll take them. So for the first year, still couldn't go to the games because they were within six feet of the players. And so the seats just sat empty. Of course, I didn't have to pay for them, but they sat empty. And then the next year, started using those seats right by the bench, and that's when uh Coach Mosley came in. And from the beginning, he was always very friendly to me. He would talk to me a little bit during the games, a little snide comments, you know, just walking back and forth. And it was just an amazing experience. Like I've been a sports fan since I was born, and to be able to sit by the team, have a relationship with the coach, see the players all the time, it was is amazing. But what really changed my experience is occasionally the magic will take some fans onto a road trip with them, and you fly on the plane with the team. And I had a couple years in a row, I had tickets like that, and got to know the people a little better. They got used to seeing me. A couple of the players would know me by name. But eventually one of the trucks was over a Super Bowl weekend and they did a square, totally legal, I'm sure. And they, you know, they offered me to buy a story and I put my name on the thing, and now all the players they figured out what my name was because I don't I don't go out of my way to bother them. So it's you know, slap on the hand or great job, or I, you know, tell the player that was a really great pass, something that doesn't show up in the box score or something. And what then they knew my name. So the rest of that trip that was Chicago, I'd walk through the hotel and all the players would be calling me by name. They never call me only made every name before that. They never called me by name before. And I'm like, this is odd. But from that day on, when they would come through for their warmups or do the starting things, that almost all the players would would talk to me, hey, how you doing? And Cole Anthony was the best about it once we drafted Cole Anthony, which was the next year, because he played at UNC, which is what I love. And we'd go to the different events for fans and the players. And sometimes he would just come sit with my wife and I for the event and we'd talk about UNC and how he ended up there. And his dad, Greg Anthony, ended up being very good friends with the current coach at UNC. And that's kind of how Hubert Davis, and that's how he kind of ended up there. But and after that, you know, he has a lot of friends on the team, so they would become more friendly with me. And I try to go to their charity events when they have them and help out if I can. And so ended up having a personal relationship with a lot of the players. And three years ago, Anthony Black was our rookie, and got to know him like all the other players at different social events. They have an event at the beginning of the year at the team's hangar where Fields Motor Cars comes in and brings in the Lamborghinis and the Rolls-Royces and the Bentleys, and they bring a few fans in and they make the rookies come. So there's only there was only three players there that year, and it was him and Jed Howard and another player. And so I spent the time getting to know A B. And afterwards, I found out that A B had a little brother that was a ninth grader at Duncanville High School in Texas, which is probably the best public school team over the last 10 years that won a couple of national titles. But he came and played Montverde, and as a freshman, he had 30-some points against the loaded Cooper Flag, Derek Queen, Montverde team.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Which is, I'm just so everybody knows Montverde is here in Orlando too.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Mont Verde is outside of Orlando. That's about 45 minutes from him. It's a little bit out in the, I don't want to say the country, but outside of town.

SPEAKER_02 6:51

And one of, and for a long time, we're gonna talk about we're gonna talk about Southeastern Prep, but for a long time, Montverte has been a top basketball program. Montverte has been the basketball program. I wasn't gonna say it, I was gonna let him say it. Okay, absolutely. We beat him by 22 this year.

SPEAKER_00 7:05

But they've been the program in prep hoops for a while. I mean, Cade Cunningham, I mean, you can list the pros, it would take you a long time. But Cade Cunningham, Cooper Flag, Derek Queen, Ace Newell, just recently a lot of top, top players played at Montvart, and it's a beautiful campus. Great.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Okay, good. And uh, we'll talk bad about him later.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

And later we're gonna talk bad about it.

SPEAKER_02 7:29

That's right, but no.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

But anyways, I got to know Hansen a little bit, and I found out he had this kid brother Beckham, who's just a prodigy, playing at Duncanville, and and I sat by on a road trip in LA. I sat beside the bench on the end of the bench, opposite of where my seats normally are, and A B was sitting there and not getting in the game, and he was getting frustrated. He was a rookie, he his playing time was sporadic as a rookie. He would do some good things and he would sit, he'd do some bad things, and he'd sit. So I just told him basically, hey, you don't need advice from me, but keep your head up. You're 19 years old in the NBA, high draft pick, you got a bright future kind of thing. And I guess he told his mom about the conversation. Nice. So his mom searches me out on Facebook and says, I just want to tell you that as a parent of one of the players, I appreciate what you do for the players. Like, I don't really do a lot for the players. I talk to them. I mean, I'm willing to talk to them anyways. But I ask her then, because I'd heard about Beckham, you know, why is Beckham not at Montverde? So you can have both your kids in the same town. But she's telling me she's flying back and forth from Dallas to Orlando to see A B play and to see Beckham play. And she said, Well, don't think we haven't talked about it. And I was like, Okay, I'll let it go. And we every month or so there'd be a you know a little interaction. We had the playoff game in Cleveland where they put this the t-shirts out for everybody. Okay, and I've bought the two seats beside the bench. Like, here's the bench and these two seats. And my t-shirt is not on my seat. Okay, and I get there and I'm looking around and I ask the security guy for the magic. Marty, great guy. My t-shirt. He goes, I think A B took it. So when they come out there, go, hey, did you take my shirt? And he goes, I'll get it back to you. And I go, Don't you keep it? It wasn't gonna fit me, anyways. But I you took it. He goes, I'm trying to take one from every game, so I have them for uh nice. Okay, and so I mentioned to Jennifer, I'd send her a text that uh your son stole my shirt. And so we would, you know, have little interactions like that. Next year comes back A B's well, late, late, late that year. I'm at a game and I'm talking to Jeff Weltman, who's the president of the Magic, and A B's agent, who I don't know if he'd want me naming him or not, so I won't. But I bring up the same thing. I don't understand why Beckham is not at Montverge, so Jen doesn't have to fly all over the world. And the agent tells me, well, the agent's name's Justin. Justin tells me he's never leaving Duncanville. His stepfather's the coach. And I'm like, oh, well, Jen never mentioned that. And they're angry at that. And I was like, okay, well, that that makes sense. And so it was his second year that this happened. So my head turns into, okay, he's never coming to Mont Verde. He's playing in Dunkinville. Duncanville just beat Montverde for a national title a year or so before. Duncanville's produced Anthony Black lottery pick. The next year, Ron Holland lottery pick. Uh, coach's son, Micah Peavy, who plays for the New Orleans Pelicans, several other NBA players, tons of D1 players. It's a really successful program that's huge on basketball and football in the Dallas.

SPEAKER_02 10:35

And a at a public school.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

Public school.

SPEAKER_02 10:37

Which is incredible.

SPEAKER_00 10:37

They won two national titles at a public school, which in today's environment is unheard of because you essentially can't recruit. And we'll talk about my school here in a little bit about what that looks like when you can recruit. So shortly after that conversation with Jen and the agent about dad being the coach, I start thinking, yeah, he's never coming to Orlando. She's just gonna have to keep flying back and forth.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Right, have to go back and forth to Dallas. Yep. So let's let's get you a wet your whistle, man. You got all you got all chucked up talking about.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

No, I'm getting emotional here. Just gonna just get so David, who was with us earlier, got approached by someone who needed money to help fund a private school here in Orlando, which is where we are right now. Right.

SPEAKER_02 11:32

And this is a cool story. I'm I'm gonna add into it because David, David, who was here a few minutes ago, said he was at the gym, like working out, right? He's working out.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

And somebody approached him or he overheard. I think um the way I've heard the story is the founder of the school, Dominique Booker, was basically looking for someone in Genesis who had enough money to Genesis is a health club. Genesis is an extremely nice health club owned by a great man named Rodney Stephen. And it's it's a big draw to our school to be right in the same building with Genesis. So did David. We're physically in the same, he'll explain it, but we're physically in the same building. So David works out here and she found him through a mutual friend of ours and asked him, would he be interested in loaning money to the school or potentially investing in the school?

