PREP Athletics Basketball Podcast
PREP Athletics Basketball Podcast
Building a Basketball Powerhouse from Scratch feat. Adam Donyes, Founder of Link Year Prep
Welcome to another episode of the PREP Athletics Podcast! This week, we’re thrilled to host Adam Donyes, who shares the story behind founding Link Year Prep, a unique post-graduate program designed to help student-athletes bridge the gap between high school and college. He discusses the importance of developing character and leadership skills alongside athletic prowess, creating a holistic approach to student-athlete development.
📌 Key Takeaways:
🏆 Link Year Prep’s Unique Approach:
Discover how Link Year Prep integrates academic rigor, athletic training, and personal growth to prepare students for college and life.
💪 Importance of Mentorship:
Learn about the pivotal role mentors play in the personal and professional development of student-athletes.
🤝 Personal Development:
Understand the comprehensive programs focused on character-building, leadership, and life skills.
🗒️ Preparing for College Basketball:
Get practical advice and insights on what it takes to excel at the college level from someone who has guided many athletes to success.
🏀 About Link Year Prep:
Located in Branson, Missouri, Link Year offers a post-graduate year focused on personal, academic, and athletic development. By fostering a supportive and challenging environment, Link Year aims to equip students with the skills and mindset needed to succeed in college and beyond.
#PrepSchoolBasketball #LinkYearPrep #StudentAthlete #CollegeBasketball #BasketballMentorship #CharacterDevelopment #PREPAthletics #AdamDonyes #BasketballRecruitment #AthleteDevelopment #HighSchoolBasketball #BasketballPodcast
Connect with Adam:
Website | linkyear.com
Email | info@linkyear.com
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/linkhoops/
Twitter | https://twitter.com/LinkHoops
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@linkhoops-
🔗 Connect with Cory:
Website | https://www.prepathletics.com
Twitter | https://twitter.com/PREP_Athletics
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/prep.athletics/
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/PrepAthletics
Email | coryheitz@gmail.com
Phone | 859-317-1166
🔖 Subscribe to the PREP Athletics Podcast:
iTunes | https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/prep-athletics-podcast/id1546265809?uo=4
Spotify | https://open.spotify.com/show/6CAKbXFiIOhoHinzsReYbJ
Amazon | https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/3c37179d-3371-47f9-9d97-fd569e8802a7/prep-athletics-basketball-podcast #AmazonMusic
Cory Heitz (00:00)
Welcome to this week's episode of the PREP Athletics Podcast. This week we have a Link Year Prep's, Adam Donyes on it. Adam started this and back in 2011 and for four years he had a post -grad program slash gap year slash link year for non -athletes, right? He was trying to figure out how to do all this before he actually brought basketball in and Adam played at Boise State. So he wanted to get into coaching. He was coaching, but to do this the right way, he spent four years going slow.
making mistakes, learning how to do things the right way. And then he incorporated the basketball team. And now 10 years later, they've got kids in the NBA, they've got multiple kids in D1, more D1 players from the prep school world than any other prep school program currently, which I thought was a fantastic statistic they've got. No, they're not a traditional boarding school. No, they're not an academy. They're kind of a hybrid, but the location I visited there last summer, it's beautiful. It's in Branson, Missouri.
Chad Myers, who's been around a lot in the prep school world, has now been hired as their national high school coach. And Adam just shares a lot about his philosophy, who they play, how they place players, what D1 guards possess, how their NBA guys made it to the NBA, and much, much more. So stick around for this great conversation with Adam Donyes, and thanks for tuning in.
Cory Heitz (01:41)
Adam, welcome to the podcast.
Adam Donyes (01:44)
Thanks for having me, Cory, appreciate it.
Cory Heitz (01:46)
Yeah. Now Link Year is kind of a unique basketball situation and I want you to explain a little bit about it, but start at the beginning and how did this get started and where did the idea come from?
Adam Donyes (01:57)
Yeah, I was coaching and teaching at a high school in Kansas City and I just knew how pivotal a prep gap year, link year, whatever you want to call it would be for not only the development of the basketball player, but also the interment. I remember being a freshman in college and knowing I was nowhere close to ready for what college was waiting for me. And so I just wanted to create a program that helped kids develop and be more prepared as they stepped on the college campuses.
