Tag: Katy Raptors basketball academy

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2021 Basketball Tryouts

We are excited about the upcoming AAU basketball season and are beginning planning and preparation for what this year will look like. We will be having tryouts for our boys 9th grade team as well as a new 7th grade team on February 7th at Campbell Elementary. The 9th grade team will have tryouts from 9 am to 10:30 am, and the 7th grade tryouts will be from 10:30 am to 12 pm. We will be abiding by Katy ISD health and safety protocols including having every player wear a face covering and socially distancing from others when not engaging in an activity on the court. Please make sure that your son brings a mask or face cover to wear.

If you are interested, click on this link to register.

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Down But Not Out

Basketball on floor of empty basketball court

This was not the beginning to the Spring/Summer 2020 season that we expected! The world is adjusting to new terms like “social distancing” and new norms of interacting as we adjust to being responsible in response to this pandemic virus. No one could have predicted that the NBA would be postponed, March Madness would have been canceled, and school and churches would have to adjust to virtual interactions. Given all of this, we have temporarily put our season on hold. Your coaches will be in touch with you about the rest of the season and when we can resume practices and games.

While practices have been postponed for several weeks and AAU tournaments have been canceled for now, you can still work on your game at home. Here are a couple of resources that I have followed for years and highly recommend:

  • Home Court App – This app is being used by a lot of pro teams in addition to college, high school, and youth teams. You can download it from the app store and then use it to both record your shots and skill work and capture excellent analysis of your workout. The app is free and they have different levels of subscriptions. The biggest news is that they have opened up all of their paid features for free until the end of April in response to the current circumstances. You can check it out at: https://www.homecourt.ai
  • Drew Hanlen – Drew Hanlen is an incredible basketball trainer who has worked with college and pro basketball players including Jayson Tatum, Joel Embiid, and Bradley Beal. Drew is a great follow on Instagram and often posts highlights of his training sessions. He also has an app and courses that you can purchase on his web site: https://puresweatbasketball.com. A free resource that he offers is his text community, where you can have him text you daily and weekly drills to do at home. Text this number (314-461-1862) with the message: Include me in this community. You should then be added to the list.
  • Paul Frabritz – Paul is an NBA Performance Specialist who focuses on skill development and vertical jumping ability. He is a great follow on Instagram (@pjfperformance) and often posts videos of skill and vertical jumping skill development sessions. He also has programs that you can purchase and do at home.

The main thing we pray for you and your family is that you are safe during this time and find a way to connect in new ways. Slowing down often allows you to take stock in what matters the most and focus on the most important priorities. We also want our players to continue to develop in mind, body, and spirit and hope these resources that I have suggested will help them continue to grow in their development. Keep checking back for additional thoughts, insight, and resources.

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Looking Forward to the Spring and Summer

Basketball Court

It has been a great year for all of our Katy Raptors players who are playing on their respective Jr High and High School teams. After working hard for 3 solid years, all of the players on our Katy Raptors 2025 team made their school’s A Team. Our Katy Raptors 2024 players are showing off their skills and making an incredible impact on their school teams as well. We are so proud of these players and grateful for our coaches and trainers who are building leaders on and off the court and helping them maximize their potential!

Our Katy Raptors 2022 players are also making a great impact on both Varsity and JV teams for their schools. We are so proud of them for setting a great example for our younger teams as they work hard to pursue their goals. For this upcoming season, we are planning to move this team up to be a Varsity team made up of 16-17 year old players. We think this team is ready for the challenge and is already playing at this level for their respective school teams. We also have had a lot of older players ask if they could play for our program, and we have not had a team for them.

As we prepare for this transition, we are accepting inquiries for high school players who might be interested in playing for this Varsity team. Ideally, we are looking for a few post and wing players. If you are interested in playing for a program that provides great coaching, solid and purposeful skill training, leadership and mental toughness development sessions, and helps prepare players for the next level, we would love to hear from you about your experience and interest. You can email Mike Van Hoozer and provide the following information:

  • Name and Age
  • School Team including which team you play for (Varsity, JV, etc.)
  • AAU Experience over the last 3-5 years
  • Height and Weight
  • What you are looking for in an AAU experience

Based on the interest, we will conduct some private workouts in the coming weeks.

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Preparing for the Fall and Beyond

Basketball on floor of empty basketball court

We hope you had a great summer and are back into the flow of the school year! The Spring/Summer season was very impactful for all of our teams, and we are excited to see what the future holds this year and beyond for all of our players. Our goal as coaches is to help them maximize their potential both individually and collectively and prepare them for the next level. While our program is competitive and wants to do our best, we believe that achieving goals and winning are a by-product of focusing on the process of improving every day.

As we begin the new school year, we have been meeting and planning for this next year. Here are some of the things that are coming up in the Fall that may interest you:

  • We will be conducting workouts in the Katy area for our players and teams with some of our coaches and trainers to help them prepare for their school season. Also, some of our Katy Raptors 2024 8th grade teams will be playing in Fall tournaments to complement the school season. Whether you are a current Katy Raptors player or a player who wants to get better and possibly join our program, email Mike Van Hoozer to find out more and to be connected to one of our trainers.
  • We are currently evaluating expanding the number of teams for our high school players. While we have had our Katy Raptors 2022 team playing by grade for the last 3 years, we may look at having a couple of teams at the high school level across 9-12th grade. One possibility would be to have a Varsity and Junior Varsity team. We believe this would help in their development as they move through high school and open up opportunities for high school players that have reached out to our program but could not join a team due to age limitations of our current team. If you are a high school player and are interested in a different and possibly better AAU experience, feel free to email Mike Van Hoozer about your interest in our teams.
  • We also have our Katy Raptors 2025 7th grade team that will be playing school basketball for the first time this year and continuing their AAU tournaments in the Spring/Summer season.

