Kenyon Murray: NBA Father & Prep School Expert on Player Development Pathways

Join Cory Heitz as he sits down with Kenyon Murray, a former McDonald’s All-American, overseas pro, and father of NBA first-round twins Keegan and Kris Murray. Kenyon shares his unique journey—from a late start in basketball to becoming a standout at Iowa, playing professionally in Sweden, and coaching at the junior college level. He dives deep into the pivotal decision to send his sons to DME Academy for a post-grad year, a move that transformed their careers and led them to the NBA.

Kenyon’s story is a masterclass in finding the right fit, making tough decisions, and the relentless pursuit of excellence—both on and off the court. Whether you’re a parent, player, or coach, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you navigate the prep-to-college pipeline.

If you’re serious about basketball development, this is a must-listen.

💡 Key Topics:

📌Prep school basketball vs. JuCo: Pros, cons, and who should consider each
📌The role of prep school in NBA development: Keegan and Kris Murray’s story
📌Balancing academics and athletics: Lessons from the Big Ten and beyond
📌International basketball: Cultural adaptation and career growth
📌NBA transition: The unseen challenges for rookies
📌Building a holistic athlete: Kenyon’s vision for the next generation

🏀 About Kenyon Murray:

Kenyon Murray is a former McDonald’s All-American, University of Iowa standout, and professional basketball player in Sweden. After his playing career, he coached at Indian Hills Community College and is now a mentor, life coach, and keynote speaker. Kenyon is also the father of NBA first-round picks Keegan Murray (Sacramento Kings) and Kris Murray (Portland Trail Blazers), both of whom attended DME Academy for a post-grad year before starring at Iowa. Kenyon is passionate about helping young athletes and families navigate the complex world of basketball development, emphasizing the right fit, academic-athletic balance, and long-term success.

🔗 Connect with Kenyon Murray:

Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/murrayelitebasketball/
Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/kenyonmurray_/
Twitter | https://x.com/KenyonMurray_
Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/michelle.murray.5070276
Linkedin | https://www.linkedin.com/in/kenyonmurray/

🔗 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  

Transcript

Cory Heitz (00:00)
Hey friends, welcome to the prep athletics podcast. I'm so glad you're joining us today. And today we've got ⁓ a great guest that I'm happy to share with you. think you're going to get a lot of good information from him. His name is Kenyon Murray and Kenyon grew up in Battle Creek, Michigan and became a McDonald's all American before he played at Iowa. And he played overseas for a year before coming back and coaching and having his two sons Keegan and Chris Murray, who both played at Iowa.

And both were first round NBA draft picks. Right. So we talk about, you know, them growing up. they chose to go to DME Academy in Florida for a post-grad year. talked about that decision, choosing Iowa, how they became NBA players. ⁓ and, and, you know, coach Murray also coached at a junior college and we get some, some fun takes on that too. So, ⁓ if you like these podcasts, be sure to share it with someone you think might enjoy it. Right. We share a lot of good information out here. know all you guys are connected to people.

share us over the holidays, right? And if you have any questions on the prep school world, please feel free to reach out to us at prepathletics.com and get back to everybody. And if you're interested in prep school, go to prepathletics.com and fill out the free assessment on the homepage and we'll let you know if this option makes sense for you and we'd be more than happy to help you. So thank you for joining us on this podcast with former McDonald's All-American and NBA father, Kenyon Murray.

Cory Heitz (01:44)
Kenyon, welcome to the podcast.

Kenyon Murray (01:46)
Thank you, Cory It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Cory Heitz (01:50)
Yeah, it's a pleasure. We met last week down at DME Academy in Florida and you had a great story and I wanted to get you on here to hear it. But let's start by you telling me a little bit about yourself and where did you grow up and what got you into the sport of basketball?

Kenyon Murray (02:03)
Yeah, so born in Columbia, South Carolina, but moved to Battle Creek, Michigan when I was about eight years old. most of my growing up time was spent in Battle Creek. ⁓ You know, it's funny that you asked about how I got into basketball because people assume because of some of the success I had in high school and, whatever in college, like I was playing basketball my whole, you know, growing up and everything, but I honestly didn't start playing organized basketball until seventh grade. And so, ⁓

did that, but I wasn't able to play that season because I had a hernia and had to have surgery. So my basketball career got delayed honestly till, till eighth grade. And, uh, you know, it just one of those things that, uh, my life was filled with academics and I actually played classical viola for seven years and basketball was kind of an afterthought. And I had a coach, a gym teacher actually that saw me playing in gym was like, you need to go out for basketball. You know, you're athletic, this, that, and the other thing.

So ⁓ long story short, eighth grade was really my first full season. And then I, this is what drove me. City Championship game, I missed, I think I was two for eight from the free throw line and we lost by two points. And so for me, I put that on, that loss on me. And I was like, I'm never going to be the reason that we lose a game like that again. So that failure actually drove me.

Cory Heitz (03:18)
Oof.

Kenyon Murray (03:30)
to really commit myself to the game over that summer going into ninth grade. And that's really where everything started blowing up for me was ninth grade.

Cory Heitz (03:40)
Now growing up in Battle Creek, did you guys have Kellogg's every breakfast or is that just...

Kenyon Murray (03:44)
Not every breakfast, but yeah, it cereal city, cereal city. ⁓ Yeah, actually funny story for, I was in National Honor Society and I had to do a volunteer thing and I actually dressed up as Tony the Tiger doing National Reading Month. And so, yeah, so I got an introduction to being part of the Kellogg family by dressing up as a big orange and black cat, so.

Cory Heitz (04:06)
That is awesome. Now you had a great career once you did start putting in overdrive and you ended up becoming a McDonald's All-American. You ended up choosing to play at Iowa. Why did you choose Iowa and who else were you looking at your senior year?

Kenyon Murray (04:19)
man, well, let's start with who else I was looking at. So ⁓ my final five schools were obviously being in Michigan, Michigan, Michigan State were there, Notre Dame, Kentucky and Iowa. So those were my final five. ⁓ UCLA was kind of a long shot. ⁓ They kind of came in late, but you know, it was the reason I chose Iowa was for a couple of different reasons, right? ⁓ I obviously was looking at academics going to college and not having to pay for school. So

My mom always said, you want to go somewhere where if basketball is taken out of the equation, you would be happy there. You like the school, you like the people, you like the camp, like all that kind of stuff, you know, because basketball can be taken away from you at any given time. So that was part of it. The other part was, you know, style of play, right? ⁓ Iowa back then under Tom Davis was a full court pressing, high tempo type team. And my talent suited that because in high school we ran

basically the same press that Tom Davis ran in college. So it was really, really easy transition for me. The other schools were great. You're talking about, you know, Michigan with the Fab Five. You're talking about going to Michigan State with Sean Respert. You're talking about Notre Dame. Digger Phelps was there. Fran McCaffrey was assistant coach. Kentucky had, you know, Jamal Mashburn and Billy Donovan was an assistant coach and Mike, or Rick Pitino and Tubby Smith and Herb Sendak. they, like,

That was an amazing squad, know, Kentucky recruited six McDonald's All-Americans and three of us played the same position. And you know, for me, it was about being comfortable, liking the school and then finding a place that I fit in. you know, you can't take it out of out of the part of the consideration was the fact that I knew that the person playing small forward, they're starting small forward at Iowa was graduating. And so I knew that there would be minutes available for me to be able to start. So.

