Not really on-topic, but to clarify on a comment made earlier, Atheism is NOT considered a religion. By definition, a religion must have a God or other deity for worship and obviously, Atheism doesn't have that.
Jake Sullivan Article
- Thread starter Psychlone11
- Start date
I enjoyed the article and don't have any problems with what Jake is doing. Even though I am not Christian myself, I have worked with my fair share of inner-city, disadvantaged youth to understand and recognize the importance of having a positive role model, and I am happy to see Jake apparently filling that role for some of these kids.
Now on a different, somewhat related topic, does anyone know what kind of a relationship Jake Sullivan has with CFH and our current coaching staff, or even if there is a relationship outside of just being alums? I know that when McD was here there was talk on this board about the two of them hating each other or something like that, which may or may not have been true (since, as we all know, these message boards NEVER distort or exaggerate anything
).
I bolded what I want to respond too... Jake doesn't have any aspirations to do anything other than what he is doing right now. He has said that many, many times. And he isn't using religion for profit... he's using basketball for profit, and using that avenue to advance his ministry. I would probably never send my kid there simply because I don't want to pay the money. To me that seems astronomical when I never paid more than like 20 bucks as a kid to play his sports.
be careful drinking the jake sullivan kool aid. he has pushed several players away from ISU. He did not like McDermott. Hopefully his relationship with Freddie is better. Jake is a snake IMO.
I still want to know the names of the players he steered away from ISU and where they ended up. I mean, central Iowa isn't exactly a hotbed for national basketball talent.
I sincerely doubt Jake Sullivan is using religion to make a profit. He's using basketball to make a profit, which is fine. But he also gives scholarships to those that can't afford it. And if anything tying the basketball to Christianity would limit his business as a lot of people become wary of proselytzing by the organization. I commend Jake Sullivan for following his calling and putting in the hours in an attempt to better the lives of young men.
I beg to differ. Atheism's "God", if you insist on all religions having one central figure or point, is that there is no God. Their blind faith in the absence of a deity is just as unscientific as the faith of those who believe in God.
Now if you want to say that Agnosticism isn't a religion, I'm with you on that.
Jeez, I can't see why he wouldn't push kids towards a program that has fans who blame him for every Central Iowa kid who doesn't sign with ISU. With fans like you in the mix, we're damn lucky Jake isn't a Hawkfan yet.
If I didn't like McDermott (which describes me to a tee), does that make me a snake too?
I can't even handle how many things are wrong with this statement.
A. Why would he have a quote saying just coaching AAU was not exciting enough for him if he really wanted this to be a job to take him to other coaching?
B. Why would he leave the All Iowa Attack if he really wanted to coach somewhere else?
C. Nothing sells yourslef to public instituitions quite as well as being open with your faith...
D. Why would someone quit his job in coaching, purchase and redo a building just to move on. I know that when I want to move on to something else, the first thing I'm going to do is take ownership of a building that wouldn't be real easy to sell.
E. Raise your hand if you never plan on or want to moving to a higher level in your job. Anyone? So why is a problem even if he wanted to move up in the ranks of coaching?
F. All my English teachers I've ever had would not like this list because of the lack of consistant format.
G. Unrelated to your post. I respect him for working with the inner city kids. My wife works with lots of them, and they need role models to teach them about hard work, earning what you make, respecting others, and the list goes on and on.
H. Is the Aftrican school and basketball just a recruiting pipeline for his future job?:wideeyed:
I. This is list is way too long. Congratulations if you made it all the way to I.
You know I wasn't going to comment on this thread about Jake or his AAU organization known as Kingdom Hoops, but I decided I would. To answer your questions, yes I know about his whole AAU from personal experience as my soon to be step son was part of Kingdom Hoops for about 5 months or so.
Pros:
Program:
1. Jake tells you from the start at try outs, that his team mentality is 100% offense. He will leave it up to the actual middle school/high school coaches to teach defense.
