MVSKOKE RESERVATION – Elevate Your Game (EYG) is an all-Native AAU Program, founded in 2016, that helps basketball athletes improve their skills, provides 1-on-1 training, and connects them with colleges to help them earn basketball scholarships. The program began with 10 kids and has since worked with over 800 in Indian Country.
“Skill development camps teach fundamentals, advanced moves, and game IQ in a challenging environment,” stated EYG. “We host tournaments for players to showcase their talent, while our competitive traveling teams provide top-level competition, exposure, and growth on and off the court. In addition, we provide customized sports apparel and more to support athletes and teams.”
President of EYG, Randy July Jr. (Mvskoke), started the program as an intern at Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) during his senior year. He had the opportunity to intern at the University of Kansas, Baker University, and other universities in the Lawrence area within their basketball programs. However, July’s heart was set on being around Native Americans and trying to help mold them into basketball players, develop their skill sets, and use basketball as a tool to get where they wanted to go.
“My internship was a basketball camp, and then I ended up trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I loved helping people, and I loved basketball, so my senior year, I put on a basketball clinic at HINU. It went really well. I think we had about 55 kids come out, which I was pretty shocked, then it took off from there,” July said.
The program started with 1-on-1 training for youth, then group training. When they began posting more on social media, Tribes started reaching out to July, asking him to attend a 2- or 3-day camp.
The program name, Elevate Your Game, came from one of his college mentors, Pete King.
“I was kind of known for jumping and dunking, so he was just like ‘Hey, why don’t you put Elevate Your Game? You jump high, so why don’t you just try to incorporate something that’s unique to you, but try to put it into your own organization,’ I was like ‘Oh dang, that’s a really good name,’” July said.
Since 2016, they have hosted 32 camps across 16 different reservations. Since then, the camps have grown into teams.
“Right now, we have 14 teams that we have through our organization, boys and girls, that go and compete on Prep Hoops and other circuits, trying to get college coaches to be looking at us. So far, we’ve sent 71 kids to college on basketball scholarships that have come to our program,” July said.
Trying new things, making mistakes
July likes to get the whole team involved and tries not to hold any kid back. He mentioned that sometimes coaches hold players back, for example they won’t encourage players to shoot three-pointers or dribble. With EYG, they focus on letting players do what they want.
“Obviously, we’re not trying to go over the top, but we’re not limited with EYG. So if we’ve got a big guy and he’s told not to shoot threes, we want to try to get him to shoot threes. We know the game is changing and that big guys aren’t just big and they just sit down low in the post. We try to pull them out, we try to get them shooting, we try to get them dribbling so they can be seen. Just game changing,” July said.
For EYG, when teaching a basketball skill, what July enjoys most is going in depth and teaching how to make the right plays. But he said that if you’re coming into EYG, you don’t have to be good- it’s his job to make you better.
He wants to teach, show, and educate athletes on the simple fundamentals of basketball without overcomplicating it.
“There are some kids that we’ve taken in that didn’t even think they were going to play school ball or high school basketball, and we changed the whole narrative for them. Even like high school kids, they didn’t think that college was an option for them, and we’ve opened up doors for them. They’ve walked straight through it and tried to become somebody,” July said.
July shared that their program encourages young players to try new things.
“You’re supposed to mess up, so you can learn. I think that the biggest thing is we just give these kids confidence. We give them great coaching. We make sure that we hold them accountable. We are also hard on them, but we also know that they’re trying to learn and they’re trying to grow,” July said.
“So the mistakes are going to happen, but you have to be coachable and learn from those mistakes.”
For basketball athletes who feel they are struggling or feel like they want to quit because they can’t get the skill down, July shared, “We all started somewhere. LeBron James and Michael Jordan, they didn’t wake up and be that great. We all struggled, but it’s how you bounce back from your mistakes and turn it around and try to be better.”
July knows that messing up can be frustrating, but EYG says it’s all about learning and growing from mistakes.
“Grow from that, elevate from that.”
July understands it’s a hard lesson.
Helping every kid
EYG’s basketball team has played in Prep Hoops and AAU Circuit and, since starting a team, has played in 200 tournaments across all grades.
When the team wins a tournament, they receive a trophy, but they don’t keep it. The team gives that trophy to whoever played best on the EYG team in that tournament.