SPEAKER_02 12:21

Because the school needed some money.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

School needs some money. It's it was a grand plan by her that just had financial difficulties from time to time.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

Could you back up that part of the story? Because you're now gonna talk about the school. So explain how what when the school started and the grand plan, or you know, before you know, the couple of years before she met David and said, Hey, would you loan us some money? Yeah, so go back there.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

So, what I know about it, and I wasn't here, is that Dominique wanted to open a private school that would benefit kids who couldn't normally afford private school, and that would be sports-oriented, real school, but with real dedication to the sports programs. And she did that. And her son Rylan, an excellent basketball player, was kind of the leader of the team, leader of the basketball, and she provided this educational opportunity for kids that couldn't afford it, but it led to some financial shortcomings. So she had reached out to David. David and I had become friendly from going to not just the Magic Home games, but I would go to about 20, 20, 25 road games a year. David would go to several, and we would always be in the same towns. And my wife and his wife Martha became friends, and so we were we're friends regardless. We'd see each other a lot. And he said, I know you love basketball. Is this of interest to you? And I go, well, it's not of interest to me unless there's a real school. Because what you will find a lot in the prep community now is basketball programs that are attached to some school where the kids are never there. And it's there's a reason for that, and it's not necessarily a negative on those programs. But that was my statement. It has to be a real school. So we came and we met with her in the same room, and she had us convinced within a few minutes that it was a real school. So we both invested in the school. But my thought, my selfish thought at the time was I bet I can get David Peavy, that's Anthony Black, and Beckham Black's stepfather, to listen to me about coming here and being the coach, and we can skip this five or six year program of building the top program and just be a top program in year one.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

But wait, but back up a second, man. You, up until that point, you were told that you're a lawyer, you are a hoops fan, right? What do you know about building a sports program, whether it's at the high school, college, or pro level?

SPEAKER_00 14:42

Nothing. But I knew was that's what I thought. By the way, it's a whoop interest in it. Right. And I mean, I've told, so I'm fortunate enough I have some interaction with the Magic Front Office with uh John Hammond and Jeff Wellman. And I told John before, I will pay you to be the assistant to the assistant general manager. And John's exact words were me, I can think of no better candidate for the job than you, Hank. But I've always wanted to be involved, and I've always have I have opinions about things I know about and things I don't know about. So, no, what my thought was all I know about building a great basketball program is if I hire the right person to do it, he'll build the program. So there's it's a one to me, it was a one-objective situation. Hire David Peavy, get him to leave Duncanville, where he's had all this success, two national titles, multiple state titles, NBA players, college players, and move to Orlando to a school that at the time nobody had really heard of. And go that's a program.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

And and at the time, and again, I'm and I don't want to talk too much about Dominique, but she's running the school. The school had a basketball program, but it was it a big program, was it a well-known program? It was under the radar.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

It wasn't a national program, but they had a good team. You know, she had she had put together people who had gotten together players that were really good for a local, a local team. Really good. And Rylan is certainly good enough to play for any national program, also her son. Um but yeah, it it was not on a national level. We didn't have a national schedule, you know, they played local teams.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Right. You weren't on Munverde's uh level, no.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

No, Montver, yeah, no. Ryland could have played in Munver. He's a very good player. Um great kid too. Um But the my main goal was just if I could hire David Peavy, I don't have to build this program. He's gonna build the program. Right. So I'd already reached out to him through his through Jennifer, A B's and Beckham's mother, and asked, can you give me some pointers on how to run a great basketball program? Did you really want the pointers or you really want the David? The coach. Right. But I needed to get the conversation started. And of course he said yes. And then David, who was with us earlier, they were coming into town for A B, that's Anthony Black's birthday, and that's when I was gonna meet with him to talk about how to run a program. And David said, You need to tell him you're gonna try to hire him so he's not sandbagged when he gets here. So I called him, it's either the night before they came or the night before that, and talk a little bit. I said, I should tell you probably, I'm gonna try to hire you. And he said, I kind of thought that was coming, and I've heard great things about you, but that's gonna be a hard no. He said, But I'm still willing to talk to you about how to run the program. So did you take it as a hard no? No, I'm I'm pretty thick-headed. So I took it as okay, there's gonna be some convincing involved. So when he came into town, he uh I had Mike Miller with me, who is Paulo Banchero and Wendell Carter's agent.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

And was uh and played for the magic, right?

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Played for the magic, won a title with the Heat, rookie of the year. Just a well-known NBA guy, a good guy, a friend. I had him with me when we brought Coach Peavy and Jennifer in to look at the school. And they actually went to our auxiliary gym, which is is nice, but it's not that impressive. The main gym is right behind it. The main gym is right behind it. I don't know if the camera can see that, but yeah. And I would tell you that. So this whole facility used to be the NBA Magic's headquarters, the NBA Orlando Magic's headquarters. So the court behind us is a full NBA 94-foot court with NBA quality, you know, backboards and everything. Um so that that was kind of a big draw. But he didn't really, I don't think he knew that at the time. So he went to the auxiliary gym and he was like, Oh, Hank, I'm here. It looks pretty nice. I go, You're not here. I'm standing in the gym. Where are you? He goes, I'm in the gym. I go, what do you see? He goes, I see a bunch of old men playing volleyball. And I said, Okay, well, you're in the auxiliary gym. I'm sending somebody to come get you. So we come over, we walk them in, we walk through the the court, which is really impressive. It's it's a great setup. And Mike Miller's with me, and we're tied, they know each other because Mike had recruited, tried to sign A B. They end up going in a different direction, but the family knew Mike and they were comfortable with Mike. They saw this, they came up, they saw that we have real classrooms, and that it's a real school, it's not just a basketball factory. And then they we walked out the front door, which is where you can oversee the Genesis Health Club, which is a world-class, super nice health club. Uh hockey rink, Olympic size indoor pool, you know, tennis court, all the stuff that an elite health club would have. And he, and if you ever see David Peavy, I mean, he's a jack dude. He's obviously spends time he's been to the gym once. He was a little blown away by the fact that all our players get access to met full gym. We walked through it when we came here today. It's amazing. It's amazing. So within about five or ten minutes, I feel somebody pull up my sleeve and I look and he goes, Okay, so it's not a hard note. I was like, all right. So we go to the magic game that night. Uh, David and I are both members in the private club there called the Icon Lounge. So we get the family in, and we end up staying so late that Valet has left our cars. So there's just one dude standing out there with the keys for mining David's cars, and everything else is closed. But it was very clear in that meeting that Jennifer wanted to find a way to make this work. So those kids, not just for her convenience, but can you imagine being an elite 10th grade basketball player nationally known? And your brother's in the NBA, but you never get to see him play maybe two or three games a year because you're in a different town. So I think she really wanted it for Beckham and for Anthony for them to be able to continue being brothers, close brothers, and and then both get the experience of A B coming to see Beckham play, and and multiple Magic players have been to our games here. And Beckham to be able to spend time with Anthony, not just go to the games. But I could tell she wanted it to happen, but I knew it was a reach for him because his success at Duncanville is just legendary. And we had no track record really to speak of. So it was tough. So I spent the next three months recruiting him, just a quick call here and there. How are things going? How's your Duncanville team looking? And he'll tell you that it was his least talented team ever at Duncanville, but they still ended up winning the state title. And I uh after every playoff game, I'd kind of read the recap of the game and find something that send him a text about hey, it looks like Deuce had a great game. That's one of the other players, or nice comeback in the third period, or and he would every game he'd write me back in, every game he'd write me back a little bit more. But now we're actually having a conversation, and then they won the state title. They had to beat a very high-ranked team in the semifinal game, Allen, I believe. And then they won the state title, and I sent him the congratulations, and he wrote me back that night. And then the next morning, I think he sent me a text saying, Okay, let's talk.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

That's incorrect.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

So in a week or two, I got him back out here, signed him, you know, negotiating, got him to come as coach, brought his assistant with him, CT, great coach, great guy. And a week or so later, it's at the Magic game, and Jeff Weltman, the president of the Magic's out there talking. To me, and I said, because he's one of the ones who told me you will never get David Peavy to come to that school. He's not the only one. David Farber told me you will never get David Peavy to come to the school. And so I told him I got David Peavy, and he goes, Oh, you got him to visit. And I go, No, he's my coach.

