St. Petersburg, Fla --
Shaq Speights has spent a lot of time inside the Freddie Dyles Gymnasium. First as a four-year varsity basketball player at Gibbs High School and now as a trainer.
“I’m roughly in here about every single day. Just being home and seeing the kids in the area, I just wanted to provide a service to help them get better as basketball players. I’m also coaching with the Team Speights program to see guys come up from 15-U to 17-U and earn scholarships, it’s rewarding.”
A former college basketball player, Speights works with more than a dozen young players who are looking to one day play at the collegiate level like he did.
“About an hour and 15 minutes we’re going hard, we’re communicating,” said Speights. “If I do a group workout, it’ll be about three or four kids. Individual it’ll be about an hour. We pretty much just get in here, get in a lot of shots, ball handling, working on ball screens, anything that will help them get better as basketball players.”
But Speights’ services aren’t just reserved for youth players. He also works with a number of professionals.
“I’m spending the whole summer with Dallas Moore, Kasey Hill, Barry Brown Jr,, Quincy Ford and I had the opportunity to work with T.J. Leaf the other day.
“It’s been cool man, getting in here with some old guys that I used to play against and play with,” said Hill, a former University of Florida guard. “He’s a young guy like us, same age, same mentality. It’s very easy to relate to him and it’s really fun working out with him.”
“He asks me stuff, have you been to another trainer, what do they do and I’ll ask him what I look like on my film so we just pick each other brain and work on a lot of stuff that fits my game so it’s been great,” said Gibbs alum and former Kansas State guard Barry Brown Jr.
As Speights tries to help players take their game to a new level, he’s also looking to shine a spotlight on young hoopsters in the Bay Area by creating a basketball showcase called Rise 120.
“Rise 120 will be a basketball showcase that will help kids show their talents on a bigger stage. We’re going to allow recruiting services to come out and do scouting reports to send out to NCAA coaches so that they can be seen. A lot of kids in the area play high school basketball four years but they don’t get seen, they fall through the cracks and I’ve noticed that a lot coming home so I want play a part in changing that. I want to show St. Petersburg area, Tampa Bay area has a lot of talent and I just want to see more guys go out and play college basketball.