Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Academy

The Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center is committed to helping the community in so many ways from basket ball training, lifestyle, leadership progrms for youth to health screenings, career training, and providing free family meals to neighborhood residents.

Episode Transcript

(00:08):
Welcome to Advocacy in Motion. Weare here each week to give a vision
and a voice to nonprofit organizations andindividuals making an impact in our community.
And before I introduce our first guesttoday, I want to thank the representatives
of the over forty nonprofit organizations we'vebeen honored to recognize here on Avocacy in
Motion during our first season. AndI want to thank our presenting sponsored,

(00:31):
Niagara Conservation, for their continued supportof our program and for their support for
affordable housing projects, including the newVolunteers of America Oaks project in the Oak
Cliffe District of Dallas. Niagara providesnew innovative designs toilets and plumbing products that
save up to sixty percent of water, which is up to sixty percent of

(00:52):
water cost. This allows the fortyhousing communities to benefit by providing more amenities
and less cost us. We arepleased to announce that these new high tech
products are now available to all homeowners, so check them out at Niagaracorp dot
com. My guest today, I'mvery pleased to introduce Trina Terrell Andrews.
She is the CEO of the MarkCuban Heroes Basketball Academy welcome. Well,

(01:18):
thank you so much for having me. This is going to be really fine.
I know I've seen some things onthe academy, but you are committed
to helping the community in many waysSports lifestyle and leaderships. Tell us all
about that. We have a uniqueapproach to how we do training on and
off the court. We primarily designthe facility to do training, so we

(01:40):
actually do not have any seating fortournaments or games like that. We have
young men young ladies to come fromall over the world as far as Paris,
Friends, Plano, Texas, TylerTexas. We have students come from
Senegal to train with us. Thebeauty about what we're able to do is

(02:00):
to support them as they're going throughthis journey. So we start ages six
to the pro level, and wemake sure that we are offering them and
equipping them with the skills that theyneed, everything from grooming, hygiene,
wardrobe styling. Talk to him aboutcareer readiness, make sure that they have

(02:21):
the mental health support that they need, the resources that will guide them through
these different scenarios that they're going toexperience throughout life. Tell us how you
got involved the I actually it's veryfunny story. I'm a retired journalist and
I was working in the PR spaceworking with another client, and Hero sent

(02:43):
me a text message fifteen years ago, aksed me to manage the facility,
and I was saying, are yousure? I have no experience in basketball.
The most I've ever played is likekickball or participated in PA. Fifteen
years later, he very very thankfulto do what I get to do every

(03:04):
day, which is work with youngpeople and their families. So you say,
your participants come from all over theworld, yes, how do how
does that work? How do theyfind you? How do you find them?
How does that come together? Alot of it's word of mouth.
We've been fortunate where when they come, we have a very unique facility set
up that is intentionally gauged for themto do private training. We do training

(03:30):
for individuals that if they're deciding whichway they want to go in in the
NBA, or even if they wantto do w NBA, even if they
want to go into the G League, or they want to just do it
on a recreational capacity. So somecome with their teams, some come with
their coaches, come come with theirtrainers, and then we also make sure

(03:52):
that we have services and resources fortheir families while they're waiting for them to
train. Okay, that's very good. Are there any requirements or anything that
they have to find or have tohave to get there? Actually they can
you know, visit our website andwe you know, connect them with the
respective coach just depending on where theyare in their career or where they are

(04:15):
deciding that they want to do thisin a exploratory capacity. So we have
a lot of young people that sayI just want to do this for fun,
and then we have a lot ofparents that want them to get the
formal training. So what we dois when they send us an email through
our website or if they call ourbuilding, then we will have a discussion
about where they are and where theywant to be as far as their level

(04:36):
of training. I know it's theMark Cuban centerment or the Mavericks involved in
anywhere in we do some partnership withthe Mavericks. We have had some of
the MAVs players to come over andhost camps. They've actually done private training
there. So it runs the gamuton you know, how our relationship works
with them. Tell us about howyour structure as far as your staff and

(04:56):
volunteers or how that works. Sowe have twelve course staff and they're there
every day. We operate seven daysa week, and we have a very
unique schedule. So it's really basedon again accommodating some of the players that
come from in and out of town, and then we do a lot of
after school training, which is usuallybetween the six and nine scenario. Then

(05:18):
our volunteers are from the community.We have a lot of first responders,
we work a lot with law enforcement, and then we have a lot of
our families that come back and volunteer. Right, how long has the center
been there? When was it boundary? The center actually was a old dilapidated
building that they had discovered. Itwas an old YWCA, and so in

(05:42):
two thousand and nine they acquired thebuilding and then made it into the jewel
that it is now. And sowe've been there since two thousand and ten,
actually officially opening to the public.Now now you're located close to Cedarcrest,
Yes, sir, of course thereare neighbors. I played that course
before, and I think I've seenyour building. We didn't know what it

(06:03):
was. Yeah, okay, verygood. How's it involved? What got
it started? And has it grownover the years. When I came aboard,
I was wanting to make sure thatwe can complement again, going back
to making sure our young people hadthe necessary resources and access to quality services.