Cory Heitz (05:52)
Right.

Kenyon Murray (06:13)
All those things kind of went into the decision, but more than anything, was based on the foundation that my mom said that I needed to have when it pertained to my education and becoming a productive adult. So those were a lot of the reasons why I chose Iowa.

Cory Heitz (06:28)
I love it. Now take me back to the mid 90s here. What was the best part of playing high major D1 and what was the most challenging part of playing high major D1?

Kenyon Murray (06:35)
man, ⁓

the thing about playing in the Big Ten in the 90s was like every night you had to play against an NBA guy. know, like my freshman year I remember one game I'm guarding Jalen Rose and Jimmy King and Ray Jackson. The next game I'm guarding Sean Respard and Chris Waszynski from Michigan State. The next game I'm going to Indiana guarding Calbert Cheney.

Cory Heitz (06:43)
That's right.

Kenyon Murray (06:57)
you know, and then let's throw Duke in there, right? All four years I was at Iowa, we played against Duke and was so lucky to play in Cameron, but guarding Grant Hill was a pain in the butt. ⁓ So I think the best part of that was just the night in and night out competition we got ⁓ from that standpoint. But I think the most challenging thing, probably was my freshman year, you know, just making the adjustment academically and balancing everything. You know, I think we talk about balance so much and there's never a...

Cory Heitz (07:05)
you

Kenyon Murray (07:26)
equal balance to anything, but I felt like that was the hardest thing for me. Being a really good student, I thought it'd be a simple transition, but I never really knew how to study, right? So I had to really learn how to study and I had my butt in study table for a while to get my GPA up, but I think that was the hardest transition for me was just balancing the load of academics because you had to have your classes at a certain time based on, you know, practice schedule and travel.

And then you look at basketball, it bleeds into both semesters, right? So you're really getting ramped up at the end of your first semester and you're going right into the second semester and you might not be done until the spring, depending on how far you win the tournament. So I think just balancing all that made it, that's probably the most difficult transition for me going from high school to college and then playing at a super high level like we had in the Big Ten.

Cory Heitz (08:18)
Yeah, and that's one of the things we talk about with the advantages of prep school, Kenyon, is like, you'll learn how to do the bouncing act of academics at a high level of college, like sports atmosphere, right? So when you do get to a college campus, the challenge you're just talking about there is not as much of a challenge because you've already dealt with it at prep school, right? So, right. Okay. Now, after you're done playing at Iowa, what'd you do with your career?

Kenyon Murray (08:36)
Yeah, absolutely.

man, so I guess at that point in I decided that I still wanted to play a little bit. And so I was actually drafted into the CBA, which is obviously what the G League ⁓ came from. And so I was drafted by ⁓ the Quad City Thunder right here in Davenport, Iowa. I got cut before the regular season started. Some guy got cut in the NBA and came down and played the same position.

I think they wanted that NBA experience with the team. ⁓ And I went to a league called the IBL. We had teams in Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Canada. And then from there, I went to China to finish out that first year. And then I ended up getting a contract in Sweden. So played in Sweden for a year, had a really good season. was first team all league. It was a great experience. I was playing phenomenal basketball, but had a late ankle injury right before the playoffs.

played through it and realized when I came back here and got with the American orthopedic doctors and not the Swedish doctors that I had torn basically every ligament in my ankle and they had to go in and basically put it back together. And so ⁓ during that time is when I met my wife that summer and the rest was history. I had never played another minute of professional basketball, got married and you know, a year later we had the boys. So jumped right into.

marriage, fatherhood, and a profession as a coach at Indian Hills Community College here in Iowa.

Cory Heitz (10:12)
Gotcha. Now tell me about real quick, your international career. What was the best part of that? And what was once again, the most challenging part of that? As far as your international career goes, what was the best part? What was the most challenging part?

Kenyon Murray (10:19)
Say that again.

⁓

Man, the best part was that they didn't play a schedule like the NBA. Like we really had like a kind of a college-length season. So we would play, you know, a couple of games, maybe three games a week. ⁓ In Sweden, the year I was there, they had like national team tryouts. So literally the whole league shut down because they had all these Swedish national players that they had to have their mini camp and that kind of stuff for the national team. ⁓ So the best part about it was just the...

Cory Heitz (10:44)
Hmm.

Kenyon Murray (10:54)
the ability to travel and experience where I was in the world because of the schedule that we had. I thought that was so amazing to be able to see a different culture, to be able to travel around and see those things. The toughest thing probably I would say was being away from family, right? I didn't have a girlfriend or significant other at the time. And so that was probably the toughest part for me. But I was able to.

go to a team that had a couple other guys that played at the University of Iowa. So there was some familiarity on the team. But I would say that was probably the toughest thing. So for me, how I got around ⁓ that whole missing home thing is I really ingratiated myself to the people, especially in Sweden, started learning how to speak Swedish. They moved me to point guard, so I had to call plays in Swedish. So I kind of like dove into like the whole Swedish.

lifestyle and ⁓ even though I didn't come with a significant other, I did start dating a young lady there. She had a daughter and so it was interesting because her daughter, I was teaching English and her daughter was teaching Swedish so I tried to make it a point of not speaking in English around her unless she asked me to. And so that was really cool for me. I just, you know, filled the time with trying to learn as much as I could about the country. ⁓

It's practices, it's traditions, it's language. And that was one of the things that really kind of took my mind off of not being home and not seeing my family for, think, I didn't see my family for, man, like six months or something like that. So yeah, it was crazy. Cause I went during the summer, I flew over as a tryout. Like I didn't even have a contract. So I flew over, I tried out. I was like, hey, if anything, if the only thing that comes out of this is I get to spend three weeks in Sweden.

Cory Heitz (12:35)
Alright.

Kenyon Murray (12:42)
been great, but then it was like, we want to sign you. And, and that was, that was great too. So, ⁓ but yeah, that, those are the things, the good and the bad of being open.