Cory Heitz (02:25)
Gotcha, but where did that idea come from? Did you see another post -grad program? Did a buddy go post -grad? Like what planted that seed with you?
Adam Donyes (02:30)
No, so as I said, I was coaching in high school and I was honestly tired of how much political there was in a private school. So like I was told that I had to play these kids because their parents were on the board or I had to do this and that. And I said, man, anytime in life you find yourself in a situation complaining, you can either just stop complaining and whining because no one wants to hear it or do something about it. And so.
I wanted to do something about it, so I started digging into what it would look like to start your own school. And I was like, holy cow, there's no way I can start a high school. There's too much involved there. And then I stumbled across the fact that there's other prep schools that exist. And I played at Boise State. I was there from 1998 to 2003. And so I needed a prep year. A prep year would have done wonders for me. And so that's really where the genesis of the idea for Link Year was. And Cory, a lot of people don't know,
When we started Link Year, there was no basketball. So I played for Greg Graham at Boise State. And his best advice to me was, hey, get this thing started with no basketball and just make sure the model works without sports. You know, so many people pop up these little basketball factories, put these kids in the apartments, they're playing video games all day, and there's no structure. There's no preparation for them in the college. And so that was the best advice I took from Greg Graham. So we started Link Year in 2011.
We didn't start the basketball program for another four years. And so the Link Year basketball program just completed its 10th year. Link Year completed its 13th year and the high school just completed its third year. And so there are a lot of people don't want to hear that, Cory. They want overnight success, instant gratification, but this has been a process. We've been at this for 13 years now and I don't think a lot of people realize that.
Cory Heitz (04:24)
Yeah, and that's the one thing I'm always trying to educate the audience about is the basketball academies versus prep schools. And to people that might just see you on the surface might see a basketball academy. But I know no one else in America, Adam, that would take four years to figure out how to do this before even starting basketball. And with that being said, what are some big lessons you learned during those four years of having non -basketball players that you might have messed up on had you started right away with basketball?
Adam Donyes (04:51)
Yeah, the structure, like just the structure alone. When I say structure, the schedule, the economics, the budget, like so many of those things that we had to learn and as we went along, like we joke, I have a guy with me that was from the very beginning. He's my director of the program. And we laugh at what we did in the first two years that we're like, we didn't even know what we were doing. And so many people don't. And when you don't know what you're doing, you put kids future at risk. Like,
you really could hurt their future. And so that's why I think kids just have to be so careful when they're jumping into these prep schools or basketball academies or all those things. They just need to really do their homework. Because if you would have come to our program in the first two years and I would have tried the basketball program, parents would have been really, really mad at me because I wouldn't have been able to deliver. Because I was still learning so many things.
And then the third year I really wanted to do it, but I was wise enough to be like, we're not ready. We need one more year. And that's when we did it in the fourth year.
Cory Heitz (05:50)
So before you got basketball in there, what did your post -grad year look like for those kids? Were they doing academics? Were you getting them through homesickness and doing basic life skills? Were they taking college credits? Walk me through what the beginning was.
Adam Donyes (06:05)
Yeah, Cory, thanks so much. So a lot of people don't know this, but the term is gap year, right? So gap years have been huge in Europe and Australia. It's just almost everybody does a gap year. In the Mormon religion, it's a two -year missionary trip. And so, but this idea of after high school, you take time to grow and mature. And so the gap year existed before basketball and our students were traveling abroad. So they're getting international experiences.
They were getting jobs and then they were in class and being educated. We're a faith based post -grad program. So they were growing more in their faith and their biblical understanding and wisdom. And so the idea of a gap year is to mature. But the reason why I called it Link, Cory, is when you hear the word gap that insinuates there's something missing, there's a negative connotation there. And so I coined the phrase Link, transitioning something to something else. So you're going from high school,
and linking it to something else. So it's not just this year where you sit and do nothing and play video games all day, but we're actually preparing you. And the way I sell moms and dads that are hesitant with a gap year or a Link year is what it does to their maturity. And I tell them, hey, the term is student athlete, right? So what word comes first in that? And it's student. And I know in this age of NIL and everything else, people are like, man, I don't need to be a student.
