When Chris Giordano, Kyle Butler and Terrell Hollins joined forces to create the Draft League last year, they knew it was an instant hit. The one-of-a-kind summer league – which offers a competitive and fun development experience for younger hoopers – was a fast success in Year 1, and as they wrapped up their inaugural season last summer, they were beaming with excitement about the league’s future.
As they started planning for Year 2 this spring, they were confident that the league would grow. But as signups started rolling into their email inboxes, they were taken aback by the volume. A year ago, they welcomed 140 kids to the league’s first season. When they started Year 2 in June? That number had more than doubled to 330.
“I think we expected growth. I don’t think we had a set target of what we wanted to get, but it was just like, it was very welcomed,” said Giordano, one of the league’s co-founders who coaches with the Middlesex Magic and owns Gold Standard Basketball Training. “It was a pleasant surprise.”
They knew that the foundation of the league worked, which was apparent early.
In Year 1, the league offered two boys divisions – one named the Elite Division for eighth and ninth graders, the other named the Gold Division for sixth and seventh graders. Over a two-month program, they received high-level instruction from prep school coaches – who draft their teams – and the experience included weekly games, skill development training and even cool uniforms in a competitive, stress-free environment, in quality gyms like at Rivers or Brandeis University.
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Giordano, Butler and Hollins didn’t want to mess with those ingredients. They wanted to make what made the league successful and amplify it.
“It was like, how do we take this and make it available to more kids to help them? And that’s always been our mission from Day 1,” Giordano said. “As the enrollment increased, we wanted to expand and make it bigger but we can’t lose the quality and we can’t lose the instruction and we can’t lose the high-end coaching. …
“The conversations we had were like, what can we do to enhance it, and what can we do to make it better for the kids?”
In Year 2, the Draft League added a Junior Division for boys in grades 3-5, and they added a brand new girls division, which included four teams coached by Hollins, who’s the boys coach at Concord Academy, Rivers girls coach Kenny Smalls, Concord girls coach Dwayne Powell and Newton Country Day girls coach Scott Newman. They added an extra week to the calendar this year, and even included an All-Star Game to wrap up the season. They also created a media department, which included 12 interns from high school and college who helped grow the league’s social media presence with highlight videos and content.
Midway through the season, the league also started offering film breakdown sessions. Giordano credited Robbie Hodin, now an assistant at Lesley who coached in the Draft League Junior Division and has contributed as a trainer with Gold Standard, for bringing the idea to the table. They offered three tiers of film breakdowns, which included options for detailed notes and recorded or interactive Zoom sessions with the coach analyzing the video.
Giordano is hoping to flesh out the idea more going into next year, but it was already a hit.
“Something like that might enhance a kid’s love for the game,” Giordano said. “Then they go and do something right and it’s like oh my God, this might be the key to building my future here.”
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Giordano is already buzzing with anticipation about Year 3, and he, Butler and Hollins were already bouncing ideas off each other before the season concluded last month. They want to make expansion of the girls division a priority after enjoying some success with it this year. As the league continues to grow, they’re planning to form an operations department to help it run more smoothly and they’re going to expand the internship program, which will even offer college students the opportunity to join the team for credits at their school.
“When we start meeting, I know there’s going to be a million more ideas,” Giordano said.
In just two years, the Draft League has blossomed into one of the area’s most innovative development programs for young players. There’s a clear commitment to make it even bigger and better.
“You can feel the passion behind it. You can feel the love behind it,” Giordano said. “I think that’s the biggest selling point. Come here, come have fun, compete, you’re not going to find anything like it.”
Added Butler: “At this point, it sells itself. Yeah, there’s competition, but no one’s doing what we’re doing.”