Cory Heitz (12:53)
It's nice you saying that because you don't hear, know, a lot of kids when they come out of college and they go international, they just want to to the G league or get to the NBA or, know, and they don't always take advantage of being in a foreign country and all the culture it has to offer. And it sounds like you really took advantage of that. So kudos to you for doing something that I don't know if a majority of players do when they go internationally.

Kenyon Murray (13:13)
Yeah,

it's hard. think as Americans, we don't necessarily look to adopt another country's traditions, especially if you feel like you're saying like, guys, I want to get to G-League. So they're like, I'm just here to play basketball. Let me do my thing, get my numbers and try to move on to something else. Well, you know, I didn't think the NBA was going to be an opportunity for me. I thought at that time, the season I had, if I was healthy, I already had a contract going back, but because of the surgery, I had to, they had to void it out. But, um,

Cory Heitz (13:18)
Mm-hmm.

Kenyon Murray (13:40)
Yeah, I didn't really think that. I figured if I'm going to be doing this overseas for some years, like, let's enjoy it, let's embrace it. And I think to this point, I've probably traveled to over 30 countries now. So that's a huge part of, I think, my growth as a person and understanding the world. And yeah, man, it was just a great two years post-college. ⁓ But becoming a husband and a father, wouldn't change either.

Cory Heitz (14:08)
Yeah, know it all worked out. So let's go to your sons now. A special story with these twins, you know, being such good players in high school and when they were in 12th grade, they only had one D1 offer and you could have taken that, but you decided to go the post-grad route. Tell me what the instance was where you learned that that was an option and you know, then what the next, the next conversation was about that. Like, what was your research? Who'd you talk to? Like, I want to know the decision making on this for your family.

Kenyon Murray (14:34)
Yeah.

Yeah, so for us, was, know, Fran McCaffrey, know, Chris and Keegan and Patrick McCaffrey, Fran's middle son, they grew up playing each other starting in fourth grade. So Fran was always around and he knew about the kids. And obviously he recruited me when he was at ⁓ Notre Dame. So he knew me and the family and stuff. And so ⁓ with them, was like Fran said, hey, you know, they have a chance to be really good. Cause Patrick kept telling Fran about him. Cause Fran hadn't seen him play, I think.

The last time you actually saw him was in like their sophomore year. And then by this time they went from sophomore year at six, two to like senior year at six, seven, doing the same things they did when they were younger, shooting the basketball, handling the ball, those kinds of things. And so Frans, like, I think you need to consider prep school because they're better than Western Illinois. And we knew that going down there, no, no knock on Western Illinois, but when they came in and they played with the guys, they were probably the third and fourth best players on the floor.

So they're like, dad, like we know we can play at this level, but we feel like we can go higher. So that's when the conversations really got going and it got serious. So we looked at, we looked at a prep school here in Iowa at the time called Quakerdale. looked at ⁓ Sunrise Christian Academy. We looked at, can't even remember the name of the spot in Louisville and how we got to DME was like a total chance that

a coach that we had played against early that year. He coached for a high school here in Iowa. He asked me about that. He emailed me, said, Hey, what are the boys doing? You know, I've got a former coach that's actually at DME prep school in Daytona Beach. I really think you need to reach out to them. And so I had probably looked at, and I can't remember the name of the prep school we've talked about. ⁓ that's on the East coast, ⁓ where Isaiah Thomas played,

Cory Heitz (16:27)
Self-care.

Kenyon Murray (16:28)
South

Kent and so talk to them at South Kent because one of my college coaches sons went there too. So I would say I had conversations with probably six or seven of the prep schools visited three and the third visit that we have was DME DME prep. And so obviously that was, you know, even going down there and seeing things, I was excited about it. But the boys told me that even though we went down there, they agreed to the trip. They agreed to the workout.

They're like, they were thinking to each other, we're not going to Florida. There's no way we're going to Florida for prep school. And so ⁓ that's kind of how we went into it. But obviously coming out of it, it, it, it, it's served ⁓ as a, I think an acknowledgement of what they could become through that because coach Wes, he was a post-grad coach. He, he loved both of them. I think there was some discrepancy on if they want to take both of them or just one of them. But coach West was like, no.

He goes, these two have a chance to change our program and I need them both. And that's really what kind of solidified it was. Coach West really going to bat for both the boys. And then the fact that we were able to get some assistance financially through their scholarship program, that definitely helped. But it was not an easy journey getting to DME.

Cory Heitz (17:46)
That's a great story. That's a great story. You did a lot of research and talked to people, so I'm glad it worked out. What surprised you most about their post-grad experience at DME? What did they get out of it that you didn't expect going in? Or is there anything that surprised you at Kenyon?

Kenyon Murray (18:01)
I thought that the physical part of it would be great for them. I knew that being down there, they would, you know, put on weight, they'd learn how to lift properly, right, with the people that they had going in there. ⁓ I expected that. I expected it to be a high level of competition. But the one thing that was, would say, wouldn't, surprising maybe too much of a word for the situation, but they're,

their ability to be consistent on a day in and day out at a high level because you won't know that the jump from high school to division one basketball is huge. You talk about having to compete, you know, everybody there was a star in high school on the roster. So how do you compete at a high level day in and day out? ⁓ They learned to do that at DMV. They learned to lead not only by their actions, but by their words because they were both pretty quiet kids. And so,

Those were the things, just the development and how they competed every day, their consistency day in and day out. And then the way they were able to lead through actions and words were a couple of things that were really good. But I know coach West said he was going to press him. He's like, you have a chance to be really, really good. So I knew that he saw that in him and he was going to push him. And I think it was phenomenal for them to help them one, get to the University of Iowa and then.

Cory Heitz (19:16)
Yeah.

Kenyon Murray (19:29)
take that same teaching onto the NBA level where they're both playing right now.

Cory Heitz (19:35)
Now they chose Iowa. Was that kind of a foregone conclusion or were they looking at other schools?

Kenyon Murray (19:40)
It was

so they had a showcase and so we flew down there for the showcase to watch him play ⁓ other prep schools, some junior colleges. And by Sunday, everybody was talking about them like these two. And so Kurt Sparra was there from the University of Iowa and saw him and he was actually sitting next to their high school coach who had come down there with me. So he's sitting next to their high school coach and as they're playing and we're there, start hearing the buzz or coach Rickerson is like, yo, you got to talk to Fran.

Like, like, like these guys, you know, there's a lot of buzz. And so that Monday coach West got up to 40 calls from different schools. And so we were, I was like, Holy smokes, you know, but so they finished the showcase. So Sunday we flew home Monday, coach West got all the calls by Wednesday. Iowa had them booked for a flight to come back to the university for an official visit. So they flew back on Thursday, uh, Friday.

