May 19, 2016 marked the first anniversary of the NeXT Basketball Foundation. It was on that day a year ago I sent out an email to 18 people from the Denver Airport concerning NXT- that was the original spelling. The intent of my email was to encourage others to have their kids participate in an environment where kids could compete, learn and grow as young people – I believe we accomplished our goal. During last year’s summer session we averaged 41 players each week at the Worthington Rec. Center. This year we have over 80 participants (4th-6th grade) signed up to learn, compete and improve. That is tremendous.

A significant amount of effort and work behind the scenes has lead us to where ‘we’ are today as an organization. I believe NeXT has evolved into something that has the ability to change how we evaluate and measure success in youth sports in central Ohio.

I can’t thank the NeXT Board and Leadership, our 19 Founding Members, donors, speakers, skill coaches, corporate partners, Ibel Agency and Loose Films enough for their aid, effort and winning attitude.

Everyone has been outstanding.

Thank You!

Hey Guys,

Hope all is well.

The reason for my email is because your son has been identified as a young man that would aid our endeavor in creating competitive young basketball players and a competitive playing environment.

Our goal at NXT is to provide a culture for 30 young kids (ranging from current 3rd graders to 5th graders, with most of the kids being 4th graders) to develop their skill as a basketball player and to create an extremely competitive playing environment. I believe that two of the things this generation of young players are missing is the ability to “learn” what it is to be competitive – this is the number one complaint of college basketball coaches in NAIA, D2 and D3 basketball around the country. Our generation of young kids has a bunch of personal trainers where the technical aspect trumps the importance of being competitive. The other problem is that there is no environment that provides a highly competitive “pickup hoop” atmosphere where the winners shout “next” after winning a game.

Everyone loved to call next back in the day.

The NXT program will provide a once a week (for 8 weeks) program that has a 30 minute ball handling session followed by an 1 1/2 hour of competitive pickup basketball. Two games will be played at once with one adult supervising/calling fouls each game. The two other teams will sit and watch until it’s their turn to play. We want to award the winning teams and build anticipation to play for the losing teams. Games will be played to 12 (20 minute limit on all games) and new teams will be picked each week.

What does “NXT” stand for you ask?

NXT is about the next possession, the next pass, the next phase of competitive basketball. Sports are about mastering the process, and the only way you can master the process is to fall in love with the process. NXT is about the process. We are going to champion the cause of team play, moving without the ball and fighting for every 50/50 ball. We are going to teach these kids to compete at a high level and that every possession is vitally important- I hate turnovers. At this point I’m not concerned about the execution as nearly as much as I am the effort. Teams that win and the kids who consistently experience success play harder than their peers. This is my belief.

NXT stands for:

Nothing good happens when it’s all about me.
Xtra-effort
Team before I

In the end, NXT is about being unselfish, learning how to compete and to begin to fall in love with the process.

We ALL Got NeXT!

Thanks,
Shawn