The ball stops bouncing for about 99 % of these kids. And so if we don't teach them to put student first, they're going to be in trouble. And so that is what we were doing before basketball is educating experiences, maturity, mentoring, life coaching these kids so that they went on to college campuses, impacted their college campus rather than that college campus negatively impacting them.
Cory Heitz (07:53)
you were jumping at the bit for four years to start basketball. You, you, you, you know, got your reps in, you made your mistakes. You figured it out when that first year came to start a basketball team. How did you build your roster?
Adam Donyes (08:07)
We looked under every rock and dug through every bush. And you know, it's funny, the first coach I hired, he played for me back at that high school I told him about in Kansas City. His name was Garvin Hoy. I love him to death, staying in touch with him to this day. And I told him, I said, hey, all I need you to do is show up to every game. Like, don't back out, don't break, and just show up. That's all I want you to do.
And faithfully, five hour drives, drove, got the brake speed off him, 30 point losses to some Juco, five hour drive back. By the end of the season, he was done. He was tanked. He's like, thank you for the opportunity. I'm out of here. I'm done. And he was gone. But what he did was establish trust with all these Jucos and all these Midwest programs to keep scheduling us because we showed up.
And I think we won maybe one game that year. We went like one in 31 or something. Like we got the break speed office. And then the second year, just by old relationships through Boise State and college, we started knocking on some doors with some kids and we got a homeschool kid that went on to be one of the NCAA's all time leading shot blockers. And we found a kid that we knew through our camps and we found two kids from a guy that I knew playing in my Boise State days.
And that second year team ended up going like 28 and four. And one of those kids on that team is playing for the Sacramento Kings now. Another kid is on a professional contract over in Japan now. Another kid is on a professional contract in Portugal. Another kid is in a professional contract in South America. And so it's like, no way. Like, how did that happen? It's just crazy how it all came together.
Cory Heitz (09:51)
Gotcha. And then, you know, I went to your campus last summer, driving through Branson and it is a beautiful, unique campus. Tell me about where, you know, Linkier is located and kind of what makes it special.
Adam Donyes (10:05)
Yeah, so we're in Branson, Missouri. And the beautiful thing about Branson, a lot of people know is our population is only about 10 to 12 ,000. And the unique thing there though, is we get 10 to 12 million tourists every year. And so you have all the amenities of a big town without a big town feel. And when people go on vacation, they're generally in a really good mood. And so I joke around and call Branson Pleasantville to a lot of people. It's just like not real. I don't lock my car doors most of the time when I ride go places.
and it's just a great place to raise my family. It's a unique, eclectic place. I jokingly call it Hillbilly Vegas a lot. Our campus sits right on Lake Tamecomo, which is beautiful. Our kids go down there and fish all the time. We're right on a bluff. And so the reason I love it is if a basketball player wants to come here, quarry and get better, there's not many distractions. Now granted, if a kid wants to find trouble, he's always gonna find trouble, but it's a great place where you still have Nike outlets, Under Armour outlets, all the restaurants you could want to eat at.
everything a kid can want, but not the distractions that you want him to get lured away from and he can stay focused.
Cory Heitz (11:11)
Gotcha. And tell me about what your campus is like during the summer and what all the amenities are there.
Adam Donyes (11:16)
Yeah, it's one of the largest Christian sports camps in the country. And so they run about 20 ,000 kids through here in the summer running sports camps. They've been doing it since 1926. And so we're looking even to adapt and mold the model of running more camps like IMG does in their summer camps and making maybe more elite camps and partnering with a lot of the summer grassroots stuff we see going on. But yeah, the facility wise, they're multimillion dollar facilities.
that are such a blessing for what we get to use during the year because they're vacant. And yeah, that's the other part, Cory. A lot of people just wanna pop up these programs, but they don't understand the infrastructure we have. It's being connected with something that's been here since 1926. I get called all the time, like, hey man, how can I start my own Link here? How can I do it? Actually talking to somebody out in Idaho that wants to do it. I'm not wanting to discourage you, but there's way more to it than you think.