Coach Fran offered them both, and then by Sunday they both committed. So within a span of a week, we went from one offer going to DMV to 40 schools calling to them committing to the University of Iowa. And I'm like, y'all had to go all the way to Florida to come back to Iowa, but it was great. And Fran was phenomenal. Fran was the first coach that recruited Chris and Keegan for who they are individually, not because of who they were.

Cory Heitz (20:44)
Right?

Kenyon Murray (21:06)
collectively as a group or as a duo. And that was one of the things that I really respected about Coach because he saw that in them, that they were different and that's how he recruited them. And he talked about each one of them in those meetings like, Chris, these are your strengths, we know you can bring this to the table for us. Keegan, these are your strengths, we know you can bring this to the table. Granted, they were coming into a team that had Luca Garza, National Player of the Year, Joe Weas camp, NBA draft pick.

Jordan Bohannon, all-time three-point shooter at Iowa and I think technically in the Big Ten. But they had all these guys coming in, so they knew it would be tough going in. And I said, the way you're going to break into the lineup is through defense and rebounding. anybody that remembers Keegan's career, that's where it started. That's where he started getting minutes. was the benefactor of some unfortunate things when it came to Jack Nundee losing his father and being away from the team. And then Jack...

Cory Heitz (21:50)
Yeah.

Kenyon Murray (22:03)
towards ACL when he came back. And so that just opened the door for Keegan to get those minutes that he did as a freshman and kind of launched his career. And obviously Chris, sophomore year was able to start doing those same things on the floor when he got the minutes.

Cory Heitz (22:17)
I love it. Now from the get go, were they always going to go together to college? Was that like a no, no, it had to be that way or not.

Kenyon Murray (22:23)
No, no. And

we talked about it a lot, I like going back into it and talking to coaches that like Tom Izzo, who recruited me at Michigan State and knew my family and knew of the boys and Greg Gard at Wisconsin, you know, ⁓ I think a lot of coaches had this notion that it was a package deal. And I remember asking Chris and Keegan, I was like, hey, like, okay, just throwing it out there.

say, Keegan, if North Carolina offers you and Chris, ⁓ I say Chris and Iowa offers you or whatever, right? Are you guys set on going to same place? And Keegan's like, shoot, if North Carolina or Duke come calling, I'm rolling. I got to do my own thing. So it was never a conversation that was even brought up with a lot of the coaches, right? And so they just, think a lot of coaches went under the assumption that they were going to play together. ⁓

But in the end, works out the way it's supposed to work out. They weren't supposed to go to those other schools. They ended up at Iowa and the rest is history.

Cory Heitz (23:22)
Yeah, and you must be a proud papa, know, former Hawkeye, like it just keeps it in the family, you know?

Kenyon Murray (23:27)
Yeah,

yeah, but most people thought they were going to be walk-ons. And I remember Keegan and Chris remembering that and they kind of like looked at the reporter like what? Walk-ons? And there was so much like vitriol like, they just gave them a scholarship because they're Kenyon's kids and they were good players at Prairie, but they're not this, but nobody had seen them. Right. And then once people started getting film of them and then we started posting stuff with them at prep school, you know, they knocked off the number one team in the country and

IMG, know, everybody's like, ⁓ okay, maybe they can come in here, you know, and for them to flip the script and do what they did at Iowa was just amazing. But it never was, I told you so. It was that they had the belief in themselves that they could compete at that level. And so did I. I just knew they just needed the opportunity and the minutes to get, to get that opportunity to showcase that.

Cory Heitz (24:01)
Jesus.

Yeah.

Alright, so they had great careers at Iowa and ended up both getting drafted in the NBA draft. What was the moment for each that you saw Kenyan where you like, ⁓ I think they've got a chance to make it to the league. Is there that moment that you can remember or anyone can point to?

Kenyon Murray (24:32)
Yeah, I think for Keegan it came a little bit earlier because sophomore year, they're both playing, but Keegan was just lighting the season on fire. I in the December 2021, he was the leading scorer in the country. And so everybody was like, the pre-season wasn't, the pre-conference season wasn't that great. You had some throwaway games or whatever you wanna call them. But when he started doing it in the big 10 and dropping 35 and things like that.

I was like, okay, he's got a chance. you know, obviously the the calls had already started. The best thing about that was call started the year before the spring before, and we were able to start talking to agents and stuff like that. And so we actually have representation going into that year. So once, you know, once Keegan did that first few games of the big 10 is like, okay, like this is different. And then Chris came in and he had a game Keegan got in foul trouble. We're playing Indiana at home and Chris went off for 29 and 11.

off the bench. And when he did that and it was like so easy, I'm like, okay, like I think they both got a chance to make the leap to the league. ⁓ And obviously Chris tested the waters that summer or that spring, you know, with the pre-draft and that kind of stuff and decided to come back. And I think that probably needs a little bit more shine on it. The fact that most guys, when they say they're going to bet on themselves, they actually leave college and go to the pros.

Cory Heitz (26:00)
Right.

Kenyon Murray (26:02)
And Chris was like, yo, I'm not a second round pick. think there was some interest in taking him in a second round. He's like, no, I'm a first round pick. I'm going go back and solidify that. But understand that you're coming on the heels of what Keegan did. No kind of competition from us, right? Like we're not going to say like, hey, you got to do this and do that. I go, it's going to come from the outside. And he blew that out of the water, obviously. And it was the best decision that he could have made going back and improving himself and showcasing what he could do outside of.

being with Keegan and yeah, yeah. I mean, you can't ask for a bigger blessing. I think it's so tough to even have an opportunity for one person to do it and then to have two do it back to back years and both the first round picks from Iowa, the first round picks for Iowa back to back. I can't remember it since like the seventies. So it was amazing for them to do that. And Keegan obviously is the highest pick.

ever from the University of Iowa at number four. So a lot of really good things there, but they both left their mark at Iowa and really set themselves up for careers in the NBA to hopefully be long, long careers.

Cory Heitz (27:07)
Absolutely. Now we've had a lot of folks in the show that have either been in the NBA or coached NBA players or trained them. And we always ask like, what's the secret sauce that these kids have or, you know, to get them to that level. Because, you know, we were talking the other day, it's easier to get struck by lightning twice than to make it to the NBA. And you have two kids from your own household. Twins be it, that made it.

Kenyon Murray (27:24)
You

Cory Heitz (27:32)
You tell me, like growing up, what did they have? Is this something they're born with? Is this something you instilled? Is this something a coach instilled? Like what did they possess or what created that magic that helped get them to that level?

Kenyon Murray (27:38)
Yeah.