“We give it to whoever plays the best, and we don’t keep the trophies. We obviously want to win, but we want to play for something that we’re getting better every single weekend. We want to play teams that are better than us, quicker, faster, stronger. We play in high-level tournaments, and the biggest thing is just making sure that we’re growing, we’re really elevating our game,” July said.
For July, it’s not about winning and losing; it’s about EYG helping every young kid who crosses their path- whether it is education, basketball, or mental health issues.
One of July’s favorite things is when athletes reach out, even after camps and tournaments are over.
“They reach out and say, ‘Hey, can you help us with our jump shot? Can you help us with this? Hey, I’m struggling with this.’ I’m glad that we’re able to still reach out to kids even in Utah, Washington, Florida, New York, like these places that we’ve done camps at. I’m glad that we can still reach out or they can reach out to us and we can still help them along the way,” July said.
“I think that’s what I’m most proud of through our organization, that we’re just willing to help every kid that crosses, it doesn’t matter what it is. Basketball is just something to get kids interested, but it’s the life lessons that we teach outside of that,” July said.
EYG has seen their players go to Haskell Indian Nations University, Hesston College, and to colleges and universities in Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.
EYG has sent an athlete to almost every level of college basketball- Air Force, Division 1 and 2, National Collegiate Athletic Association, Division 2, Coastal Athletic Association, Junior College, and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
EYG tries to ensure that they can continue their education while doing something they love.
“71 have graduated from college, they went and impacted society on their rez, or they went and did great things,” July said.
In the family
Not only does he enjoy being part of this movement, but his son, Jakovy, is also on the EYG team and training. Jakovy has watched his father’s basketball journey.
“When he was about 4 or 5 years old, he got to watch me play at Haskell. When he was 6, he was in the locker room with us, in the weight room with us, got to see me work out, train hard, and ever since then, it’s just like this is all he wanted to do. We tried other sports, but it just didn’t work out. He just loved basketball,” July said.
July is grateful to watch his son’s basketball journey and to see how much effort he puts in, on and off the court.
“I’ve still yet to see a kid work that hard. He trained 4 hours a day, and it was never enough. We would go train for 4 hours, come back home, and he said, ‘Dad, do you want to go back to the gym?’ and I’m just ‘Yeah, let’s go do it,’” July said.
He spoke of how it isn’t a surprise to anyone if they’ve seen Jakovy growing up. For July, seeing his son’s work ethic and how much he has accomplished makes him proud as a father. But overall, July is most proud of how Jakovy is as a person.
“Him just being a great guy, great teammate, and great person. He was in Mesa, and he was taking pictures with every kid, like he didn’t tell any kid no. He just always wants to be there for people,” July said.
Elevating Native basketball athletes
Currently, all of their coaches are Native American, and they’ve all graduated from college and played college basketball, giving these young athletes someone to look up to. Because they have seen July play professional basketball before, they can strive to do the same.
He said that alumni who have gone through EYG come back and help with the camps and even coach teams.
“It’s all about giving back. I try to incorporate telling these kids, ‘Hey, you needed somebody that you needed growing up, so come back to EYG, try to help out, do camps, do tournaments, do the 1-on-1’s. You’re giving back and doing what you’re supposed to do,’” July said.
For the other basketball college graduates who are helping coach for EYG, has made an impact within their communities, and their organization tries to show that if they did it, then they can be that way too.
“Native Americans are playing 0.1% in college sports or college basketball. We want to try and change that narrative by teaching these kids, showing these kids that they can do it. They got great coaching, we got a great system that allows them to go and be great, we got college connections,” July said.
He tries to help them in any way he can. They have filmed their young kids to send to recruiters because they want to open up that door for them to give them that opportunity.
“It sucks, but some kids just don’t get that real opportunity, that real chance, because not everybody cares like that. So we’re trying to make sure the doors are open. Now, whether it’s up to them if they’re going to walk through it and keep going, but we want to make sure that we do have that opportunity to show them that, ‘Hey, you can do it, this is for you. Just put your head down, keep working, and keep growing,’” July said.
To follow along with EYG’s journey, follow them on their Facebook at EYG Basketball, or book with them at their website eygbasketball.org
