Jake's Kingdom Hoops Facility Updates

I haven’t posted about Jake’s Kingdom Hoops facility in Ankeny for awhile! There have been a lot of additions since I last put up pictures when they were laying down the new courts!

For starters, a mezzanine was built in the center of the facility that divides the courts into two sets of 3. The mezzanine was built to provide structured spaces for lease. Here is a picture of it as it was being built (it is the concrete barrier/balcony behind the hoops)…

And here is a picture of it all finished...

Jake has helped the owner of the building lease out these spaces. So far, Acceleration Iowa has set up house in one of the bottom rentals:

Acceleration Iowa is a speed and agility training program for athletic enhancement. Here is a peek inside the action:

Elite Sports Performance has also leased a space on top of the mezzanine (under the hanging flags).

Elite Sports Performance is a strength (weight) training program for elite athletes as well as personal training.

A few other potential groups are interested in leasing out the other spaces in the mezzanine so I’ll have to keep you updated on who sets up shop in there next! The mezzanine also holds a set of restrooms and drinking fountains for the players that utilize the far courts.

The Kingdom Hoops facility has also started renting out court space/gym time. Shortly after all the courts were put down, a Kingdom Volleyball program was started by Amy Farber-Knowles (former ISU assistant vb coach, former Drake head vb coach, and vb All-American while playing at the University of Oklahoma). The Kingdom Volleyball teams practice regularly alongside Jake’s teams, and compete in regional and national tournaments. They have an awesome program going!

Jayla and JJ LOVE to play with the volleyballs…..I think because they had never seen one before until this program started! Jayla gets a little mad when the volleyballs don’t cooperate with her plans (like when she tries to pick up two at a time)...

Other than the volleyball program, other groups that rent court time are the Iowa Rush Soccer Academy, men’s recreational leagues, high school bball teams(saw a lot of this the past two weeks as teams competing in the state tournament wanted to practice on a college sized court to prepare for playing in Wells Fargo Arena), and even a gymnastics group! I snapped a picture of a gymnastics meet being held in the gym a few months ago because it looked so different with all the gymnastics equipment in there (this was at the time when they were building the mezzanine as well).

Since I last posted, the concessions area/café has also been finished.

A family in the KH program had always wanted to start a little café like this, and they took their idea and went for it! I got to help come up with names for the café and they chose the one I thought of: The Huddle. Pretty catchy, right?!?! :) JJ is a frequent customer as they keep The Huddle open during practices as well as hosted tournaments. His usual buys are Gatorade, starbursts, and ice cream sandwiches!

Of course the facility has also gotten into the Ghana spirit! A mom in the program came up with the idea to sell these awesome bracelet kits (Ghana flag colors) that can be woven into a really cool wristband.

All proceeds from sales go to Project:Ghana.

Shoes are also being collected for us to take to Ghana on our next trip.

And that is sort of the scoop on all the updates. Future renovations are in the works to hopefully come up with a student learning center inside the gym complete with computers. A lot of kids come straight to the KH facility after school and do their homework on the bleachers!!!! They really need a more fitting/comfortable place to study. Jake is also hopeful to eventually house a fitness center in the facility (something like Anytime Fitness) and I believe renovations for the outside of the building will start this summer. I don’t have a current picture of the outside, but from the looks of it you would never guess that there was a fully-functioning athletic complex on the inside! On the outside it just looks like an old warehouse.

I am sure you can tell by my regular blogging pictures that we are at the gym A LOT! In the winter, it is SO NICE to be able to take the kids there to run around at nighttime. Jake practices his teams after school, so we usually head there after dinner and JJ and Jayla get some good gym time to hang out and be part of it all! My favorite part of going to the gym is getting to see JJ and Jayla interact with all the players. JJ is naturally a very shy kid, but when he is at the gym, his demeanor COMPLETELY changes! He gets so much social interaction there because all the players know him by name! Over the past year, he has really come out of his shell, and I think this is largely due to being around the older kids who love to play with him and talk to him when they see him. Kingdom Hoops is a F A M I L Y all in itself, and we LOVE IT!