(06:26):
And so when I first came,we were trying to figure out what
made the most sense. So wesat down with families, We sat down
with our players, as we constantlydo. We also have an internship program,
so we sit down with our internsand the community and see how we
can be effectively effectively rather support allof our kids and our families in an
adequate scenario. And so what wedo is constantly evaluate ourselves what can we

(06:54):
do to improve the services and toanswer questions far as the involved. How
we've evolved. It went from it'sjust doing basic skills, se s training.
Now we do art classes, grillingclasses, we do flights and re
later classes, robotics. We alsodo a lot of lunch and learns for

(07:14):
our families and our interns. Oneof the unique things about what we do
is also create as we have asuit up experience, so we provide dress
suits for young men ages fifteen totwenty five, and we thought we would
just make a footprint here in Dallas. We've actually expanded and been invited to
go to Savannah, Georgia in Detroitwith the suit Experience Suit Up Experience and

(07:40):
having so many young people now comeback and tell us, you know,
I came through the program. NowI'm married and I have kids, and
you know, I wanna give backand support in any way I can.
So that's the great thing about it. Well, that's gonna be my next
question about uh. Now you havemany success stories, something you can share
with us and tell us about that. Yeah, we have students that are

(08:00):
playing pro well, I I don'twanna call them students now there are adults
now, but they are playing inthe NBA this past ye summer and we
had six young men to go intothe NBA that was actually training consistently at
the facility. We also work alot with different trainers like Tim Martin and
his team. We also have ayoung lady that she has gone in the

(08:26):
professional acting room, so she's doingthat on a consistent basis, and so
she's been on some of the majorshows on NBC. And then we just
had another young lady. She's playingat Harvard on the basketball team, so
she's come home, and so she'shere sharing her story and her interests.

(08:46):
We've got a firefighter that actually theg unique thing about it. He's right
around the corner from our facility.So he went through our program more than
seven years ago. Now he's marriedand has a a son. So it
has been remarkable to see, youknow, our young people come and they
to tell us, you know,this has been a great impact on how

(09:07):
they can help. It does soundremarkable, and there's so many different facets
to it. Now we'll come backto this many times, but tell us
how people can get in touch withyour website or alliance. People can get
in touch with you. They canvisit us at Markcubanhrooescenter dot org. We
have a Facebook page Mark Cuban HeroesBasketball Center, and then we're on all
of the social media platforms. Now, I know you guys didn't do this

(09:30):
on your own, and partnerships arethe key to success. Can you tell
us about some of your partners andhow they've been involved. We work with
the m Mark Cuban Foundation, DirkNowinsky Foundation. We have been partnering with
the North Texas Food Bank quite abit here for the food giveaways that we
host on a quarterly basis. Wedo of the large one with the North
Texas Food Bank, but we havea lot of support from Dallas' Department of

(09:58):
Public Safety, the Dallas Police Departments. We also work with the Dallas Fire
and Rescue. The list just goeson and on and on. Concord Church
has been very instrumental and hoping us, so we've just been very, very
fortunate. We recently just partnered withNebraska Furniture Mart as well. Oh that's
good, Okay, Well, I'llcome back and let me take a quick
break to recognize one of our othersponsors that makes all of this as possible,

(10:20):
and then we'll come back and ofa lot more to talk about.
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(10:41):
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(11:05):
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h avn dot com. Thank youfor all of your support. Okay,
we were mentioning partners that help andsupport. I know you have so many

(11:30):
different programs, food drives, youthprograms, holiday events coming up. Tell
us about some of those. Thebest way to say is we all we
try to make sure we're continuously servingthe community throughout the year, and so
we're very thankful when the holidays comearound and our neighbors, specially Cedar Crest,
is very patient with us. Sosometimes we impact the traffic when we

(11:52):
do the food giveaways, but it'sreally been a tremendous partnership that we've had
with the community, and so whenwe host those food giveaways for Thanksgiving and
Christmas, we make sure that wetry to create a very interactive, upbeat
experience. When we first started thefood giveaways during the pandemic, it was

(12:16):
twenty twenty, it was for Mother'sDay. We didn't know what we were
doing. So we made a callto some friends and say, can you
sup walk us through this process?And the very first time we did it,
we ordered some items and then westarted saying, how do we make
this more impactful? Because you seethe sad faces and you see people waiting