Cory Heitz (12:12)
Yeah. And if you're trying to get rich, it's not going to happen. if you're trying to have no free time. Yeah. If you're trying to have no free time, it's a good way to do that too. So you've got to, I've always asked family or coaches that reached out to me with that same question, Adam is what is your, why? Like, why are you doing this? Because it is going to be a grind. There will not be financial successes. You know, you've got to place all these kids in college, hopefully. And, yeah, you know, at firsthand, because you're doing it on a day -to -day basis and been doing it so long. So, you know, where the, the skeletons are buried.
Adam Donyes (12:15)
no, no, no.
Cory, you couldn't have said that better. If you are getting into this because you're trying to use these kids to get yourself a college job or you're trying to better yourself and you're not doing for kids, you won't make it. The grind, the relational grind, the emotional taxing, all those things, you're absolutely right. The reason Link Year and Link Academy has been so successful is about 99 % of the staff we've hired.
have not made it about themselves, whether that's coaches or administratively, like, it's been a really special staff and that's why it's worked. But when you get an organization to your point that starts making it about themselves, they won't make it through the grind. There's just no way they'll make it through the grind.
Cory Heitz (13:29)
Now you shared Adam earlier how you built those first two rosters and now you guys are a national brand, right? You're on ESPN. You guys are fighting for a national championship. You got players in the NBA, McDonald's, All -Americans. Now, present day, how do you build your roster for your main team?
Adam Donyes (13:48)
Yeah. So when you say main team, are you referring to high school? Because I want to say this, this is a humble brag. We're the only program in the country that has a top five high school and a top five post -grad team. So like there's no other program in the country that can say that. But the high school team, now it's really a lot of vetting. So we're obviously at a lot of the, like we were just in Indianapolis this last weekend at the EYBL event. And so there's a lot of vetting and a lot of recruiting.
And so it's not just about going and getting the top 10, top 15 kids, but our culture here really matters. And you need to fit that culture or it's not going to work. And it's part of the reason why I believe we've been so successful is not just getting the talented kids, but getting the right kids.
Cory Heitz (14:33)
Yeah. And talking to Mike Peck who built Finley Prep, talking to Steve Smith at Oak Hill, talking to Jason Smith at Brewster. They're saying the same thing you're saying to Alan is Adam, it's not about the talent on the court. If they don't have the character or the right culture mentality to blend in to the specific program that you just mentioned there, they're not going to succeed and they don't want them. So I'm so glad you said that because it's more than just what you do on the court. It's also about you as a character, you as a person, how you treat other people.
Et cetera, et cetera. So now you're in a lucky position where you're not scrambling like you were at the beginning. You're sitting back and making sure, all right, we got these five candidates that are pretty good for us. Which one's going to fit the Link, your culture, the best. And I'm assuming you're doing that both in the high school team and the post -grad side, right?
Adam Donyes (15:18)
No, 100 % 100%. We're vetting these kids like crazy. And to your point, right? Right, wrong or indifferent. So many of these kids that are five stars and four stars are pampered their whole life and are never held accountable. And so this place wasn't built on a lack of accountability. And so we know instantly if you can't be held accountable, you're not going to make it here. I won't say names, but there are some pretty talented people that have come here that we've removed from our program.
And I've gotten emails or phone calls two or three years later down the road, just thanking me for holding them accountable for the first time in their life. Because when they got to the high major college program, they were destined to go to, there was a wake up call. Like these coaches at the high major level don't care about you as much as they care about getting their paycheck and making sure their family's fed. And so if you're not helping them win, you're just another transaction.
Cory Heitz (16:18)
Gotcha. Now you've got the post -grad team, you got the high school team. Do you have additional teams on top of that?
Adam Donyes (16:24)
Yeah, so we got a girls team that actually has a girl going to KU, a girl going to Missouri State, a girl going to Eastern Kentucky, another girl that's undecided. They'll probably be in the top 25 right there next year. We're trying to start a full international team that would just be all international students. And then we're looking to start a second high school team next year, which would probably be full with low major, D1, D2, and NAI players that want to come here and utilize the facilities and the resources to continually get better.
Cory Heitz (16:53)
Okay, so right now you've got one post -grad team, one high school team. That's it.
Adam Donyes (16:58)
We got one high school boys team, one high school girls team. We got a post -grad national team, a post -grad regional team. So we have four teams right now and we're looking at five next year.