Well, I think definitely it's in their DNA. Obviously with myself as a player, their mother Michelle, my wife, she was she was a player as well. She could shoot it. ⁓ Probably, you know, nothing else there. You know, she she she could tell you didn't jump the highest wasn't the fastest, but but she loved it and played basketball growing up. So they had that in her DNA. And then, you know, when they were born, I was a coach at Indian Hills. So honestly, we saw their love of like basketball really develop at an early age. And then once they started

walking and stuff, we had these little tycoons in the house and they were both like shooting. Chris would go up and dunk it and Keegan would be shooting jumper from the other side of the room. So I think that they were both born with this innate love of the game. But I think the secret sauce is one, we allowed them to make the decision on when they wanted to, quote, specialize, right? We made sure that they played.

soccer and baseball. They were really good baseball players, but baseball bleeds into the AAU season in the spring into the summer. And so seventh grade, were like, dad, like, we want to do this. And so for us, it was like, okay, all right, if we're going to do this, then this is all I ask. And we go into the gym 45 minutes to an hour. Just give me that time to put you through the drills, the fundamentals, the foundational pieces of being a highly skilled.

basketball player, give me those 45 minutes to an hour and then you can do whatever you want after that. And we would regularly be in the gym for 90 minutes to two hours with them doing different shooting contests and things like that against each other. But I think their love and their love of the process is huge. They love being in the gym. They love working on their game. And I think if there's anything I say as a secret sauce is if you want to play at that level, you have to

love, enjoy, and stick to the process of getting better because you're going to spend more time in the gym working on skills, weight room, training room, know, practicing as opposed to actually playing games. And if you don't love that process, it'll be easy to get burned out. And you know, when you ask, you know, see people in the NBA, NBA, do they love the game or do they love what the game brings them? And I think that with Chris and Keegan, they love playing the game because that's what they were meant to do.

they're playing it at the highest level, which was their dream. And so the secret sauce is really loving the process of getting better. And I think that is something that can be taken not only just in sports, but in life, right? We're doing more things sitting in front of a computer prepping, you know, for a salesperson, like going over data, those kinds of things. We're doing all of that. And we might only get 15 minutes with the person we're trying to sail to. So think about all the hours that goes into being a very successful sales rep.

Cory Heitz (30:28)
Thank

Kenyon Murray (30:34)
and

then actually the time that you get to actually sell. And so I think that's a really good analogy ⁓ for any kind of success you want to have in life.

Cory Heitz (30:44)
I love it. Thanks for sharing that. That's just great info right there. Now that you're the papa seeing their experience, what's the biggest challenge you're seeing your sons that they have to face being in the NBA that maybe people don't always realize? Because everyone always sees like, hey, money, TV, stardom, the glitz. What are some of the other sides that maybe people don't talk about enough?

Kenyon Murray (31:01)
Yeah.

I think with most players that are drafted, I I would probably say about 80 % of the league probably comes from a program or a situation where they've won a lot. And I think that's probably for people that come into the league that love to win, right? Or, you know, take like a Donovan Kling and coming off of like back to back national titles, right? And then going to Portland and having that struggle, right? It's being able to

to learn from losses, especially when you haven't really ⁓ become accustomed to losing. I think that's one of the things. I also think just the balance of leaving college, you have this group of guys that you're around all the time. You know, you're in class together, you're going to study hall, training table, you're doing all these things together. And I feel like the toughest thing for that transition is the fact that now you're in a league with men who have

families, wives, know, kids. And once you leave practice, like there's no doing things together, right? Like you're in practice together. So I think that's the toughest thing is that college, you're really with your guys, right? You're there for three, four years. You're with your dudes. You you guys are doing all this stuff together, playing video games, whatever it is. You get to the league and now you're with men. It's like, okay, well, we're done with practice at one o'clock. What am I going to do? You know, so.

Cory Heitz (32:31)
Yeah.

Kenyon Murray (32:32)
The challenge is managing so much free time. And you throw money in there and all those kinds of things. We've heard the horror stories, right? But I think transitioning from that college level atmosphere to the pros, managing your time. But then I think too ⁓ is, you really are becoming an adult and there's really no blueprint to how to become an NBA player, right?

So you hope your kids go into a place where there's structure, there's mentorship and those kind of things. And the reality is not every team is the same, not every organization is the same. So there's a lot of adaptability that players have to have when it comes to the NBA.

Cory Heitz (33:15)
Yeah, I love that. You know, I had a buddy, he had two of his family members get drafted to the NFL in the same year, right? One to one team, one to the other. The one team sent the kid the next day a FedEx package with all the plays in it and they flew him and his family to the headquarters a week later. They met the whole, you know, organization. They were welcome. They got a realtor, this and that. It was amazing. The other NFL team that drafted the other family member, never heard from him for months, right?

Kenyon Murray (33:21)
Okay.

Wow.

Cory Heitz (33:43)
So what families need to know is every professional team is like its own business organization and businesses all run differently, right? So how the Kings do something might be different than the Knicks, might be different than the Mavericks. There are certain teams that never win in the NBA and there are certain teams like the Patriots and NFL that have that winning culture for decades at a time, right? So if you don't know this, every one of these teams has rules. They're in the same league, but they can do things the way they want to to try to win. And that can be vastly different, especially for kids that have...

Kenyon Murray (33:59)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cory Heitz (34:11)
played in different teams in the NBA. And then players talk. There are certain teams players don't want to go to, whether it's the nightlife in the city, Utah, or whether it's the way ⁓ certain people coach, like Pat Riley. Some players don't want to play in that. So I'm glad you mentioned that, because it's just something that the average fan might not realize.

Kenyon Murray (34:13)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. ⁓

Yeah. Yeah.

It is, know, and not every owner is the same, right? There's some owners, you take a Mark Cuban who's very invested. He's on the sideline or, ⁓ you know, the Clippers owner. Like you see, you see some of these owners like are right there all the time and they're traveling with the team and that kind of stuff. And then you have other owners that's like, yo, like I'm a billionaire. Like this is just, you know, some fun money. I'm doing this. I want to own a team. I want to use it to maybe grow my other businesses or whatever. Like there's all those kinds of things, you know? And, and I think that's the...

That's one of the other things too, when you talk about different organizations, different teammates, right? Not everybody wants to win. Not everybody's willing to put the time, energy, and effort into winning, right? And some people were just like, we joke about it, but because of how much I know my boys love playing the game, money aside, the fact that they're in the NBA, that's enough. We joke with Mark, we never tell Mark like.