(12:37):
in line patiently. But what Iwanted to do was make sure that our
team could put their own stamp onit. And so what we decided to
do was make it a ah extravaganza. So we do Christmas extravaganzas w where
we will have everything from live reindeer, we bring out drum lines, we

(12:58):
have skaters to come, we havelive music, we have a DJ,
and so we always think about thesmiles that we want to leave on their
faces when they come to our ourfacility. And then dark Nowinsky has been
there, so his foundation has steppedup in tremendous ways where they've recently hosted

(13:18):
their own fall Uh Food Festival andthey partnered with the Tennis Center, but
they were gracious enough to al allowus to be involved with that event as
well. And then Mark Cuban hasstepped up in uh unmeasurable ways that and
I can't even thank him enough forall that he does as far as even
walking us through the process of howto navigate making sure people are getting access

(13:45):
to quality resources. And it's terrific. And I know, uh, everybody
had to go through the pandemic atone time and readjust and stuff. How'd
you guys navigate your way through that? You know, the first two months
we did what most people had todo was just sit and wait. But
during that time we decided to sto do what you're doing. We created

(14:05):
a podcast, if you will,to keep our families and our kids connected
with us. So we tried togive them information or any resources that we
can connect them to. The Otherthing we did was just evaluate again how
we can effectively support them. Thething that we're learning now is mental health

(14:26):
is going to be one of thebiggest support systems that people need, so
giving them access to those counseling sessions, we offer mental health first aid training.
But then also we've just been sittingand saying, how do we better
equip our young people with resources,cause they're going to continuously be impacted by

(14:46):
this pandemic directly and indirectly, sogiving them any type of skills that they
need. We have definitely stepped upas far as making sure we give career
readiness, doing career audits where theysit down and evaluate where they are in
life and where they want to go. Some are making that decision of I

(15:07):
don't wanna go to school now,so we're looking at trade school, or
how do we you know, giveyou access to some other partners who can
walk you through getting a full timejob or you you know, taking a
class here at a time. Again, I'm a little bit overwhelmed at the
vast amount of services you provide.Yeah, other than a basketball court,

(15:28):
yes, Yes, what are someof the other things that you're really proud
of that you guys did? Ourinternship program We started that over twelve years
ago. So we've had five hundredyoung people to go through that program and
they have primarily been college students andjust to see them come back again to
support other students going through our program. We usually do it from six weeks

(15:52):
to twelve weeks. And they're they'relearning how to oversee the building, manage
the building, understand how to effectivelybe mentors. And we also put them
on the spot where they go outand they speak to young people after they
get that confidence. We also areproud of our modeling program, so we
have a lot of young people.We work with J three Productions and they

(16:15):
come in and train young people togo through an entire process six weeks,
so everything from learning about photos,hair and makeup, acting, singing,
and then they go to an expoand then they get signed to some of
the agencies here in Dallas, butthroughout the country, and so for them

(16:37):
to see themselves on TV, forthem to see themselves in national print ads,
it's just, you know, oneof the great things that we love
being a part of. I knowthat every organization has to kind of balance
your mission with fundraising. Just tellus about how you fundraising and how people

(16:59):
can get involved. So we havea link on our page if people can
donate year round. We were hostingthe Dark Nowinsky's celebrity baseball game, and
so now we're looking to see whatother annual events that we can do that
people can be a part of.But They're always welcome to donate and we
are very big on them doing inkind donations as well. So like our

(17:23):
suit program, they can provide suits, they can provide clothes to the young
men and the young ladies. Theycan also donate their time, which is
invaluable to us. Okay, that'sDrurect. We've talked about a lot of
angs and there's probably a lot moreto talk about it. You show in
depth in what you're doing. Whatabout mess What would you like for our
us to know that we haven't talkedabout. You know, we're h even

(17:45):
though we're in o'cliff, we're hereto serve the community at large, and
so we're here to be a supportsystem to our neighbors throughout North Texas,
and we also want to make surethat our young people and their families know
that they're always valued and appreciated.And any partners and anyone decided to support
us, we can't thank them enoughfor all that they do and the patience

(18:08):
that they have with us as wenavigate through some of the unique programming that
we do. But the biggest thingfor us is just bringing people together.
So anytime that we can come togetherand invite other people to come together.
No matter what's going on in lifeand in the world, we all can

(18:29):
do this together. Well, thankyou so much. And like I said,
we're here to recognize organizations and peoplemake an impact in our community and
you are certainly doing that. Thankyou in the organization for everything you guys
are doing. And I said,I've learned so much today about the scope
of it. When we think ofMark Cuban, we think of the Mavericks,
but so much more in depth thanthat, and we really appreciate what

(18:49):
you're doing. Thank you so much. And I want to thank our sponsors
Niagara for being with us and forParana Haven. So thank you, thank
you, thank you. Have abe holiday and YouTube you have any Thank you.