This story is sponsored content, written by the Seamans Media Custom Content Studio
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Cory Heitz’s goal was to play Division 1 basketball, which he eventually achieved as a member of the Air Force Academy team.
He insists, however, that his dream doesn’t come true if he doesn’t go to the Academy’s prep school team between his time at Lexington Catholic and the Air Force Academy.
He saw his cousin, Brad Miller, go through the process as well. Miller attended Maine Central Institute before getting an offer to play at Purdue and, eventually, enjoy a 14-year career in the NBA.
“I know what those conversations are like around the dinner table senior year when you don’t have an offer yet and how stressful that is,” he said. “I’ve been in a lot of the shoes that these families have been in.”
Heitz wants to help other players achieve their dreams like he and his cousin did, and he believes he can do that by helping educate players’ families about prep school and getting them placed at the school that’s the right fit for them. He does this through his company, PREP Athletics.
The idea for PREP Athletics came when Heitz was approached by a family from Canada to help their son get a college scholarship. Heitz didn’t think the player was ready for college, but he did think he had potential, so he shared that playing a year at a post-graduate school would give him more exposure. He found a school in New England that he thought would be a good fit, and after that year, this player received a full scholarship to a school in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
At PREP Athletics, Heitz offers free consultations to anyone who reaches out. After reviewing – amongst other things – transcripts, highlights, and player goals, he selects the individuals who qualify for brick and mortar prep schools. From there, Heitz helps educate families about the process. He takes their desired criteria – aspects like finances, academics, school setting, coaching style, and if they want co-ed or not or military school or not – and narrows a list to three to five potential schools that would be the best possible fit.
With so many prep schools out there of different shapes, sizes, and strengths, Heitz said it is imperative to have an in-depth knowledge of each school’s specialties. He said it’s akin to an “insurance plan” to make sure the family is talking to schools at the right level and fit for the player.
Not only does Heitz pull from his own experience playing at a prep school, but he has spent countless hours on the phone, in the car, and on campuses building relationships with prep coaches and getting to know their programs.
“I pride myself on having visited almost every prep school in America,” he said. “Every day I’m trying to add to that by making new connections in the prep school world, or talking to a college coach about their experiences, or talking to a family currently at a prep school and finding out how it’s going for their son or daughter and getting feedback from them.”
Some of the 55 schools Heitz has helped players get into include Worcester Academy, St. Andrew’s, Bridgton Academy, Deerfield, Exeter, and Northfield Mount Hermon.
One player Heitz helped was Filip Rebraca, the son of former NBA player Zeljko Rebraca. Rebraca came to the United States as a high school senior. Heitz helped him get into Williston Northampton School where he played for Coach Ben Farmer. He committed to play at North Dakota, where he earned All-Summit League honors twice. That success helped him transfer to Iowa, where he started every game for two seasons and earned All-Big Ten Honorable Mention.
Currently, Heitz has players he helped playing at Gonzaga, Xavier, Vanderbilt, Idaho, Rhode Island, Princeton, Stonehill, Binghamton, Wesleyan, Vassar, and Conn College.
“It’s so great talking with families that might not know much about prep school, you explain it to them, you engage with them, and, at the end of the day, they end up choosing a prep school that they’re excited about, their kid loves it, and they end up at a college that they never would have known existed without the prep school,” Heitz said. “That’s the juice right there. The best part of my job is seeing it come full circle and then following these kids in college, and then following them the rest of their lives.
“Once they join with us, we don’t take that lightly,” he added. “We’re not a big-time firm just churning through one thousand kids a year. We’re a boutique. We know our families. I say, ‘When you come with us, you join the family.’”
Heitz said prep school is a great opportunity to grow as a basketball player, student, and person while meeting people from around the world. He knows because he experienced it firsthand. With PREP Athletics, not only is he qualified to help families, it’s also what brings him joy.
“I get excited when I know these kids are going to go off to prep school because they’re going to even greater and nicer places. I know what they’re going to get out of it,” he said. “To me, at the end of the day, it’s all about helping kids.”
This story is sponsored content, written by the Seamans Media Custom Content Studio