Cory Heitz (35:07)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Kenyon Murray (35:26)
our agent, we never tell him like, hey, know, boys play for free, you know what I mean? But they just love the game that much. And so I think there's more people that love what the game brings them as opposed to actually loving the game. Right. And so, yeah, it's ⁓ there's differences all across the league, but it's still, it's the greatest league in the world. Some people may say it doesn't have the

greatest 450 players in the world. That's okay. Everybody makes mistakes. know, people get cut here, there, whatever, and they can go on and make great careers. But, you know, I just think that the NBA is a special place to be. And the fact that they're there is just, ⁓ it's a testament to their dedication, devotion, and also pushing each other. I think if you look at all the twins in the NBA now, there's like, think there's like four or five sets of identical twins. You got the Holliday brothers. You can't tell me that having a built-in

practice partner does not help these guys make it to this level.

Cory Heitz (36:27)
Right, right. ⁓

Now that your kids are in the NBA, what can you tell their other families to look for? Like if you had to go in a time machine and maybe adjust AAU or adjust their weight training or adjust their prep experience, like now that you've gone through the process, what advice can you give families Kenyon that might benefit them as they're trying to reach the same goals your kids did?

Kenyon Murray (36:48)
Well, I mean, if you start in middle school, high school where these kids are starting to specialize, right? They're starting to specialize that early. One of the things that I always, because I used to be a skills trainer, skill development trainer. I used to have my own AAU program. used to do all this stuff. But one of the things that parents need to understand is that you dictate those sessions, right? Like there's a trainer that come in, he might tell you like, hey, we're working on this or that.

But you have to understand like, okay, for my kid to maybe even it's like, hey, what does my son have to do to play varsity? High school basketball. Then I don't want you, don't, a trainer has you in here doing all these crazy ball handling drills and behind your back and this, that, and the other thing, like that stuff doesn't work. You're not going to have the opportunity because the reality is you're probably going to be part of a system. And if all that trainer is showing you is how to play with the ball in your hands, you're not going to have success.

You have to, you know, I tell parents, your son, daughter has to be able to play the game in totality. Whether they're coming off a, you know, a stagger screen, a pin down, a flare screen, all those kinds of things like, like the trainers need to be teaching them how to play the game. What footworks work? If you're running baseline, is it the same footwork that you're going to use to catch the ball and shoot from the corner that you're going to use coming off a stagger screen to the top? Right? Like you have to work those different things. So

My, my, always encourage like, listen, have a plan going in whenever you're talking with a potential one-on-one trainer. Okay. These are the things that we know he has to work on. He wants to play high school basketball, the high school he's going to plays this, you know, they do this system, that's that and the other thing. So we know like, he's got to be able to do those things. You have to dictate what your son or daughter is being taught from a skill standpoint. You have to own it. You're the one paying them, right? Like, so, so I encourage

families to put together kind of like, these are our expectations. This is our gaps. This is where we know he's got to get, or she's got to get better. I would tell you, you have to invest in that. You have to have a plan before you even sit down with a personal trainer to go through those things. Same thing on the strength side. I didn't let Chris and Keegan lift a free weight until they got to high school and they were working with their high school coach was actually in the weight room. So he was able to help them lift in a way that was going to save their back, you know, not doing these.

football is for basketball players and things like that. So it's about having a plan when it comes to your your son or daughter's development and really owning that and really, you know, letting them know like, hey, we know like you can look at all this stuff. We need to focus here. We need a foundation to work off of. You can't be teaching them five and six dribble combos if they can't dribble with their left hand and shoot a left hand lay. Like, let's create a foundation first. And so those are some of the things that I would encourage parents today, especially when it comes to their development. But then the next thing is

Provide balance. You there were times Chris and Keegan played baseball all weekend and then we get home like that, let's go to the gym. I'm like, okay. But it was, that's what they wanted to do. I let them dictate when they wanted to be in the gym. They knew I had access, so let's go get the work in and not deny them that because I might be tired because I sat out in 90 degree heat all weekend watching them play baseball. That's what they want to do. Let them dictate.

Cory Heitz (39:55)
Yeah.

Kenyon Murray (40:12)
when they want to be in the gym. And you'll know very quickly if this is something that they want to do for the long haul. They may tell you I want to be a D1 player, but are they practicing D1 habits when it comes to their development? But as a parent, you can't dictate that. They've got to dictate that. They've got to show the drive. I can warn it for my kids all day long. They still had to do the work.

Cory Heitz (40:24)
Right.

Yeah, love it. Excuse me. One thing I'm gonna touch on now is your time at Indian Hills, right? So that's interesting to me too. So you sent your kids the post-grad yet route. Juco was an option. Who does Juco make sense for? Like when families ask, like, should we look at Juco or prep school? walk me through what kind of players Juco makes more sense for.

Kenyon Murray (41:01)
Yeah, I think, you know, when you and I talked about like just the different prep schools across the country and the one thing you have is like the different price points, right? To be able to go to those. So I think if plausible, ⁓ you know, the prep school route is probably a better route, especially like high school, like post grad is a different thing. But like if you're thinking, you know, I want to get my kid, you know, to play at the highest level competition, we're in Iowa. We're not playing against

teams like Mount Verde and IMG and they got all these Division 1 players on it, right? So I think prep school makes sense from that standpoint too, if you're in a place where maybe you're like the cream de la creme, but you know, like you're not at a place to play Division 1, you need to go get that experience and those kinds of things. I think prep school makes sense for that. But in the end, it sometimes comes down to money, you know, when it comes to the junior college players, because you get these kids that are raw, they're athletic.

Cory Heitz (41:34)
Okay.

Kenyon Murray (41:59)
but they come from a circumstance where, you know, they don't have the financial support to be able to maybe even go to a prep school. So Juco is okay, know, Juco is, know, they have scholarships and work study and things like that that can help pay for, ⁓ for, for their academics while they're there. And so I think Juco sometimes becomes the route for players that don't have the financial capabilities to go to a prep school. And I'm not saying that's, that's, you know, good, bad one way or the other.

Cory Heitz (42:28)
That's how it is.

Kenyon Murray (42:28)
that's just

how it is. And so, you know, for us now, like that's why I think now because of the NCAA landscape playing division one with the transfer portal, NIL. It's more and more difficult now for high school players to get, ⁓ signed at the division one level. You literally have to be a four or five star recruit, probably ranked in the top 100 of whatever, you know, pole or ranking system that's out there to even.

think about coming into a ⁓ top level D1 school and getting minutes. And so the conversation now is, okay, well, if that's not the case, I didn't have the looks that I wanted. Do I go prep school? Do I go Juco? And the one thing about Indian Hills and schools like that, you know, there's Southeastern's here in Iowa too. they have a history of turning out division one player after division one player. So sometimes that's the move too.

is hey, I get to go to Indian Hills, they had eight guys go D1 off that team last year, I'm going there. Because you know eyes are gonna be there, you're gonna get that kind of exposure. So I think every situation is different, but I think more than anything it comes down to the ability financially to be able to even consider going to a prep school as opposed to going to a junior college, if that makes sense.