Cory Heitz (17:10)
Gotcha. Post -grad regional team. Do they play Jukos?
Adam Donyes (17:14)
Yes, correct.
Cory Heitz (17:16)
Explain to me the benefit of playing a Juco versus another prep school or a basketball academy.
Adam Donyes (17:21)
I so first of all, I want to I want to preface it with this Cory. I love all the Midwest, you go, they got good relationships with all the coaches in Missouri. But they won't schedule our top post grad anymore. They used to in those early days when they were beating us by 30, they were rescheduled us in a hurry. But now now they won't they won't reschedule. So they're willing to reschedule our regional team. But our regional team was so good this year, they're going to have a tough time getting games next year because they beat a lot of jucos this year. So
So traditionally we've been able to play a lot of the Midwest Jucos, Mowbrally, Mineral Area, State Fair, North Arc, Three Rivers, Cali, Coffeeville, Fort Scott, Johnson County. So just playing a lot of those Jucos on their schedule, which is great, right? You're playing grown men. But now it's gotten a little more challenging with our post -grad national schedule. We need to travel to Florida. We need to travel up to the Northeast. We need to travel down to Dallas.
to get more games because these Juco's won't schedule us anymore. And so the scheduling is a little more difficult, but they're still willing to schedule that second post -grad team because they feel like they'll get that win. Which Cory, I tell them, I'm like, hey man, if you can't beat a post -grad team, then you shouldn't be worried about nationals. And my dear friend, Pat Smith at Moberly, he's the only Juco that has scheduled me.
Cory Heitz (18:29)
All right, I want to go back now.
Adam Donyes (18:42)
every single year since the beginning. He's never stopped. And he'll say the exact same thing. He says, hey, if I can't beat you guys, we don't deserve to go to Hutch. So.
Cory Heitz (18:51)
Right. I love that. Yeah, they shouldn't be scared. That surprises me because those are grown men who've had an extra year, sometimes two, and they're scared. That tells me about that program. And that's good for you. You know, it's a feather in your ass cap. Let's go back real quick. When we talk about building your national high school team, building your national post -grad team, what's your pitch to these families? I know you're vetting kids, but like they're looking at you and some other top teams in the country. Why come to Link Year, Adam? Like what's your pitch to them?
Adam Donyes (19:21)
Yeah. So when you want to be one of the best, you got to see how the best are doing it, Cory. So I went and did some extensive research on my own on how IMG operates, what they're doing, why they're so successful, why they're probably one of the best sports development academies in the country. What did their academics look like? What did their scheduling look like and all those things. So I took two trips down to Bradenton and I have a friend that works for IMG.
And there's just some people that have really helped me that have been through there or former employees of IMG. And just I've done extensive research on how that whole program works. And one of the things that they figured out that is brilliant is, and I don't know if a lot of people know this, and this isn't popular to say with academia, but it's reality. If your kid goes to a public school, Cory, and he gets there at 8 a and he's there till 3 :30 PM
There is no kid in America that is being educated for that amount of time. There's no way, when you and I went to college, we were broken up into 50 minute block classes and we maybe had three of those a day and that was it. And so the idea of putting a kid in school from 8 a to 3 30 p is really a time waster. What it is is really, it's governmental baby sitting, right? Kids used to go to the school yard, they'd be in school till lunch, they'd get done at lunch and then they'd go work the family farms or the family businesses or whatever it was.
They'd learn a trade, but now we got to keep our economy going. So we put kids in these public schools that are government funded with underpaid teachers that don't want to be there that are disrespected and not treated well and overworked and underpaid. And so the sell, to answer your question, that's my rant, but the sell is, hey, your kid can get all his core requirements and his NCAA requirements in, in about a four hour day, not an eight hour day, a four hour day.
And so let's get him in four hours, get all his classes done, get him in study all in the evening. But now that other four hours that I just freed you up from, which ends up being 20 hours a week, which ends up being 80 hours a month, you do the math and then you end up being 640 hours a year that you've just got more time in the gym, more time in the weight room, more time to develop than a kid in a public school will never catch up. You just got 600 plus hours in a year in the gym and the weight room.
that this kid will never get. That's the sell. And by the way, we're going to stay on top of academics. Because Cory, the funny thing is one of the things these other schools that saw us as a threat want to say is that our academics weren't legit. By the way, I just had a kid last week commit to Stanford, for those that want to say our academics aren't legit. So it's just doing it more efficient. I'm a huge fan of efficiency and not wasting kids' time. So that's really the sell.