2. He states that if you do not like his program, you are free to leave at any time with no hard feelings.
3. The fees that are part of his program cover all costs, uniform, camps, and tournament fees.
4. There is usually one "elite/national" program for each age group and then there is the regional option for parents that do not want to do a tour of the midwest outside of a 90 mile radius of Des Moines.
5. The actual schedule of the program runs from October to late July.
6. If your child cannot make it to their team practice, they are more than welcome to make it to the other team practices in their same age range. If they want to practice more, than the coaches welcome them to their practices.
7. For those families that cannot make the cost of the program, Jake does offer "hours" for the parents to volunteer at AAU events that Kingdom Hoop hosts to help offset the cost such as taking money at the door etc.
8. There is success with the national teams/upper regional teams, as they are usually playing in the title game.
Actual playing:
1. Every kid is given a chance to play, as one of their core rules is that there is equal playing time for every kid on the team.
2. The coaches are actual players have had success at some level beyond high school.
3. There are two coaches are the majority of the games for each age range.
Cons:
Program:
1. The lower teams end up supporting the higher skilled teams as far as money wise.
2. The players are not moved up or down depending on skill, once you are pegged for a given team you are stuck with the team for the duration of the program.
3. The actual time of the practices are usually starting at 4:30pm on a given day and 7:30 pm on another day. The reason being is the actual # of teams and only having six courts to practice on.
4. Politics play a strong part in determining where your kid will end up, the more time you have spent with Kingdom Hoops the greater the chances their child will make the upper tier team.
5. You are only given a piece of the "puzzle" at each age range. We never did see any type of flow chart to show this is what will be taught at the given age range to the next age range.
6. The price of the program is at the higher end, alot of other regional programs cost a lot less. This cost helps fund other players who's family's cannot afford the price and are given scholarships.
7. Jake has zero involvement in the regional level, this was left to a program director who oversaw the regional level teams.
Actual playing:
1. There is one coach per team, it is impossible to say to a new coach here are 10 to 12 kids that have not played together and now go coach them. This is unfair to the actual coach and kids.
2. There is no defense taught, the only strategy the other teams need to apply a full court press and all of the plays taught by Kingdom Hoops go out the window.
3. Kingdom Hoops will enter an average of two to four teams for each age bracket based on the sheer size of the organization. Most of the time it will be Kingdom Hoops teams beating up on each other to advance to the next round.
As for the actual involvement of religion to each their own on this, Kingdom Hoops does start and end each practice/game with a prayer and there is a religious overtone in the emails from Jake on updates with his program. As for myself on this topic, region is a personal thing and the majority of the parents are there for the basketball knowledge and what can be taught to their child. However, every parent is aware of this overtone and it should not come as a shock when Jake starts to hit upon this.
As for our involvement, we decided to cut our losses after a five month trial as this was our first involvement with any type of AAU program. We are able to find one that fit more of our lookout on how a basketball team should be ran. On that same note, we are very grateful to Kingdom Hoops & Jake for allowing us to expand our knowledge of AAU with Kingdom Hoops. This program is not for everyone as it was with us, but people looking to get their child into some type of AAU program I would recommend Kingdom Hoops if you are just looking for something regional or don't know any other teams as it will allow you to quickly learn alot.
Pros:
Program:
1. Jake tells you from the start at try outs, that his team mentality is 100% offense. He will leave it up to the actual middle school/high school coaches to teach defense.
2. He states that if you do not like his program, you are free to leave at any time with no hard feelings.
3. The fees that are part of his program cover all costs, uniform, camps, and tournament fees.
4. There is usually one "elite/national" program for each age group and then there is the regional option for parents that do not want to do a tour of the midwest outside of a 90 mile radius of Des Moines.
5. The actual schedule of the program runs from October to late July.
6. If your child cannot make it to their team practice, they are more than welcome to make it to the other team practices in their same age range. If they want to practice more, than the coaches welcome them to their practices.