Cory Heitz (43:44)
All

right. That makes sense to me, but like walk me through like the, name last chance to you. Like if I'm a kid looking at a junior college, I know there's different types, just like the prep school world, but like, is it last chance to you? Like, am I going to be there with kids that don't have grades or that maybe you got in trouble with the law or have an unstable home situation? Like what's, and I'm stereotyping here for this conversation, but like, what is the makeup? Is it strictly financial for most of the roster or what, or is it grades or walk me through this.

Kenyon Murray (44:04)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No. ⁓ man.

You know, full transparency and disclosure. We took some kids that had some when we're at Indian Hills, we took some kids that had some questionable backgrounds when it came to the law. know, ⁓ you know, story about one kid, ⁓ still one of the most talented kids that I had ever seen. He was a McDonald's All-American. He was signed to go to a high at this point in time. This school was like one of the top programs in the country.

but he got into some trouble legally and all those, you know, even the school that offered him a scholarship pulled it. And we were there, I wouldn't say we, but one of our coaches was at every court hearing he had at that time where everybody fell off, Indian Hills was there. And because Indian Hills was there, that was the school that he decided to come to. So I would be lying if I said that there are kids that have questionable pasts

You take a flyer on and we did. And we had my second year, no, sorry, my third year there, had eight guys, take that back. We had 10 guys to go D1 and two guys go D2. so, you know, so you do have, but there was a mix of backgrounds. We had affluent kids on our roster that went D1 being there, but we also had those that weren't. So last chance U is one of those things that I think is a negative.

Cory Heitz (45:31)
Okay.

Kenyon Murray (45:39)
connotation when it comes to junior colleges, but it's also the reality of what is out there, right? And everybody, but it's still up to everybody that decides to go that route to make the most of that situation. And that's just to say, like, there's a lot of junior college kids that don't, because the thing is, there's some schools you'll never be able to go to because of the curriculum. They won't take the junior college credits and things like that. So that comes into effect too. And if you have a kid who is,

Cory Heitz (46:01)
Yes.

Kenyon Murray (46:09)
struggles academically, and you can do everything that you can for them, but being able to go from a poor student to a decent student to being eligible at the Division I level, it's all part of that equation on whether or not they're gonna make it. And so there's just so many other layers when you throw in a junior college route that people don't really know. People do think like, they're all thugs, or they're all in trouble, or they're horrible students.

It's not the case. got a young man I signed when he was 17 years old. Great school, came from a Catholic school. He ended up playing Division II basketball, but you know what? He was an academic All-American. ⁓ He currently is a high-level administrator in the education system here in Iowa. And so you're not always getting those kids that are in trouble or academically aren't very good. You just get a big mix. But yeah, last chance you.

Cory Heitz (47:02)
Yeah. ⁓

Kenyon Murray (47:08)
It's great for TV, you know it sucks too because it just amplifies the stereotype when it comes to junior college sports.

Cory Heitz (47:15)
Yeah, it does. But help me on this. You know, when you pay for prep school, part of what you're paying for is that prep school coach has to place you in college. Right. So if I go to Juco and once again, there's only so many different shapes and sizes. What does a coach tell a player? Like, is there guarantee I'm going to place you at the next level or does the kid have to work on his own? Like, how does that work in the Juco Rex?

Kenyon Murray (47:38)
You know, ⁓ one of my good friends who's a head coach, he's been a head coach for a long time, and we were actually at Indian Hills together. He never promises that. He says, I am connected enough and I've had enough players go through our program that if you want to play at the division one level, you will have opportunities to do that. It's just, we need to check all these boxes in order to do that. It starts with your academics. It starts with your training.

Cory Heitz (47:46)
Mm-hmm.

Kenyon Murray (48:07)
it starts with your and then it ends with your play, right? So you have to be in a classroom doing your thing. You got to be in the weight room doing your thing, you know, everything, you know, learning to play as a sentient thing. And then you got to go out and perform. So I think there are some that recruit kids saying, Hey, I can get you to that next level. Maybe the kid is a stud. You're like, yo, we can get you there. But I think for the most part, most coaches will say we have connections. It comes down to you and what you do and how you perform.

to get you there. ⁓ I think anybody that promises that, ⁓ that should be one kind of let antenna go up. Like, okay, well, if you can do that, who, how many guys have you sent to the big 10, Pac-12 when it was around, SEC, whatever, whatever, like where are you sending kids? Or are you just sending kids, know, I'm never gonna knock any college, but are they low, mid or high majors that you're sending kids to? And so ⁓ I think those are all things that just.

And most kids, when you go that route, like they don't sometimes have the family support, so they don't have the right person there to ask the right questions. And so having some kind of support system for them to help them make that decision is also important. So I think too, what we did on the junior college level is we looked to see who was in their circle and who we had to talk to to make sure like they had the right people around them to make that decision. ⁓ But there's only so much you can do.

when it comes to that kind of thing. But yeah, I think anybody that promises that next level stuff, you really have to ⁓ look at them, maybe at that moment, take it with a grain of salt and really do a little bit more research as to who and where they've sent players.

Cory Heitz (49:50)
Yeah, makes sense. will say, and just talking to people, learning more about Juco over the years, ⁓ Iowa Jucos get the highest marks as a collective. So yeah, just like good coaching, good schools, good environments versus like some of the other ones that might not get the best name. So anyway.

Kenyon Murray (49:59)
Really?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah for

sure. We got a few good ones for sure.

Cory Heitz (50:09)
Yep, we're going to do some quick hitters now. All right. Who's the best player you ever played against?

Kenyon Murray (50:11)
Okay, sounds good.

Grant Hill. I guess I could say that as fast as you asked that question because he mixed the size, skill, ball handling, versatility that just made it so tough for me because ⁓ you know, when I played against him my freshman year, he was kind of the three. He had Bobby Hurley there, so you know, he ran the wing and did things like that. But as they left and we played him that next year, he moved more to the point guard spot and that six foot eight, my gosh.

Cory Heitz (50:18)
No,

Kenyon Murray (50:43)
You know, I got to pick him up full court and he wants to take me down in the post and those kind of things. So, so yeah. And I told Grant that Grant did the big 10 championship game when, Iowa won it back in 22. And I was like, dude, you were the hardest guard for me in college. Like Calvert Chaney was a close second. Ray Allen was right in there too as well. ⁓ but yeah, man, Grant Hill was just, I mean, he was just Grant Hill.