SPEAKER_01 22:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

He's here, and Beckham's come in with him. And Beckham is the best point guard in high school basketball. I tell scouts all the time, the college coaches, he's the most impactful player, not currently in the NBA. I'm not saying the most talented. There's some freak players out there. But in my mind, if you took all those players, trained them for four or five months, and put them on the NBA team, he would be the most impactful out of all. What year is he in school? He's a junior. He's junior. And he's ranked number third and number three in the country. He is the best point guard in high school basketball. And he's the guy. He's just, you meet people and you can tell. It's not just he's a talented basketball player, he's a leader. He's he can communicate with adults, but still get the respect of his teammates and the kids. People love him. He has a huge social media following. I've twice been in airports with him where adults have asked for his autographing to take selfies. That's when he was a 10th grader. He's just, he's the guy. So, and I told PB, you don't have to bring him. I'm hiring you. He goes, Well, he's going wherever I go. I go, that's great. He's certainly welcome. But I would hire you even if he needed to stay in Texas for whatever reason. And uh so they came. Jeff Weldman didn't believe me first. I said, send you a copy of the contract if you want. He's my coach. And I said, I told you I was gonna get him. And uh I said something stupid to Jeff later. I said, And we're gonna put together a roster that if we kept them together for three years would beat the magic. And uh, I don't think he knew that statement. You regret that one a little bit, but no, because I think now it's turned out, I think I might be right. Not the magic, but I mean, I think if these tids stayed together until they were all NBA age, third or fourth year, they'd be a very competitive NBA team. We'll talk about the team in a little bit. But as soon as I hired Coach Peavy, he came down here, we would sit in this conference room every day.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

By the way, somebody told me that it was in this conference room because this used to be the magic's offices, that when they signed when Shaq was the number one draft pick, somebody told me that they they signed him right here at this very positive at this conference room table. That guy said that guy sitting right there told me some so it's uh it's on him.

SPEAKER_00 24:23

Shaq is this was the brain trust for the magic was in this room. Pretty cool. See, it's it's you can't see from the camera, but there's little TVs all over the place. Um, there's PV behind that wall. There was a smaller TV there. I put a big one in. But yeah, this was the Magic Brain Trust. This is where they would Shaq signed his contract right there.

SPEAKER_02 24:40

But okay, so so all right, I I took you off top. So you told you told Jeff we could beat your guys, and and and and so I have PV here, and we would every day we'd show up around 10, we'd sit at the table and talk about how we're gonna build this scene.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

What kind of players do we want? So we ended up bringing Beckham and three other kids from Texas, Aiden Gross, Kellen Cantrell, and Mari Wesley that play on the same AAU team as as Beckham in Texas. Okay, place me in time where we're at.

SPEAKER_02 25:09

What what what what year is this? What month is this? September 25th. I don't know. This is April 25. 25. April 23.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Five months ago. Okay. So we start talking about how to build out the rest of the team. These are three really good players and good people from good families that we thought would really help.

SPEAKER_02 25:27

Again, I'm gonna I'm just I'm just gonna keep nudging you and and poking you and saying this. What do you know about building out a uh a basketball team?

SPEAKER_00 25:35

I know nothing about building out a basketball team, but I knew that hiring the right head coach would let me jump a lot of steps in building the program and then having the the belief in the coach to let him build the program and me just help however I could was the way to go. I don't I don't I don't have the ego that wants me to have credit for anything, and I shouldn't have credit for anything other than hiring him and letting him do what he knew how to do. So we started immediately, we had a top 10 recruit come in. We're sitting here at the table with him. The bad looks disinterested at the beginning, he's on his phone, the player's great, and P V just looks at him and he goes, Well, if you want to come here, you need to know playing for me is hard. You're gonna have to work your ass off. Every I'm gonna be working to make you better every day. If I quit yelling at you, then no, I've given up on you. Because you will never be the perfect player, but I will try to get you better every day. And all of a sudden, the dad puts his phone down and he's zoned in on PV, and he goes, That's exactly what we need to hear. So we're going back and forth, and eventually I asked the dad, I go, because the kid can go anywhere. And he ends up going to Montfort. I said, Why are you here? And he goes, I want Lincoln to play with Beckham. I wasn't gonna say the kid's name, but I already did now. So and we love the family, the whole family and Lincoln. And I think had we been part of the Nike EYBL Scholastic League, which is the top league in high school basketball, I think they would have just committed right then. But Nike has a strong pull on a lot of the players, and EYBL Scholastic is is a great league, and we will be in it next year. So we had no history last year, so I wouldn't say they strung us along, but they kept saying you if we add a team, it's probably gonna be you. If we add a team, it's probably gonna be you. Because they knew we had Beckham, but Beckham was the only highly rated player we had at the time. So Beckham is playing for Team USA, tryouts in Colorado Springs, and then they played in Mexico. They went undefeated, won the Americas title for the U-16, whatever it was. And he played with other great, great players from around the country. And multiple players there reach out to Beckham because what's what's beautiful about Beckham's game is he's a pass first point guard who's such a good scorer that they don't leave him alone. So he's getting double teamed and he's still fucking playing. And even in you find that's rare in all-star type settings and camps like this because everybody's trying to prove that they are. And Beckham Bardy knows who he is, and he's passing to everybody. So multiple players at those tryouts were like, Where are you playing next year? Because nobody had heard of Southeastern Prep. And one of those players was CJ Rosser, who's the number one junior in the country. And CJ is from Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, so I had wanted him all along. That's where you grew up, right? You I grew up in North Carolina, right? And so we I would watch his film almost every day, different games of his, his high school career. And it was very clear that you know he probably had very good coaching and was very happy at his high school, but he wasn't getting the daily competition that he needed to get to the next level. And so we slowly started talking to CJ and CJ's parents, who are awesome. Stacy actually works here in the school and has been a tremendous resource. She moved down here with CJ. Um, I skipped a whole lot of steps there. We got CJ. It was not easy. Everyone wanted CJ. Um, I screwed up the meeting with CJ because I had some bad information from someone. So I almost lost him during the meeting. I think before that, Coach Phoebe loved having me in the meetings because he thought I was doing a really good job of expressing my passion for the school and the team and and what you know what our vision was. But after that day, I thought he was gonna lock me out of here. Because I I really screwed that up. But I'm a very genuine person, I think. And I think even if I'm not a genuine person, people feel like I'm a genuine person. I think if we did so I kept talking to her. I knew I'd said something she didn't like. I didn't know how much she didn't like it because eventually she told me, no, we crossed you off the list after that meeting. And I go, okay. But as we kept talking, I think she really started to believe in me. She did love the idea of CJ playing with a great point card because bigs, they need somebody to get them the bomb. And while CJ's not a traditional big, he's a to me, he's Kevin Garnett, but better. Wow. And we hear from a lot of college coaches and scouts that CJ could be could have a wimby type effect in the end. And he he can shoot from everywhere, the rest of his game is is coming into shape. He just, you know, I'm not gonna say which college, but one of the, if there's four blue bloods, you know who they are. One of those told me, we love all your kids, but take all of them. Right. CJ's gonna be super special. And you hear that from a lot of different coaches. And you see it. I mean, because I one of the great things about having this program here is for the first two months, I watch practice every day. Right behind us, right? Yeah, right behind us. And you know, we have great players playing against great players. It's it's better than almost any game you can go to when they actually get serious about a scrimmage. But we did eventually get CJ. I went to watch him play in Peach Jam in Atlanta, make sure his mom saw me there, talk to her there. But while we were there, we heard he had chosen another school. So I went and get my dad. My dad's 83 years old. He's there in Peach Jam sitting in the wooden bleachers. Oh, watching these high school kids play. And I go, okay, we're going home. Then he goes, Well, I goes, CJ decided to go to the school that I thought he was going to go to. And um, we leave. And I'm in the car on the way back to Florida, and I get a phone call from the coach, hey, the information we got was bad.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 31:28

He said, I just talked to the coach from med school and congratulated him, and he didn't know what I was talking about.