7. For those families that cannot make the cost of the program, Jake does offer "hours" for the parents to volunteer at AAU events that Kingdom Hoop hosts to help offset the cost such as taking money at the door etc.
8. There is success with the national teams/upper regional teams, as they are usually playing in the title game.
Actual playing:
1. Every kid is given a chance to play, as one of their core rules is that there is equal playing time for every kid on the team.
2. The coaches are actual players have had success at some level beyond high school.
3. There are two coaches are the majority of the games for each age range.
Cons:
Program:
1. The lower teams end up supporting the higher skilled teams as far as money wise.
2. The players are not moved up or down depending on skill, once you are pegged for a given team you are stuck with the team for the duration of the program.
3. The actual time of the practices are usually starting at 4:30pm on a given day and 7:30 pm on another day. The reason being is the actual # of teams and only having six courts to practice on.
4. Politics play a strong part in determining where your kid will end up, the more time you have spent with Kingdom Hoops the greater the chances their child will make the upper tier team.
5. You are only given a piece of the "puzzle" at each age range. We never did see any type of flow chart to show this is what will be taught at the given age range to the next age range.
6. The price of the program is at the higher end, alot of other regional programs cost a lot less. This cost helps fund other players who's family's cannot afford the price and are given scholarships.
7. Jake has zero involvement in the regional level, this was left to a program director who oversaw the regional level teams.
Actual playing:
1. There is one coach per team, it is impossible to say to a new coach here are 10 to 12 kids that have not played together and now go coach them. This is unfair to the actual coach and kids.
2. There is no defense taught, the only strategy the other teams need to apply a full court press and all of the plays taught by Kingdom Hoops go out the window.
3. Kingdom Hoops will enter an average of two to four teams for each age bracket based on the sheer size of the organization. Most of the time it will be Kingdom Hoops teams beating up on each other to advance to the next round.
As for the actual involvement of religion to each their own on this, Kingdom Hoops does start and end each practice/game with a prayer and there is a religious overtone in the emails from Jake on updates with his program. As for myself on this topic, region is a personal thing and the majority of the parents are there for the basketball knowledge and what can be taught to their child. However, every parent is aware of this overtone and it should not come as a shock when Jake starts to hit upon this.
As for our involvement, we decided to cut our losses after a five month trial as this was our first involvement with any type of AAU program. We are able to find one that fit more of our lookout on how a basketball team should be ran. On that same note, we are very grateful to Kingdom Hoops & Jake for allowing us to expand our knowledge of AAU with Kingdom Hoops. This program is not for everyone as it was with us, but people looking to get their child into some type of AAU program I would recommend Kingdom Hoops if you are just looking for something regional or don't know any other teams as it will allow you to quickly learn alot.
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FACT Jake was really pushing h barnes to go away from ISU.
FACT I am very close to people that say he has very few nice things to say about US.
Take it or leave it. There are two sides to every story.
FACT I am very close to people that say he has very few nice things to say about US.
Take it or leave it. There are two sides to every story.
Yeah, I'm gonna leave it instead of take it, Mr. "I'm in the know 'cause I say so" Guy.
I can play this game also. I am very close to Barnes and he said Sullivan had nothing to do with his decision, and people I'm very close to say Jake only says great things about ISU. Take it or leave it.
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Fact. Bears eat beets. Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.
If Jake was actually pushing Barnes away from ISU under GMac, that will raise my opinion of the man. If GMac had blundered into signing Barnes, Pollard would have rewarded him with something along the lines of a 10-year extension, and we'd have been even further into the dumpster 18-months later when H.B. made the inevitable decision to seek other basketball opportunities.
And if the "US" you refer to in your statement is "loudmouthed jerks who trash Jake for allegedly giving Barnes honest advice", then I can see why he wouldn't have many nice things to say about "US".
Really BOB you don't know me and you don't know what was said to HB. I see him being one and done at Carolina anyway. If Jake was pushing him away that is not a good thing for ISU or US. Hopefully Jake remembers how and where he got a name to begin with. ISU