Cory Heitz (50:45)
Thank

Hmm.

Yeah, how about the best player you've ever coached against?

Kenyon Murray (51:12)
Best player I ever coached against. ⁓ man, ⁓ Man, best player I ever coached against.

Cory Heitz (51:14)
just let you up.

Kenyon Murray (51:24)
I would say, mean, couple, I'm going to go from high school, the best kid I coached against in high school. He's also in the NBA right now. It's amazing that he's there. He's stuck with it as AJ Green, Milwaukee Bucks starting to guard. AJ Green was a handful in Iowa high school basketball. His team knocked our team out back to back years in the playoffs. he, cause he could shoot it with range. He has that high release shot.

Cory Heitz (51:28)
That's fun.

Kenyon Murray (51:53)
So in our league, he could elevate. So he's elevating and he's shooting here like even at 6'6, 6'7, where the boys were like, they couldn't mess with his shot in on me. He would regularly go for 30, 40 points ⁓ because now you press up on him because he's shooting from the logo and now he goes by you. And he has underrated handles and underrated passing. ⁓ But he was probably one of the toughest kids I coached against. But I got to tell you, the most talented kid that I ever coached.

was Cory Hightower out of Flint, Michigan. Six foot seven, six foot eight, lefty guard, could shoot it from anywhere. You ask anybody in Flint, Michigan about Cory Hightower and they'd be like, ooh, that boy was cold. And he just never materialized at the NBA level that we thought he could and should have. But yeah, man, I've seen a lot of talented guys along this journey.

Cory Heitz (52:48)
Awesome. What's your favorite movie?

Kenyon Murray (52:51)
Favorite movie? ⁓ I would have to say it's probably a toss-up between ⁓ Avengers Infinity War and Avengers Endgame. My family will tell you I am a Marvel, Star Wars, DC nerd. I used to collect comic books when I was young, but yeah, the Marvel Infinity Wars, which has me juiced up for Doomsday when it comes out here in the next year or so.

Cory Heitz (53:00)
The end.

Awesome, love it. And then what are your hobbies when you're not doing the basketball thing?

Kenyon Murray (53:20)
Man, ⁓ you know, right now I'm really leaning into ⁓ this role as a life coach and keynote speaker. ⁓ I really love doing those things because for me it's a way to give back through my experience. ⁓ You know, the road here hasn't always been straight. It's been narrow at times. There's been all kinds of roadblocks, not only for myself personally, but for our family really to get to where we are.

⁓ so really right now, like, feel like God has me in this role as a mentor to people, but really working with people and connecting with people on shared experiences, because regardless of where you come from, regardless of your, your, your, your background, your race, ethnicity, mean, you know, ⁓ religious beliefs, I think there's something that we all have that can connect us to somebody else. And so I'm really leaning into that. And, this.

$10 million ⁓ sports ⁓ complex is probably the hobby that I would say ⁓ has most of my attention right now where we're building a holistic type center where we have physical therapy, 24 hour fitness center, wellness rooms, classrooms, meeting rooms that we can truly develop any kid. It doesn't have to be a student athlete. Any kid that needs the services that can help them get to college.

career readiness, financial literacy. For me, this passion project is bringing all those kind of resources together to help the next generation because we know it only takes one generation to change the trajectory of a family. And if we can help these young men and young women figure that out, put a plan in place to not only be the best, whether they play in sports or not, the best on the field, off the field. I mean, we want them to have that balance and we want them to have access to the resources that can truly change

the trajectory of their lives and their families lives because if we can do it in this generation, we know that that will reverberate for generations to come. So really this facility is a true passion project of ours as a family and we really feel like this is a way of giving back a lot of the blessings that we have received ⁓ as a family. yeah, we're truly, I mean, we're digging our heels in and this is gonna be a truly special project that's gonna help Eastern Iowa for many years to

Cory Heitz (55:44)
I love it. I'm so happy you're doing that. I'm excited to come see you one day in person. So just keep a parking space ready for me when that happens. Kenny, is there anything else you want to touch on that we didn't talk about during our time together?

Kenyon Murray (55:50)
Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure.

I mean, you know, I think what you're doing is very important when you talk about getting the information out there about prep schools. I truly feel that it's an area that's actually going to grow. I really feel like it's going to continue to grow. We're going to continue to see more more prep schools pop up. And with that being said, we need to make sure that there's checks and balances of things because you've seen good prep schools and you've seen bad prep schools. But the reality is if the current landscape of college athletics stays the same, we're going to have to have more. ⁓

We're gonna have to have more places, more resources, more entities like prep schools that are helping these kids get to that level. And ⁓ I think it's gonna be, you know, it's a very, very lucrative industry because of, you know, what it costs to run these different things. But I think that we need to be ready for anybody that has a kid coming up right now needs to be ready and educating themselves on what a prep school could really do for their child. Because I really feel like high school.

high school sports. We're seeing in Iowa, we're losing kids. We have schools that can't field varsity girls basketball teams or varsity football teams. And so we see the deconstruction of what high school sports used to be. And I think the prep schools are going to really grow and kind of fill that gap right now that people are looking for when they talk about getting to the next level, getting to the division one, the collegiate level to play sports. So kudos to what you're doing. ⁓

And I think that you're going to be helping a whole lot of families ⁓ these next, you know, shoot the next decade, depending on how long you want to stay in there, you're to be doing a lot of a lot of help for a lot of people out there.

Cory Heitz (57:34)
to do this till they put me in the grave. love it. I love it. Well, Kenyon, we are going to include all your contact information in the show notes below. So if anyone wants to reach out or follow you or see what you're doing, they'll be able to do that. And I just want to thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. This is such great information because you have such a unique story personally. And then for the young men you've raised that are now doing great things as well and how you're taking, you know, what they're doing to help other kids in Eastern Iowa. I'm a fan and I'm on board. So anyway, we can support Kenyon.

Kenyon Murray (57:36)
That sounds good. Sounds good.

Cory Heitz (58:04)
You know, you've got it. So we appreciate it.

Kenyon Murray (58:05)
Thank you

so much, man. I just appreciate the opportunity to come on and yeah, you just keep doing what you're doing, man. You're definitely changing lives.

Cory Heitz (58:13)
Well, I appreciate that. Well, thanks for joining us in the Prep Athletics podcast today. If you'd like it, please be sure to subscribe on all the major podcasting platforms to include YouTube, where we have bonus content. Sign up for our newsletter on the website, prepathletics.com. And if you have any prep school questions, reach out to us. We get back to every single inquiry. And if this could be a potential option for you, let us know. We'd love to help you. So until next time, thanks so much for tuning into the Prep Athletics podcast. Take care.