Cory Heitz (22:10)
Awesome, love it. And I'm assuming that extra time means extra reps in the weight room, extra reps in the gym or film time, et cetera, et cetera, right?
Adam Donyes (22:17)
Yeah, one -on -one skill work, coaches meetings, just treating them like college athletes already. And so when a kid gets a Link your player, an IMG player, a Mark Berg player, a Brewster player, those kids are so much more ready for college than a kid coming right out of a public high school where they maybe hit the weight room three times a week. They maybe got a couple of shots in here and there, but it's not even comparable to what these kids get at these academies with the structure that's so similar to college.
Cory Heitz (22:46)
Love it. Now tell me about college placement right now. Obviously the transfer portal's making things tougher to get kids straight from high school and prep school into the college ranks. And you now have to place two post -grad teams worth of players at to the next level. And you guys aren't really near other prep schools, right? So you're kind of out there in the middle of nowhere. How do you place your kids? How do you get coaches to the gym? Like, what do you tell families for this?
Adam Donyes (23:13)
Yeah. So the names get the coaches to the gym and the history and the receipts, right? We have a lot of receipts. Cory, right now we have more active Division I players than any other program in the country. And there's also a couple of reasons that. One, we have more programs than most programs in the country. And so 10 out of 12 of our top post -grad kids are going D1 next year. I'm going to make a graphic and we'll post that next week.
Almost all of our seniors on our high school team went Division I. One of them's coming back to do a post -grad year with us. And once he's a full qualifier, he'll be a Division I player too. And so this last year we had over 50 active Division I players. And they're not just active Division I players. We had two kids in their respective conferences that were freshmen of the year. We had another kid that was sixth man of the year. So our kids, like I just told you,
They're more prepared than any other freshmen. So they're going in and make an instant impact. And so you don't just have high major coaches that are recruiting in McDonald's, All -Americans, five stars and four stars, but you also tap into the mid -majors and low major schools because we have such an array to choose from. And so here, here's a great sell to parents, Cory. They can come to Branson, Missouri and they can see over 30 prospects that are potential division one players, or they can go to, I don't know, let's say.
Colorado Springs, Colorado, and they go into gym and they're only gonna see one prospect that they're trying to get for their time and their energy and for some of these low major schools and mid major schools, their budget is smaller. So they need to go make the most bang for their buck. And so they come to Branson and they got so many to pick from and they know the kids gonna be developed.
Cory Heitz (24:57)
You must have some amazing open gym runs.
Adam Donyes (25:00)
they're special, man. They're special. The thing that drives me nuts in those open gym runs is when a kid already has an offer and we're trying to help another kid and that kid is just trying to make himself look the best. I'm like, bro, chill, chill, pass the ball, give your other buddy, help your other dude get a scholarship.
Cory Heitz (25:18)
Mm -hmm. Yeah, they're just competitors. That's what that is. I asked this of everyone that comes in the podcast. I want to ask you as well. Most of the people that reach out to you and I are guards, right? And there's more guards than big men and a lot of them want to play D1. What does it take for a guard to play at the D1 level?
Adam Donyes (25:21)
Yeah, 100%.
And there's so many intangibles to that. Leadership is huge. And I think leadership is underrated. I'm coaching two point guards right now on this little EYBLC team I'm coaching. And just their ability to communicate to the team, lead the team, talk, do all the intangibles, make the extra pass, be the toughest defender, look at coach, respond to coach, positive energy.
take charges, deflections, dive on the loose balls. There's so many winning plays that don't show up in a stat book that I think guards need to understand to get themselves to stick out. Obviously they need to make open shots, but there's so many other things that coaches look at that do they get happy for their teammate just as much as they do when they're not scoring? Like Elliott Cadeau was a prime example of this. Like he gets more excited throwing a lob dunk to his teammate than he does knocking down a three.
Are they unselfish? Do they make their teammates better? Do they study film? Do they put extra reps in the gym? Are they bought in with the coach? Do they have the coaches back? There's so many pieces to being a guard than just dropping dimes and shooting threes. I think from the coaches I talk to, that's what they want to see. How are they going to make our team better?
