Houston Sports: 3 reasons why Illusion Basketball Training breaks barriers

Reason #3: The Impact

BP:  Please share your favorite two success stories of graduates from the program.

JH:  The first one would have to be a young lady named Annie.  She went from a Barbers Hill Eagle to an NYU Violet.  It was my pleasure to be a part of Annie’s journey towards achieving her dream of playing college basketball.  Her work ethic, dedication, and personal sacrifice was something to behold.  When she first started training, she had doubters.

Plenty of naysayers that couldn’t see her being as good as she became.  They couldn’t see her turning into a leader.  They couldn’t see her making defenders fall after one of her crossovers, or her making three-pointers look easy.  There are plenty of things that people didn’t see when they first laid eyes on Annie years ago.

Frankly, they didn’t see what she did.  She saw a dynamic student-athlete that would defy any perceived odds and become a ballplayer that used basketball as a tool to obtain an education.  She’s about to have her first college basketball game next month, and I’m very excited for her this season.

The second one is still a work in progress, but he’s still a success story.  His name is Matthew and he is currently a 9th grader.  Sometimes we get so caught up in helping players reach their next breakthrough that we forget to document and share the massive improvements.  Matthew has become our poster child in this regard.

His parents haven’t enrolled him in any of our online courses, but when he first registered for our skills training, he was very raw.  His shooting form was a mess.  Making free throws off the

More from House of Houston

• Are you the 2021 FanSided Sports Fan of the Year?
• Houston Texans: 4 reasons Romeo Crennel is right coach right now
• Astros-Twins Wild Card Series: 5 things to know as MLB postseason begins
• Houston Texans: The Most Underrated Sports Drought Ever
• Houston Texans: J.J. Watt’s early case for NFL Hall of Fame

backboard a mess.  He was forced to be an undersized post player because he couldn’t dribble very well, and couldn’t make a left-hand lay-up with someone within five feet of him.

After putting some hard work in, he looks like another guy.  Just last week he was telling me how he hit a top of the key three to tie the game with a couple of seconds left in the fourth quarter.  This, from a guy that would catch the ball and quickly pass it like it was a grenade about to explode.  Now that’s a success.

A couple of weeks before his big shot, Matthew told me how a handful of coaches asked him if he was left-handed after he pulled off a few pretty left-hand reverse lay-ups.  Nice.  This, from a guy that would hit the bottom of the rim on basic left-handed lay-ups.

I tell him and his Mom all the time, “man … we should’ve had a camera rolling when he first started because it’s night and day.” He’s not a finished product, and his story doesn’t have a bow on it in terms of reaching the college level, but when a player has such a glaringly different “before and after,” from skills all the way to overall confidence, I have to put it as one of my favorites.

So these are just two of many success stories of Illusion Institute Basketball Training and Joe working on ensuring there are many more down the road.

It’s truly a labor of love for Joe to help break the barriers that impede student-athletes from reaching their full potential and that’s why Illusion Institute Basketball Training is so pivotal in today’s ultra-competitive world of sports.  He wants to give as many students as he can an edge that will have them soar to heights that they’ve never encountered.

That’s what it’s all about…

If you’re a parent/guardian of a student-athlete that aspires to play college basketball, click here, so you can learn more about their Scholarship Blueprint.