We are always looking to improve the impact that we can make in the lives of our players and teams on and off the court. We feel confident that we have the coaches and trainers to teach them basketball skills and how to play the game the right way. It’s also the X-factors that we want to share that will help them go beyond self-imposed limitations and provide leadership skills that extend beyond the court. Let us know if you want to join in our efforts!

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A Great Season So Far

This season has been excellent for all of our teams! Our Katy Raptors basketball program has grown in interest and impact, and we have expanded to 5 teams including one 6th grade team, three 7th grade teams, and one 9th grade team. The boys have improved in their basketball ability and skills, their mental toughness and resiliency, and their leadership on and off the court.

Regarding our 9th grade team, I am so proud of the way they have played this season! They have had to learn to play with some new teammates, and we have had to manage through injuries to key position players. Through it all, they have focused on being present in the moment and giving their best – key principles that we discuss a lot during our Leadership Moments at practice. They have played in 5 very competitive tournaments with an overall record of 17-6. They have made it to the Championship game in every tournament with a first place finish in one of them.

While there have been many great wins along with some tough losses, our best tournament performance may have been the Kingwood Classic. In this tournament, they played in the NCAA Certified Division, won their Pool Play bracket, and lost in the Platinum Division Championship Game finishing with a 4-1 overall record against some of the top teams in the nation!

As our summer schedule begins, we have a couple of open slots if you are interested in joining our 9th grade team and becoming a part of our program. Email Coach Mike Van Hoozer with the following information:

  • Grade and School Team
  • Position, Height, and Weight
  • AAU Experience
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2019 Season is off to a great start!

All of our teams are now full and practicing and playing in tournaments! Our 2024 teams have led the way so far with some impressive finishes in their tournaments including final four finishes in the Rytes Warriors Spring Break Tournament this past weekend! We look forward to making this season a great moment and helping to develop our players to be leaders on and off the court!

If you are still interested in playing on one of our teams, you can email me to be put on a waiting list. While we may not be able to get you into one of our programs this year, there still may be opportunities for your son to train with us either in a group or individual setting with one of our coaches or trainers.

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Preparing for the Fall Season and Beyond

We hope that school is going well for everyone! We encourage so many of our athletes to focus on multiple sports and various forms of training both in season and out of season to maximize their talent and abilities. In our experience and in talking with high school and college coaches, they appreciate and recruit multi-sport athletes because of their versatility, athleticism, and leadership.

Basketball on floor of empty basketball court

As it relates to basketball, we hope everyone is planning for a great Fall and Winter season in both competitive youth leagues, Junior High, and High School. The players on our teams have invested time in their Spring and Summer AAU season to grow and become better and look forward to demonstrating what they have learned for their respective school teams.

Our Academy mission is to use basketball as a vehicle to develop leaders on and off the court, and our focus is to prepare them for the next level of competition including high school and college. We want all of our athletes to be successful and impactful leaders who leverage the skills and core values that they learn through our academy in whatever they do. We are confident that we can teach them to play basketball the right way; the differentiator is developing their leadership and mental toughness skills.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in for your son, check out our teams and programs and email me for more information. If you are not a part of one of our teams or academy, we would love to talk to you to see if it is a fit for your student athlete. All of our teams including our 2022 team, which I personally coach, will be looking for a few select athletes to join us for the Spring/Summer AAU season. We also offer some skills and shooting training for players who might be a fit for our program.

Basketball is an excellent sport to learn teamwork, leadership, and perseverance, and we look forward to helping our athletes develop in all of those areas! After all, we are preparing them for the Fall season and beyond!

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Back to Back Tournament Wins!

We are so proud of our Katy Raptors 2024 team and their progress this year! They recently won back-to-back tournaments the last 2 weekends including a VYPE tournament in Houston.

Katy Raptors 2024

Coach Mark Sanchez and the rest of our coaches are doing a great job with this group and preparing them not only for the rest of this season but also as they enter into the next level of Junior High basketball and sports. Most importantly as with all of our teams, we are striving to develop leaders on and off the court! We are really proud of this team and all that they are accomplishing!

Katy Raptors 2024

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A Season To Remember

Katy Raptors 2022

We completed our first season as an official basketball academy with all 3 teams (4th grade, 5th grade, and 7th grade) having success, impact, and growth. I am so proud of each and every player and family that participated in our programs this year!

Katy Raptors 2022

Our Katy Raptors 7th grade team finished their season playing in the Prime Time National Basketball Championship in Dallas July 24-30, 2017. We received an invitation to play in this tournament based on our success in other tournaments and had a great experience. As we had done in many of our tournaments, we won our Pool Play on the first 2 days going 3-0 to advance to the championship tournament bracket. In tournament play, we went 2-1, losing a very close game to a team that went on to finish 3rd overall. Overall, we went 5-1 and made it to the Sweet Sixteen out of about 100 very good teams. Our boys demonstrated that they can play with anyone and showed tenacity, grit, and leadership.

Throughout our season, everyone who played against us or watched our team play consistently commented that they loved how we played as a team including our tenacious defense and constantly moving the basketball and trusting each other on offense. To me, this is what basketball is all about and how basketball was meant to be played. It’s also what we are striving to teach all of the players across the teams in our academy. We also want to develop them as leaders on and off the court and help them grow in all dimensions of their lives – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Thanks to everyone who supported us this year, and we look forward to another great season next year! If you are interested in supporting our leadership and basketball academy, we are a non-profit organization, and you can donate to our mission here. You can also email me to find out more about our program including the opportunity to sponsor our organization.