Cory Heitz (26:57)
Gotcha. And you've also got players that have come through Link here, like you just mentioned that have played in the NBA and are playing in the NBA. Everyone that reaches out to us wants to play in the NBA. It's everyone's goal, right? As a young man, at least the majority. What did those guys possess? Like what was their secret sauce Adam that they had that helped propel them to that level that maybe others don't have?
Adam Donyes (27:17)
You better have an elite work ethic. I think people look at Jordan Walsh and be like, he was freakishly long. Jordan Walsh also worked his tail off in the weight room for me. Julian Phillips with the Chicago Bulls, he worked his tail off. He never talked back, he didn't skip reps. He worked his tail off. Jacoby Walter, that dude lived in the gym, lived in the weight room. It's so easy. Everybody wants to be a beast, Cory, until it's time to do what beasts do.
Right? Everybody wants a piece of the cake, but not everybody wants to bake it. And so I say, everybody wants to be in the NBA, but not everybody really wants to do what it requires at the end of the day. And so these kids that we've had see end up going into the NBA, which Trey Johnson will be next. And Trey worked his tail off here too. Like, I don't think kids really understand how much time these kids are putting in the gym and the weight room.
Cory Heitz (28:04)
Can you teach that at him as if it's something kids are born with?
Adam Donyes (28:07)
And somebody asked me that the other day, Cory. I don't, I don't. Yeah. I think, I think you can find it and stoke the fire, but if the fire sometimes just isn't in there, man, I've just, I've had six 11 kids that if they would find a work ethic, I think think they were well on their way to success, but just, man. And some of it, I think coaches can get out of it, but I think some of it's innate I got a 12 year old that begs me to be in the gym every day. If I could get that.
Cory Heitz (28:09)
It's a billion dollar question.
Adam Donyes (28:36)
same begging mindset and all my guys? I think, yeah, I don't know, Cory, that's a really good question.
Cory Heitz (28:44)
People are always looking for the prescription on how to get to the NBA and a theory I've got, which is unfounded, but I'm going to share it with you now is I think every NBA player is a little bit of trauma or a little bit of a slight in their background where they need to prove something to someone individually or to the world. And that drives them to get into that gym every day to prove to that entity that's out there that, you know, they deserve to be in the position they're in. Now, is that true or not? You've got kids that come from, you know, the pure
bad economic situations. You've got kids like, Steph Curry and clay Thompson's who grew up with a silver spoon in their mouth. And then you've got everything in between. So, you've got, you know, city kids, farm kids, international kids. I'm trying to find the common ground here. I don't know if that, that slighter trauma is it, but like, if you could find that secret sauce, you'd be a billionaire, you know?
Adam Donyes (29:35)
Yeah, but to your point, I lean to it more being innate. Like there's just a drive put in some people that it's just innate. You know, my favorite hat I've ever seen LeBron James wear, it was in the Cleveland series against Golden State and he had a hat on at a post -game conference. And all it said was three white words on his hat. I don't even know what brand it was, but it just said, no magic pill. Like there's no, like people like, I want to be like LeBron, that dude spells over a million dollars on.
Cory Heitz (30:02)
I love it.
Adam Donyes (30:06)
diet and development. There's no magic pill. People, to your point, want a quick fix and easy success. I think so many kids in this generation just have no clue to how much time is actually put in for this craft. There is no magic pill. There's no shortcut.
Cory Heitz (30:23)
Yeah, but Adam, you could still spend the same amount of time in the gym as an NBA player and still not make it past D3, right? So it's, yeah. Let me talk about NIL with you. Is Link here doing anything with NIL, or are you advising your players on NIL?
Adam Donyes (30:38)
So the state of Missouri allows kids to receive NIL. So I mean, some of these talented players get to take care of themselves and then they get to receive it. We personally on the high school side don't have any NIL. I am going to give a shout out to our sponsor on the post -grad side, which is Unitas that Jonathan Isaac runs and he's partnered with us. And that's been a huge blessing when we're just in his corner who plays for the Orlando Magic. And so.
