Check Out Royce Woolridge’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Royce Woolridge.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in a basketball family my father (Orlando Woolridge) godfather (Negele Knight) and great-uncle (Willis Reed) all played in the NBA. Growing up that was always my dream and through hard work and the right people around me I was able to be AZ player of the year in 2009 and win a state championship at Sunnyslope. I was the youngest recruit to ever commit to the University of Kansas at 14.

In my first year of college, I went to Kansas won a Big 12 championship and our team made it to the elite 8. After this, I transferred to WSU which is a great school but I didn’t have the best basketball experience. In my 5th year, I decided to come home and get my master’s degree while playing at GCU. I also wanted to be closer to my grandma whose health was deteriorating. When my 5th year finished I did not expect to continue playing basketball.

I started a job as a bouncer at a club in Scottsdale. After about 3 months I was offered an opportunity to play in Slovenia. I jumped at the opportunity and was able to play professionally overseas for 5 years.

(Slovenia/Poland/Austria/Turkey). Toward the end of my playing career, I dealt with injuries and overseas politics that made me start to resent the game. Also, my grandma’s health was really bad and my mom needed my help back home to take care of her. I decided to retire so that I could be closer to my grandma for her remaining years. I am happy I did this and was able to spend time with my grandma before she passed. With this said I still missed the game and knew I had much more to offer even if it wasn’t playing. Luckily I was offered a job as a freshmen coach at Sunnyslope and started my coaching journey. I fell in love with coaching and knew it was my calling. From there I started a club team and started training kids. Since I have started 6 of the kids I have trained have gone D1 and one was player of the year in Arizona. I also went from 1 club team to 7 in a year.

Community is a big aspect of life and basketball so I wanted to start an academy to start building this culture. I started with the Sunnyslope Academy which got up to 30 kids in the summer. The academy has since moved to the Biltmore at camelback high school. The academy is great for kids just learning basketball with aspirations to play at higher levels. Since the beginning 7 our kids have been picked up by club teams with some of them just starting basketball when they joined the academy.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely was not a smooth ride but anything worth something takes patience, trial, and error. In order to be successful you have to first fail and learn how to come back better. It’s been this way with the academy and coaching.

Basketball culture today is a lot different.

There is no sense of community or loyalty which is understandable considering the times. However, in order to become a complete player you need consistency and need to learn how to be a part of a team and stand for something. I have learned finding parents or kids with the same mindset is the easiest way to be successful in coaching.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I do a lot of different things I’m not a conventional coach. I am the director of the PHX Runnin Rebels, I coach high school and club, I train over 25 players throughout the state, and I run my academies M/W/F 6-7 pm. In addition to this, I also have a masters in professional counseling and work with special needs kids.

Outside of coaching and training, I love to be creative. I have been making music since I was 16 years old. I have solo music (Young Dad) and am in a band (Jigwave). I love the Az music scene and have met a lot of really talented people. We also host jam sessions at my house from time to time.

Last summer I also picked up skateboarding and that’s something I really enjoy. I am probably the only trainer that can dunk and kickflip lol.

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I think the best advice is to not be scared to fail. Nothing is perfect or goes as planned so don’t let setbacks kill your motivation. As long as you have the right intentions and believe in what you’re doing keep going!

Pricing:

• 2x per week $150 monthly
• 3x per week $250 monthly
• Drop in $35

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.RoyceWoolridge.com
• Instagram: @ydskillsacademy

Image Credits: Under the Moon Photography LLC