SPEAKER_02 31:32

Wow, so he wasn't going home.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

You're not committed to them.

unknown 31:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 31:38

So we kept the communications with Stacey and Clarence, his parents, and CJ. And eventually he and the number one center in the country, Obina Akeezy, who had played at Prolific Prep, which is a great basketball program the previous year, and who we had not even reached out to or even thought about. One, he wasn't on Team USA because he's from Nigeria. And he was at Prolific Prep. So we're not, we're not looking to poach players from other schools, especially when nobody knows who we are. Right. But one day I get a call from an agent asking me, and from Jalen Suggs' dad. Jalen is involved with the program. His dad is very involved with the program. His sisters both went to school here. One is still here. One is at playing basketball, Robert Morris. Jalen comes to some of the games when it's hard to get them at the games because it's, you know, either if they're in town, there's a good chance they're playing a game. And otherwise they're on the road. But we've had Jalen and Anthony Black and Jace Richardson, whose brother also plays on the team, show up for two or three games. They're sitting in the corner with the kids, and it's an amazing experience for them. But I get this call from this agent and from Larry Sugg saying, hey, can can Obina work out at the gym? So our gym is awesome. So multiple NBA players come here in the offseason. Magic players come here in the offseason when they don't want to be around the magic trainers and everybody that want their own time. So they probably had 20 different NBA players here during the offseason this year. So it wasn't unusual that somebody would call and say, hey, can we get some gym time? And uh he said, uh, can Obina come work out? And I go, Obina Akeezy? And because he's supposed to be in California. That's where Prolific was until they moved to Florida this year. And he goes, Yeah, and I go, sure. I'm being nonchalant and I'm meeting Jen Black. So we bought a we bought a mansion for the national team players to live in.

SPEAKER_02 33:26

Wait, wait, you bought a mansion for the national explain that to me.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

So looking for one, how to give them a great experience and also a little bit of a recruiting tool. And I saw this house that is eight-bedroom, eight-bath house, beautiful pool, four acres. I mean, nice setup. Only 10 minutes from campus. So we end up, I end up buying the house and having the players live there. And Jennifer and I were there kind of getting the house ready, looking at okay, where are we going to put the different kids? Because we have two adults living in the house with them, two of the assistant coaches on the ground floor, and then the players are on the second floor, and then there's a guest house. And we're we're doing all this, and and Jen has found time to help me with this. I'm appreciative that she's there, but I walk in and I say, Jen, I'm gone. I'm heading to the gym. There's a player that's gonna be there, and I'll talk to you later. Go do what you gotta do. So I'm calling coach on the way. Where are you? He was 10 minutes away. I said, get to the school. And uh he gets there. We walk in, and there's this giant kid. He's now seven foot barefoot. Wow. Almost 7'2 in shoes. His dad, Obina Keasey, played for Maryland with a very solid ACC player. Played in the NBA, played overseas. So his dad's here with him. His dad is 6'10. Don't be mad, Obina. I'm guessing 300, something, I don't know. Big guy. Wide, his arms are like this. And I just walk up to him and I say, I am Hank, glad you're here. Whatever, he goes, uh, where are you going to school next year? So the first wife and asked him, Why you? He goes, We're not sure yet. I go, What? Okay. And PV walks up, he goes, Well, we would love to have your son. And Obina said, So would everybody else. And so we're like, okay, we'll see where this is gonna go. And then Obi, the kid comes over and he goes, Dad, this is the school I was telling you about. Because Obs agent and BJ Armstrong and some other guys had tried to buy the school the year before. And it didn't work out for whatever reason. But Ob had been part of that discussion as far as somebody had shown him the videos of the school they were going to buy, and they were gonna bring all that agency's top kids to go to school here and to play here. So he's like, This is the school, dad. And so Obina got real interested, and I'm I'm I think I'm very fortunate about this. He Obina and I, the father, get along really well. I think we see things very similarly about life and about basketball, and we become partners in a venture. And we just built on that relationship. And this was all at the same time that we're trying to recruit CJ. So, and they both want to come basically if the other comes. Because CJ 6'10, he is not a center, does not want to be a center. He wanted to know we had a center. So we weren't gonna promise him you're gonna be out on the wing, and then him end up in the middle. And Obina is the center, he's the best center in high school basketball. I I don't want to take bets on anything, but I would say one of our three juniors will be the first pick in the draft and do risk. And I don't know from day to day, it just depends on who's drafting and what they need. But Obina is an NBA center who just started 17. He's uh he's got a nice frame, he's not thin, he's he's not heavy. Like I said, seven foot one. He's been trained by an NBA center his whole life. Great kid, great student, can jump like he's a Michael Jordan type athlete, while a center. I haven't seen him doing yet. I believe he can touch the top of the backboard. I know he has no trouble dunking, looking down at the rim. And so we got them both at the same time within a week or so. So now we have at the time in the rankings, we have a top 20 player in Beckham who was around 19th at the time. He's now number three. Obi, who was anywhere from two to five, and CJ, who was anywhere from two to five in the junior class rankings. So now we've built the right team, not just three superstars, but the different parts of the game: a point guard, a center, and a big wing who can do everything. All in a few months' time. All in two and a half months' time. And we and our other players are very good. Mari Wesley is a great player. He's been injured a lot this year, but he's been in the top 100 all year as a junior. And he is, we had some games where we had to play where Beckham and CJ and another of our players, Griffin, were gone for USA minicamp. And we still have to play games. So it was, you know, the other players. Obi was there, but Mari and they we dominated really good team.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Wow, even with even with some of the better players.

