Community Highlights: Meet Kellen Jackson of You Hoop Organization

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kellen Jackson.

Hi Kellen, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Basketball has been one of my greatest passions, disappointments, and teachers. It has taught me lessons that I may not have learned otherwise. Fortunately, my love for the game has kept me from learning some tough lessons that I would certainly most regret. My ability to translate life and basketball is my super-power and my gifting. By the grace of God, this beautiful game continues to expand my core values and empowers me to be the best version of myself to the families I love and serve! As an ambitious sophomore varsity high school player, I was the driven, over-confident kid with a lot of potential and grossly underachieved by my rigorous standards.

Throughout my development, I had a lot of knowledgeable coaches who taught me the fundamentals, some advanced skills, and many nuances of the game. I learned a great deal about how to respond in various basketball situations and what it takes to be successful on the basketball court, but off the court, I was clueless, and if I wasn’t “winning,” my attitude often became far worse! Even in my early years as a coach, this was still difficult to grasp. I knew to work hard, prepare, compete, sacrifice, and “to win,” right? Yet, I realized that years of the championship after championship only gave me a false sense of security because when adversity hit in my life and the lives of several of the “winning” coaches and teammates around me, we were all far less equipped.

My God-given purpose for coaching is to be the kind of coach that I would have needed during my teenage years, which for most kids, can be the most pivotal and challenging years that ultimately set the foundation for the rest of our adult lives. My passion lies in showing young athletes that sports are merely a vehicle to prepare you for life. Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn, but we surely lose when we fail to learn! Today, I work with the John Maxwell Team training to become a licensed youth leadership facilitator. I have been a “basketball” coach and “life” mentor to hundreds of student-athletes across the Midwest for nearly a decade. I am currently the varsity girls’ basketball coach at the Barstow School in Kansas City, Missouri. My company, the You Hoop Organization, partners with local community centers to provide basketball programming and train kids of all ages and skill levels. Our mission is to use the game of basketball to build young leaders and create champions for life!

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road has certainly not been a smooth one. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that success is found in the journey and not in the destination. My biggest struggle was rebranding the business and our programming to find creative ways to pivot and stay profitable during the pandemic. That was a tough time for many businesses, so shifting online and providing virtual training became the best way for us to stay connected with our community. Since things have returned to normal, we have been able to expand our programs with our facility partners and are working through the beta testing phase on our virtual skills academy app, set to be released in early 2023.

Before the pandemic, the other biggest challenge we experienced (which was a great problem) was 300% growth during the program’s third year. We organically grew from 80 players to 300+ student-athletes, and the explosive growth was overwhelming. At the time, our leadership model wasn’t horizontal, so unless you were a more experienced coach with us in the early stages, we did not position our newer coaches to receive the same quality of training and preparation. Additionally, there weren’t systems in place to sustain the explosive growth. This was tough learning for us because we lost retention and revenue. We now have an established operational and training system to ensure long-term success for our programs’ parents, coaches, and players.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
YHO aims to provide a culture of basketball programming and training that impacts young athletes beyond the hardwood and empowers their potential character, confidence, and competence. Whether your child is new to the game or plays at the highest level around town, they can benefit from the You Hoop program.

YHO is a holistic youth basketball skills training program that enhances core values of character and leadership. We highly value who our players become as people, and we specialize in building leaders and creating champions for life! We are committed to the long-term growth of our athletes as they learn to become leaders on and off the court. Many of our student-athletes have gone on to experience immeasurable success on and off the court. We are more than just a basketball club. We teach our kids the skills they need to be successful in life, no matter what they choose to become! We are proud that 90% of our athletes attend college on an academic or athletic scholarship and are leaders among their peers. To learn more about us and our services, please visit us online at www.youhoop.org.

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Our positive culture is what separates us from other basketball clubs and programs. We empower, inspire, and help others to grow, succeed, and lead positively. The core value directly correlated to our success is our service leadership to our community and the families we serve. We believe in the power of servant leadership to others and are willing to sacrifice for the greater good. By that, I mean we will always be intentional about adding value to others while serving the common good.

Our collective vision is fixed on long-term growth, not immediate success, as we raise the expectations of our athletes and ourselves. Our core values and principles keep us energetic and enthusiastic about doing what needs to be done and maximizing the achievements of others. We connect and relate with our students to teach them the value of contributing to something greater than themselves. Our athletes collectively learn to be generous with their strengths and give more than expected or asked for.

Pricing:

• Claim a FREE workout and evaluation at youhoop.org.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.youhoop.org
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/youhoop_org/?hl=en
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/YouHoopOrganization/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/you_hoop
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5ApRPUeK2U