Yeah, so on the post -grad side, there's some fun stuff there going on on the sponsorship side, but on the high school side, all the NIL stuff is just individually dealt with those own kids and their agents and their parents, and we don't dabble into that. We don't get into that.
Cory Heitz (31:20)
Gotcha. Last question, last main question. If everything goes as planned, what does Linkier look like in five years from now?
Adam Donyes (31:28)
Yeah, thanks for asking. We're already expanding. We're building a brand new weight room and we're going to build another gym. So we're in the process of breaking ground and building another gym because we want to bring in a full international team. We want to bring in a volleyball team. We're dabbling in e -sports. And so in five years from now, I'm hoping that we have an enrollment of at least 100 students on campus and we have a different array of sports. Golf, we're looking at golf. We've...
We're looking at bringing our first golfer to next year. And so that's the hope that our enrollment will be about quadrupled what it is right now.
Cory Heitz (32:06)
Gotcha, gotcha. Okay. Thanks for sharing that. Couple of quick hitters for you here, Adam. All right. Who's the best player you've ever played against?
Adam Donyes (32:13)
Kenyon Martin, University of Cincinnati. If he didn't break his leg that year in the first round, they win the NCAA tournament. They came to our house and beat us by 30.
Cory Heitz (32:23)
with Bobby Huggins.
Adam Donyes (32:26)
Yeah, yeah. Steve Logan was coming off the bench that year. So they had Steve Logan off the bench. They had Melvin Leavitt. There was Kenny DeMar Johnson, Kenny Satterfield. They were ridiculous. That squad was nasty.
Cory Heitz (32:40)
Who's the best player you've coached against?
Adam Donyes (32:42)
Ummm...
that's probably our boy Kyle Lewis, that Brewster group that was really good. We went up there and coached against Jason Smith, upset him in the Northeast. My claim to fame is I'm 1 -0 against Jason Smith, so I refuse to be the head coach of any more other games against Brewster. I'm the only coach he's never beat. But Jalen LeQue, he had Jalen LeQue on that band. Jalen LeQue was a freak. So it's probably Jalen LeQue or some of the other guys he had on that team.
Betty Ako, coach against Chad Myers when he was at IMG, Charles Betty Ako. But I'll probably say Jaylen LeQue right now is the best.
Cory Heitz (33:23)
Who's your favorite pro player of all time?
Adam Donyes (33:26)
John Stockton. Grew up die hard John Stockton. Probably gonna go with, remember the title.
Cory Heitz (33:27)
It's your favorite movie of all time.
Okay. And lastly, what are your hobbies when you're not doing the linkier stuff?
Adam Donyes (33:40)
I'm hanging out with my boys. I got a 12 year old and a nine year old and they are the apple of my eye. And I just took one of them. I'm not a fisherman, but I took one walleye fishing yesterday just cause that's what he wants to do. So that's where I'm at. And I just got out of the gym with another one right before I hopped on this with you. So that's my hobby, being a dad.
Cory Heitz (33:58)
Awesome, is there anything we didn't touch on the day that you want to mention about yourself or Link here?
Adam Donyes (34:03)
I just appreciate you. I appreciate you even having me on and hope this helps and educate some people on what the difference is between post -grad and prep and all the things.
Cory Heitz (34:14)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And where can people find you if they're interested in learning more about Link here, if they want to reach out to you and be a potential player, how can they find you?
Adam Donyes (34:22)
Yeah, it's all going to be directed to one site, but there's linkhoops .com, there's linkyear .com, and then there's linkacademylions .com. And so one is just the hoop page, the other two are the school pages, and it's all right there. They can also Google my name and all that stuff and pop up, but that's easier.
Cory Heitz (34:39)
Awesome. Well, Adam, thank you so much for showing up on the podcast today and talking about your unique situation at Link Year. I suggest everyone out there follow Adam to make sure you keep up with everything going on there. And thanks so much for tuning in to the Prep Athletics podcast. If you like what you hear, make sure you subscribe on all the major podcasting platforms and YouTube and go to prepathletics .com to sign up for the newsletter to make sure you don't miss out. Adam, thanks so much for joining us today.
Adam Donyes (35:04)
Appreciate you Cory, thanks for having me.
Cory Heitz (35:06)
You're welcome. We'll see you guys next time. Take care.