SPEAKER_00 37:57

Even with what we would say two of the best players in the country and another very good player not available. Of course, Mari is a dog. I mean, I that that term probably gets used too much, but whoever made up that term, they were thinking about Mari. Mari's the guy, but he's he's got some injuries right now. But so we had good players in addition to this recent. We thought we'd be fine with Beckham and the players we had, and we compete. But with with OB and CJ, it became like I told Jeff Weldon, you know, they they're not allowed to come watch our guys play because they're not draft eligible, but they're draft-level prospects. So they can't come in the gym. But he he told me, we know the names already. Those guys are on they're on the radar. You have to let me know when you're in tournaments that are sanctioned that I can go to, right? So I can see the guys. So I started bringing the guys occasionally to the magic games. So my seat said, I'm talking about that right beside the bench. So I bring Obi to a game, and Obi is, like I said, seven foot in shoe and barefoot, and Goga Batadzi is seven foot. And he walks over and he looks up at Obi. Wow. And he goes, You're taller than me. And at the time, Obi was 16. He had not had his 17th birthday. Wow. And I go, and he's very skilled, Gogo. And then I saw Goga at an event three days later, and A B's there as well. And we're talking about Obi. And Goga goes, Well, is he more skilled than me? And I just turned and left the conversation. I love Goga, but Obi hits threes for us. Obi drives to the basket. Obi blocks everything in sight. Obi is tremendous. Um, so so that's good enough, right? We've got three top now, top five. What more do you what do you want, man? That's um we're ready to roll. We're ready to roll for the season. And then the magic draft, Jace Richardson out of Michigan State, whose father also played in the NBA. And for Magic won two Sam Doug Championships, Jason Richardson. Well, I love Jace, great kid. Best thing about Jace is he's got a younger brother named Jackson. And Jackson is a senior in high school. And he's been playing at Columbus, who won the national title the year before with the Boozer twins, who are now Duke. Okay. And again, same thing. Mom is like, well, if we could have him in the same town, that would be nice and better. Keep the family together. We don't have to recruit Jackson. He's he reaches out to Beckham and maybe some of the other players, and it's like, hey, what's the situation? You're like, well, we would we'd love to have you. But we've never thought about even trying to reach out to him, even once Jace got drafted. So that all takes about a week to transpire. That now we know Jackson's coming. And I would tell anyone watching, get on Instagram or YouTube and search Jackson Richardson. He is the best dunker, I think, period. I'm not going to put a class level or college or NBA level on it. Even Jace, Jace was at a home game here three days before he went to LA for the dunk contest. Oh, yeah, right. And Jackson was going off. And I walked over to Jace and I said, You're the one in the dunk contest? And he goes, Yeah, I should just give him my jersey. Because Jackson is 6'6. Jace is six foot six one. And Jackson's hops are just crazy. But I would encourage you, go look him up, look at the dunks he's had in games, not warm-up dunks. You know, he does the east side or whatever they call it. He catches, you know, reverses as he's flying by the rim and slams. He's amazing, an amazing athlete, great player. So he comes, he joins us. He's 11th ranked in the country in the senior class. Wow. At the time. So now we have, you know, four players that look like future NBA players. And the school didn't have a national team the year before. So fortunately, Scholastic wouldn't take us because we had no history. So we ended up playing on the grind session, which ended up being some backup because I don't know what Scholastic is. I don't know what the grind session is. Scholastic is the best, they they hold themselves out as the best prep basketball program in the country. And why won't they let 16 teams? And why won't they let you in it? Because the teams that are in there have reputations and history. Okay, and you don't have that. And we didn't have that. But they kept talking to us. If we have a spot, you're the teen. You're the team. You're the team. But we only had Beckham as far as the top-ready player at the time. By the time we had CJ and OB lined up, they were full. They still invited us to a lot of their events. They won our players at their events, and they've already brought us in for next year. But we needed, we felt like what we really needed was a national schedule to attract these kids. So Grind Session, which is a great organization, had been after us all along. And we end up signing with Grind Session for the year. And they, you know, they cover a lot of the cost for our teams to play in these tournaments. We started the year in Italy for a week with the players. We were going to Jamaica the next weekend, but the hurricane hit. The next weekend we're in Toronto. We've been to Los Angeles and Napa Valley, Chicago. They're in Philadelphia right now, Washington, D.C., two different trips to the Dallas area, two or three trips to South Florida, Kentucky. They've every weekend they're traveling somewhere, which on a related note has really cut down on my Magic Road game. In some of my Magic Home games, because I generally go wherever the high school team is going. And I didn't think anything would ever pull me away from certain Magic games. I had people reaching out to me on different Magic fan groups asking if I was okay. Are you alright? If I've missed a couple of games, we haven't seen you. And I was like, yeah, I'm just with the high school. But so everything is moving forward, right? We've got the good players, we've got the great coach. We get into the season, we're winning every game handily while we're healthy. Obi separates his shoulder blocking shot against Mont Verde, who we beat by 22 or 21. And Mont Verde's ranked first or second in the country. We would love to play them again. Hopefully we see them in the Chipotle National Finals. But he separates his shoulder and he misses two months. We lose some games during that team during that time. Some really good teams. Columbus, who had won the national title the year before, beat us on a last second tip in by Caleb Gaskins, who's a great player. Going to Miami next year. We lose some other games that, you know. Everybody has injuries. Maybe they had injuries too. Now we're finally pretty much healthy again. And then Jackson turns his ankle in our last game. But no complaints. We have great players. But a month ago, Tony Bryant, who was the top 10 player in the senior class and committed to Missouri. His high school kind of implodes. And so start getting calls. Players get calls directly from Tony. I get calls from Tony's agent from Mizzou. And Tony, come play with you guys.

SPEAKER_02 44:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 44:33

So Tony comes three weeks later. Tony and Jackson are both announced as McDonald's All-Americas. So now we have the three best players in junior class and two McDonald's All-Americas. And it feels like it's getting a little ridiculous. And you know, first people think, are there enough basketballs to keep everybody happy? But these kids are amazing as people too. Like Tony Bryant could be scoring 25 or 30 at most of the other prep schools. Beckham could score 25 or 30. Obi could score 25 or 30. CJ sometimes does score 25 or 30. And but they all gel together. And they don't, we don't get jealousy amongst the players. They all live in this house together. So not all of them because Obi's whole family moved here. So he has a house and he stays with his family. His sister, Princess, is an eighth grader who is a very good basketball player. And when people like joke with her and say, you know, you might be better than Obi. I said, No, I'm definitely going to be better than Obi. She plays. Yeah. And we beat Montberg's girls' team, who's also very highly ranked a week and a half ago. And she played meaningful minutes in that game as an eighth grade.

SPEAKER_02 45:40

So by the way, talk to me. You know, we we've been talking a lot about the the boys' hoops teams, but but that's I mean, let's let's go back. How many kids in the school? A couple hundred? Right around 200 in the school. Okay. And you have you have you have elite baseball teams, basketball, girls' basketball, boys' basketball, volleyball, volleyball? Okay, so speak to me. So it's not just, I mean, we're talking because we're both hoops fans, and because it's a it's an exciting kind of part of what you do, but but there's there's a lot that there's the the girls' teams, girls that is exceptional.

SPEAKER_00 46:11

Our coach, Kim Davis Powell, is a fantastic coach. She runs one of the best AAU programs in the country. And with no lead up, she brought in a very good group of players. Our point guard injured her knee at the very beginning of the year. She's a ninth grader. She's fantastic. But she has not been able to play all year. But we have a really good girls' program. We have two teams, a national team and a what we call a varsity team. And they're they've both gotten so much better during the year. We have multiple girls on the team who are coming back next year who have the one scholarship offerings already. Amazing.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

I saw, I saw, I saw guys all dressed up in baseball uniforms, they were going to a game.

SPEAKER_00 46:52

Put a lot of kids into college every year. Jose Figueroa is our coach, and he's he does an amazing job. Our girls' volleyball team is more in the beginning stages, but we do have one player that's going to college next year on a full scholarship on the volleyball team, and a lot of good players who are still here, younger players. And we're building the volleyball program. We have a fledgling soccer program about a soccer team. We've been starting to bring in some younger players and get them trained, and then either next year or the year after I actually have teams that compete regionally.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

And I and I want to use that to pull back to something that you and I talked about before we went on the air, and I think we you said it. You said, I'm not doing this if the academics are not real, right? I'm only doing this if the academics are real. So we've spent a lot of time, you know, in the last 45 minutes talking about a few guys, a handful, three, four, five, six guys, we don't know, who may go on to the NBA and have big careers, make a lot of money. You and I both know that the vast majority of high school athletes, whether it's in basketball, baseball, volleyball, whatever, are not going to go to some professional league and make millions of dollars. But but sports are going to give them the opportunity to go to college, right? And they're going to go to college and then they can use that college degree to get to where they want to get to in life. So talk to me a little bit. So here you are, this lawyerslash, you know, hoops fan, courtside guy. Um you're running a school. Talk to me a little bit about the academics and and how involved you are in that.

SPEAKER_00 48:24

Sure. So Dominique, who founded the school, is an educator. That's what she is. So it is a real school. That's what I needed to see at first. I needed to walk in, see classrooms, see teachers, see students, not just basketball players. And of course, it's not just basketball players, as you mentioned. So we have seven boys' basketball teams, two girls' basketball teams, volleyball, baseball. There are a lot of students here, but they all do play sports. There are probably a very small number of students here who are not actively playing a sport. But for me, it had to be a real academic institution. And it is. And that's how Dominique created that. As with any fledgling program like this, there's not always the finances needed to do everything the way you want to do them right away. So we're we're working now to improve, continuously improve the academics until we have an elite academic institution with elite athletic programs with it. And we're gonna get there. We have a lot of very dedicated teachers who do an amazing job. Um and have really stuck with the school when they had other options. So we're working on, we'll have a lot more AP classes next year, college placement classes. Um we'll be an international baccalaureate school the following year.

SPEAKER_02 49:40

Explain why that's important. Explain why the international baccalaureate is important to the school academically, but also important to the school to be able to recruit, you know, players internationally, right?

SPEAKER_00 49:53

It's um it's probably a bigger deal for our regular student body because now we do have international students. We have about 40 of them this year. We'll continue to increase that number as we move forward. International baccalaureate programs, diplomas make it a lot easier to bring over international students because let's say they're coming for the U.S. experience, but they're not going to stay here for all of high school. So they come here for 10th grade and then they go back to Brazil or China or Denmark or wherever. If it's an IB school, it's very easy for them to transfer those courses they took here back to their home, their home country. You can do it without the IB, but it's just it makes it, it's a question a lot of top families ask. Are you IB? If he doesn't stay to graduate and he comes back here, do we just waste a year and not get the credits? And we haven't had that problem yet where they don't get the credits, but IB makes it a lot twingier.

SPEAKER_02 50:46

And and I'm and I'm guessing, you know, you obviously have a principal. So it's K through 12, right? It's it's no, it is K through 12, but it's highly it highly length. Okay, so not to tell if you have you have a principal, and and and and uh do you are you involved working with the principal and you involved in the academics?

SPEAKER_00 51:06

I'm involved. I won't take any credit for it, but I'm I'm involved. Rose Victor is our principal, and she basically handles the academics. I meet with her three or four times a week, mainly to tell her she's doing a great job, and I'm not telling her what to do. So I'm here, I'm available, I'm not really directing what she does. I'm trying to support her in making the school what it can be, which is her goal as well. And the same with all the teachers here. I'm not I don't get any credit for anything they're doing, and I shouldn't get any credit for it. But I am here to talk to them, to try to give support when I can. And they do an amazing job, and we will be an excellent academic institution. But that's what helps us bring international students, and that can include some players. We do have a lot of international players here, but not on our national team. We could in the future, and the IB does make that a lot easier. It's probably not as big a deal with like the elite international players because most of them know they're not going home, they're going somewhere for nine months for college, and you're going through. But yeah, the academics was always important to me. It had to be real. There are a lot of basketball programs that don't have an academic program where everything is handled at another school through online courses or whatever. And I used to frown on them. And I'll tell you that that's changed a little bit for me because I see the demand that's put on these players when they're traveling every week. I mean, our players are gone almost every Thursday through Monday throughout the school year. So we have a teacher go with them and have study halls with them on the road, but it is it is so much more involved than I thought it was when you're on this top national level with the team. These kids don't have, they might have two full days every week when they're actually at school once the season starts. Now, before the season, they're in class every day and all that. But once the season started, I mean, like this week, today they left for Philadelphia today. They'll be back Monday. But they weren't in school today, they wouldn't have been in school tomorrow, and Monday they'll be as tired as they could possibly be. So over the weekend, they'll be doing school in Philadelphia with the teacher that we sent with them. So I did frown on the programs that just had like online programs and things, but I have a different opinion. You see, you see the why they do it. Although I think it's a big deal that they are actually in a school without students, that that's part of student life. And because exactly what you said earlier, let's say there's a program that has four future NBA players. Well, that means they have eight non-future NBA players. And those kids are not having any school experience, maybe in some situations. We we have all our kids will get scholarships on our national team. They'll go to D1 schools, most likely. You know, maybe one or two will choose to go to a better situation that's not D1 for them. But they'll all they'll all have college for free. And but maybe, you know, on the outside, maybe six of them are NBA type players, so six are not.

SPEAKER_02 54:14

But and then the vast majority of the 200 kids here, or you said 200 it, right? They're all good, they're gonna go to they're all gonna go to college or we have a second, it we called it a regional team early in the year.

SPEAKER_00 54:26

Now it's more of a second national team. We have multiple D1 athletes on that team. But all the kids there will probably have the opportunity to continue their basketball careers beyond high school, and hopefully most, if not all, will be with a free education.

SPEAKER_02 54:40

Yeah, and and you know, we we walked, you know, my daughter and I walked around with uh with your with your video guy before we got here to real school. I mean, there's classrooms, there's teachers, and there is everybody's eating pizza downstairs, you know, in the in the cafeteria. Doesn't look like doesn't look like the school I went to when I grew up, but but this is a real school, right? And and and yes, everybody here is an athlete, but everybody here's a student first. It was it was pretty impressive. And I think we're gonna walk around afterwards and sort of and and do a little tour. So so you're you know, the wild thing about it is to me, man, is that is that again, you're you're a guy, you're a fan, uh you're really running, you know, in in large part running this school. And and I mean, did you ever see yourself, did you ever envision yourself being here? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 55:24

No.

SPEAKER_02 55:25

I mean, you uh you told the you guys loaned you loaned the school some money.

SPEAKER_00 55:28

I mean, that was you just loaned it. That's how we got started. We we loaned some money and and loaned a lot more since then. And it's still a struggle. It's it's I don't unless you want to invest in this school, I do not encourage you to invest in a in a fledgling private school. It is a very expensive proposition. Um, there's always something. So when you know, when we do the budgets, you're thinking about payroll and rent and and things like that. But then there's so much more that comes up every week. Like, I didn't even think about having a bill for that and curriculum. I didn't even think about having a bill for curriculum. No, there was such a thing. I didn't know anything about it. And so it's it is a challenge, but when people ask, I'm telling them, I love it. I mean, I I used to, as a lawyer, I did well, and now I'm spending a lot of money every week to work here much harder. And but I love it. It's it gives me a purpose that I don't think I've had since law school. I think when I got to law school, I don't know what your experience was, but when I got there, I fell in love with it. I loved the interaction with the other students, interaction with the teachers. Most of the things we were learning, I really loved it. The the outside activities I had, like the MOOC court and things like that. I really enjoyed my three years of law school. And I didn't hate practicing law. There were definitely a lot of great days that I really enjoyed, but this is this feels better and is more rewarding than any of that.

SPEAKER_02 56:57

Incredible. And and and as you sit here today, if I said to you, what is your goal for the school, three years out, five years out, what is your what is your vision?

SPEAKER_00 57:08

Well the vision is during the next, I'm gonna go with three years, during the next three years to do everything we can in this building to have a great academic institution and a steady athletic program that just continues to build on itself. Probably the eventual goal is to move to an actual piece of real estate, really build our own school, have room for our own dorms. Our biggest challenge right now is where do we house all these international cities?

SPEAKER_02 57:36

Right.

SPEAKER_00 57:37

Where do you house them? I mean, you have one manager, but that's that's not enough. House and some apartments, 10 apartments, mm-hmm where we keep kids, uh where they stay, and they're all within walking distance of the school. So it works out, but it's a big challenge to deal with 10 different apartments. There's a third floor here that's vacant, mm, that the city has said we can house goods on, but the landlord is not so sure he wants a bunch of 17 and 18-year-olds live in in the building. So we're we're working on that. And he's been great to work with. So uh hopefully we can make that happen. If we can do that, we can take the school to a whole nother level because it'll be a very nice dorm situation on the third floor. They'll be in the building with us. It's a lot easier to make sure they're taken care of properly and that they're not getting in trouble. Because I'll promise you, you might think your 17-year-old is the best 17-year-old in the world. Let them come live with 50 other 17-year-olds. You'll find out how clever your kid is as to what kind of trouble he can get into.

SPEAKER_02 58:37

I have I have I have five kids myself ranged now from 18 to 30, and they were all 17, and they're all they all were and are amazing kids, but there is there's some chemistry when 17-year-olds get together and they can get themselves into a whole heck of a lot of trouble.

SPEAKER_00 58:53

Yep. And uh, we haven't had bad problems, but it would be a much better experience to have them in the building. It would give them 24-7 access to the gym. Um to our like we have a recovery room too that probably no other high school in the country has that's just for our students.

SPEAKER_02 59:09

Because and is that is that is that because this was the legacy magic facility, or is it because this health club or is is is so great, or it's because what you guys built out, or is it a little bit of the recovery room is because I bought the equipment to put into the recovery room.

SPEAKER_00 59:23

Right. So we have uh we have um cryogenics, we have hyperbaric chamber, we have the red light sauna bed, and then in the club we have access to cold plunges and saunas and hot tubs and all that stuff. But it's the players love it. I mean, if you have to take a sign-up sheet to get in a hyperbaric chamber now, because everybody wants to get into the hyperbaric chamber. I bought it and I still haven't been in there yet. I'm gonna start coming late at night and using it. And then we have an amazing trainer named John Hart who is just fantastic with our players. Um, you know, we have those things here, mm-hmm and we have some more space here we can grow into. But yeah, my goal for the next three years is to see what we can accomplish here. And it might be that it's so good here that we don't want to build our own school, or we build our own school, but it's not to replace this with, it's a secondary school, another school, not a secondary school, another venture that maybe has more of the field sports. Like now baseball has to travel to practice.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:19

If we had our own, we'd have our own baseball fields, our own soccer fields. And I love football. It's a huge undertaking on the prep level because of the number of players, coaches involved. But you know, maybe we could do that if we had the right piece of land and we would have our own dorms. So, and there's some people I'm talking to about joint ventures to do that either here in South Florida. That would be a long-term goal. When we got involved, the long-term goal is to run this, show that it's profitable, build up the reputation. Because as you might imagine, when we first started the school, I started school, started our involvement, pretty hard to get advertisers because they didn't know who we were.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:54

Right, who are we at?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:55

Now we have people calling us, hey, can we get a banner? But what can we do? Because and it's that's just gonna grow over the next few months. Um, a good thing is that part of you know, David and I's involvement with the magic and me because I talk so much, is that the people in that private club know about the team. So we have fans now that have donated money to the school and come to our games. Like actually take time out of their schedules to come to almost every game. Shout out to Don and Kim and Wendy and Natasha and Carolyn and others that they show up, they're like our biggest fan. Because they're magic fans and they they see the passion I think that I have for it. But they've donated money, they're helping us with our website, you know, they're they've just been very supportive. And that just continues to grow. Like I'm not, I don't mind talking to everybody, but I don't really like asking for things from people. But every game when I'm in the icon club, almost someone will come up to me and say, Hey, how can I help? How can I get involved? And so I think our financial problems will eventually ease, but uh just the support means more than the money. The fact that they they show up, I invite them, they're here. Cheering on our team, they know our players, they talk to the coach, they talk to the parents of the other players. It's it's kind of a not kind of, it is a family environment here. Just happens to be a family with some really top-notch players being famous. Yes, they're gonna be famous in three years. Our idea all along is we're collecting a lot of footage, and we want to release a documentary on the night of their draft with three juniors because I I firmly believe, and I would take odds on this, that Beckham, CJ, and Obi will all be top six picks. That's incredible. And Montverte's had some crazy years where they've had multiple first-round picks, but nobody's had multiple top five, top six picks. And I think we'll do it. I don't know which order they'll go in. Um, I've told all three of them I better get an invite to the green room. All of them have said, you definitely do, but we'll see when it happens. But and that's kind of been like, you know, if you lay up at night and you're you're thinking about your problems and your good things. I picture that night a lot. Those three kids, you know, making their way into the NBA at the same time after spending the last two and a half years together, growing as a team, growing as friends. It's really, it really is exciting. It's exciting.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:15

It's it's also, you know, that moment uh as as you're sort of envisioning it a couple of years out is really also uh the culmination or at least a a checkpoint of your vision, right? Your vision, which we your vision, which started as as a little kid who who liked basketball growing up in North Carolina, and you told me you're a Phil Ford fan, and then you know, you you wound up here in in in Orlando and you become a Magics fan. And just because somebody asked you to lend them a few dollars, all of a sudden you're you're running a program, and that that will that is and will be an amazing moment for you. And I and based on what what I'm hearing you say, it's just gonna be a stepping stone because there'll be other great moments to come.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:54

But certainly helps.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:56

So somebody asked me the other day, somebody who's important to the to the whole operation here. Hank, what's your goal? Did you want to have a basketball program that produces NBA players, or do you want to have a school? Like, what do you mean? Or it has to be both. It can't be one or the other. So I'll also be proud when we have our IB certification and we start getting really elite international students picking the school to come to when they could go to ING or Montford or the other big prep schools around the country, and they're choosing to come here because they want to be around these players in this environment because our home games are crazy with our students and everybody else. But their parents want to make sure they're getting the education that lets them stay in the US and go to Harbor, Carmel, Princeton, Stanford, Northwestern, Duke. And we're we're gonna get there. That'll be a really proud moment, too, when we start having regular students every year getting academic scholarships to the top schools in the country. That'll mean as much to me as their draft night. Their draft night right now is more tangible because I know when that's gonna be. And I spend a lot of time with these kids and love these kids. So it'll be a happiness for them as well as the culmination of what David PV and I have tried to do here with the basketball program. But yeah, the academics will be equally as rewarding as time goes on.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:19

Well, that's amazing. Well, I appreciate you sitting down here and sharing sharing your vision with us. And and and I I see why, you know, why everybody jumps on board with you. Your your passion is is is you know infectious, and and it and it's obvious that that you you know you you have a passion and a dream, and you've sort of poured it all into it. And maybe we'll come back every year and see how it's going.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:40

Come back anytime. I do want to say this. I need to thank the magic players because multiple players have donated money. Um, two of the players are paying for our bleachers, which will go in between the seasons. Like I said, those those three have showed up for games. Others have showed up just to show up. And I can, if I need something. I don't ask them for money, but if I need somebody to come talk to the kids or something, I know that there are players on the magic I can reach out to do that. And that gives us I don't I don't see it as a recruiting advantage, but it is. Because, you know, when Obi goes to the game, every player on the magic talks to Obi. I took CJ to a game, same thing. Every I introduced him to the players, and I'm just the owners of the magic. And everybody is so nice to the program in general and to the players that it's it's not me, it's everybody else being super nice. And Obi doesn't care if I'm nice to him, but when Paolo walks up and talks to him, or Franz walks up and talks to him, or Jalen comes and hugs him because he already knows Jalen, or AB comes and hugs him and talks to him because they're friends now, it just gives us both credibility and it makes these kids smile. So and everybody's telling these kids because I see it way too much how special they are. And they all have agents, or they have agents trying to sign them already, which to me is insane. But then and college coaches, we have that's another great advantage. We have being in Orlando, it's easy to get to. The first day that coaches could come, we had uh 20, 25 coaches here. And at that point, we were all juniors, so they weren't even trying to sign people for that year, which is always their focus in October, November. But we had the head coaches from USC and BYU. I'm leaving, I'm gonna leave out a bunch of schools. But we've seen all of them. We've had John Calapari here offer three of our players at the same time in my office, which you were in earlier. Just an incredible hour and a half experience with him talking to him. Mark Pope, same thing. All our players at the same time. I had to tell him, he he made the comment at the end that you can come be part of the greatest basketball environment in the country. And I go, I see, well, top three. Coach Peavy goes, You don't think you're top three? And uh so then I'm talking to Coach Pope as we leave, and he tells me that Dean Smith was also his idol. Oh, that's nice. No, but Mark Pope, great guy. Uh Kentucky's had a little bit of a shaky year, I think, but I like him. If I didn't want every kid to go in UNC, I wouldn't be too sad. You're a Carolina guy, huh? I I want them all. Yeah, there's no hidden secret here. I would love for them all to go to UNC because then it's just easier for me to keep pulling for UNC. Right. They won't. I know that we might get one, who knows? But one might end up at Duke, and then I'm having to go to Cameron. Oh boy. And um, so one quick story, we could kill this now, it'd just be a story, but and I first got to Duke as a freshman there. The first basketball game was uh Duke playing an exhibition against the Soviet Union. Okay, and so I'm sitting in the front row, maybe 10 feet off center court with a bunch of other students, and I am openly pulling for the Soviet Union. Oh, come on, man. Yeah, it was before I ever knew Ron DeBrickey at all and some of the other players. Oh, they had no connection. That is bad. It's right after a Duke UNC football. How can you hate them that much? I don't know. Well, I love UNC. I love Dean Smith, I love Roy Williams. Cole Anthony took me there for their alumni game summer before last, and I got to spend time with Roy and spent a lot of time with Hubert. And now I've spent a lot more time with him as he continues to recruit our kids. But I love you know, do you pull for UNC in this sport or that sport? People ask me, I said if there's a backgammon team, I'm pulling for UNC. It doesn't matter. I'm pulling for UNC. I never went to college then. I really I can't say how much I respect what Dean Smith did. Yeah, Dean Smith was a for everyone, not just for basketball, just an amazing human being. And so yeah, I I love UNC, which means their most hated rival is my most hated rival.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:54

Well, they say if if God isn't a Carolina fan, then why is the sky Carolina blue? Carolina blue, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:59

So I but I talk, I mean, I give state players a hard time too. Dennis Smith, who played at state, I didn't know him at all, but sitting where I sit, I talked to a lot of the players, and usually something nice. But I said to him, man, I really wish you'd gone to Carolina. And he's gonna hate me for saying this, probably goes, me too, because they won the national title that year. And I go, he goes, We have a saying, and I knew what he was gonna say, which is ABC, anybody but Carolina. And we talked just a little bit. I mean, this is basically during the game, right? So the next time he comes to town, my dad's with me. He comes over as the game is starting to introduce himself to my dad in front of saying, just a class guy who I would have always hated because he not hated. Because I've gotten to the point now, I don't hate any of him, but I would have always like pulled against him. And now I'm like, that's a really good guy. I hope he does well. Paolo, I got invited to a special signing with Paolo, and I brought a this kid that I know who's like 10 or 11 at the time to get a jersey signed by Paolo. And he says for me, he goes, you know, I'm tired of you wearing all that UNC stuff, I'm gonna get you a Duke shirt.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:59

Paolo said this.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:00

Yeah, and I go, I got plenty of Duke shirts from when I went to school there. He goes, You went to school at Duke? And I go, yeah. He goes, I don't believe you. And I go, ask Wendell, he knows. And he goes, I don't, and you're a North Carolina fan, and I get that a lot. So anybody I tell that story to, it's like, how did that happen? Like, I started out as a UNC fan, I just happened to spend a little bit of time at Duke. I never became a Duke fan. I like some of the players I got to know and meet there, and and I didn't like some of the players I get to meet and know there. But yeah, I I still have strong feelings about Duke, but with Wendell on the team, and Wendell is an amazing person. Wendell's parents are amazing people. I think Wendell wishes he had gone to Harvard. So Duke made him, but um, but I you know, I love him, Paolo. I have great respect for Paolo. I don't hold the fact that it's somebody made the wrong college choice. And he won't agree with that. He's he's Duke through and through. And we've had a lot of other players here from Duke over the years, and I've met some on other teams, and other than Grayson, for the most part, I like them. And he might be okay. I just hard to picture. So but now one great thing about this is now like I can text Raymond Felton right now, and he'll text me back, and I can call or text Sean May or Hubert and a lot of other Carolina players, Pete Chilka, Joel Barry, that I know because of this school now, and for no other reason than this school. And when I met Shire and came in, go heels. Dude does not have a great sense of humor. He didn't appreciate that. I think maybe he did a little bit, but he couldn't show it. Yeah, he's also at the John Wall tournament in North Carolina watching our kids play, and a kid came up in a Carolina sweatshirt and wanted a fixture with him, and he said no.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:51

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:51

He did it. He was just being funny with the kid, and he's like, no. But he did it. And he's a good, he's a good guy. Like I I could see myself becoming more and more respectable respectful of the Duke program and what they do.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:05

It only took 50, 60 years, or however old you are, right?

SPEAKER_00 1:13:08

Yeah. I don't I pulled for them. This is show how old I am. When they played Kentucky in the championship and Jack Givens went crazy and Kentucky won. Thank you so much for Duke. That's 1978. I was pulling for Duke. I was a big fan of Mike Jeminsky. Mike Jaminsky. It's all part of the academic thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:24

Mike Jeminsky was an amazing student and played his first game at Duke when he was 16 years old.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:28

Is that right?

SPEAKER_00 1:13:29

I might be wrong about that. I'm sure somebody watching this will credit from it, but I think he was still 16 when he played his first game. Great student. Good announcer now. But I liked Mike Jeminsky and Banks and Spinarkel and Ender and Denard, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:47

Yeah, yeah. Bob Bender, Kenny Denard. Yeah, Jim Spinarkel. Right, eh. Right. And they went into the teams that I said that that I grew up with, you know, Johnny Dawkins and Marcus. That was the end of the uh Bill Foster, the Bill Foster era.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:01

Yeah, one of the two Bill Fosters, but Duke's Bill Foster. That was the end of that era. Then when Coach came in, I think the first good player he inherited was Vince Hamilton. Anything Vince. You have really good six-board jump shooter offensive.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:14

I mean, Gene Bangs was still there when Coach K came, but his first Coach K's first recruiting class is Johnny Dawkins, Mark Allery, David Henderson, Jay Billis. I think that's his first oh third class? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:26

Well that is his best. It was a great class. The class that changed everything, Duke, and he just kept building on it from there. So and he did a great job coaching those guys.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:37

We're gonna have to I think we're just gonna have to get you into some sort of therapy or something. Like I I can use a lot of things. Yeah, no, no, no. I don't care about the rest of your life. Just this Duke thing. We gotta squeeze this out of you. I mean, because you're just such a great guy, otherwise. But like this Duke thing, I think just make me know, just you know, I Red Sox fan. Yeah, yeah. Just you can keep the Red Sox, but I think we gotta, we gotta we gotta squeeze this Duke stuff out of you. Anyway, man, I I think it's totally cool how you, like I said, starting as a five-year-old and and and rooting for Carolina, and you know, you talked about Sam Perkins and all these guys, and come for full circle where we're able to run a program like this and to give back to kids and to give back to a community and and to build something both on the sports and the academic side of things is is really cool, and I appreciate you taking the time to share that with us today. Thanks, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:28

Appreciate it, Hank. Thanks so much. All right, there you go, and that's a wrap on this week's episode. Thanks so much for watching. And since you made it this far, do me a solid. Hit the subscribe button down below, leave a review, send the episode to a buddy who you think would enjoy it. We'd really appreciate it. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time.com.