Isaac Norris – Van Hoozer Basketball Academy

September 28, 2018

Preparing for the Fall Season and Beyond

We hope that school is going well for everyone! We encourage so many of our athletes to focus on multiple sports and various forms of training both in season and out of season to maximize their talent and abilities. In our experience and in talking with high school and college coaches, they appreciate and recruit multi-sport athletes because of their versatility, athleticism, and leadership.

Basketball on floor of empty basketball court

As it relates to basketball, we hope everyone is planning for a great Fall and Winter season in both competitive youth leagues, Junior High, and High School. The players on our teams have invested time in their Spring and Summer AAU season to grow and become better and look forward to demonstrating what they have learned for their respective school teams.

Our Academy mission is to use basketball as a vehicle to develop leaders on and off the court, and our focus is to prepare them for the next level of competition including high school and college. We want all of our athletes to be successful and impactful leaders who leverage the skills and core values that they learn through our academy in whatever they do. We are confident that we can teach them to play basketball the right way; the differentiator is developing their leadership and mental toughness skills.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in for your son, check out our teams and programs and email me for more information. If you are not a part of one of our teams or academy, we would love to talk to you to see if it is a fit for your student athlete. All of our teams including our 2022 team, which I personally coach, will be looking for a few select athletes to join us for the Spring/Summer AAU season. We also offer some skills and shooting training for players who might be a fit for our program.

Basketball is an excellent sport to learn teamwork, leadership, and perseverance, and we look forward to helping our athletes develop in all of those areas! After all, we are preparing them for the Fall season and beyond!

May 31, 2018

Mid Season Report

The Katy Raptors 2022 team has a done a great job in the first half of their season! The focus for this team has been integrating a couple of new players, competing in competitive tournaments, and preparing this group for high school basketball. They have responded well with a 10-2 record, going undefeated in Pool Play in every tournament we have played in. They won a qualifying Prime Time championship tournament, finished in the quarterfinals of the Pearland/Houston Showcase Tournament, and finished in the semifinals of the Summer Prep Showcase.

We have also continued developing all of the players in our basketball academy with our “Leadership Moments.” In April, we had former Seven Lakes High School and Stephen F. Austin point guard Trey Pinkney come and speak about working hard to achieve your dreams.

In May, we had Seven Lakes Head Basketball Coach Shannon Heston come and speak about developing championship habits.

Now, the focus is on getting prepared for 2 big national championships that we have been invited to in San Antonio and Dallas in July. Coaches who are interested in our schedule can view it here. You can also contact Head Coach Mike Van Hoozer for player and information inquiries.

March 26, 2018

First Tournament Championship of the Season!

Our Katy Raptors teams were very active in several different tournaments this past weekend including the Prime Time Sports Spring Shootout. Our Katy Raptors 2024 team made it to the championship game and came in 2nd place in a very close game. Our Katy Raptors 2022 team went 5-0 and won the championship game for their first tournament and their first tournament championship of the season. I was very proud of how this team played including their speed, teamwork, tempo, and defense.

Our Katy Raptors 2025 team played in a tournament at Alodia and came in 2nd place. We are excited to announce that we now have 4 teams that are playing within our academy, and all of our teams are working hard at becoming their best both individually and collectively as a team. We are also conducting our “leadership moments” on Monday nights as a part of our practice to focus on leadership, teamwork, and mental sports performance principles and techniques.

We are excited about the tournament season and helping our players develop as leaders on and off the court!

August 8, 2017

A Season To Remember

We completed our first season as an official basketball academy with all 3 teams (4th grade, 5th grade, and 7th grade) having success, impact, and growth. I am so proud of each and every player and family that participated in our programs this year!

Our Katy Raptors 7th grade team finished their season playing in the Prime Time National Basketball Championship in Dallas July 24-30, 2017. We received an invitation to play in this tournament based on our success in other tournaments and had a great experience. As we had done in many of our tournaments, we won our Pool Play on the first 2 days going 3-0 to advance to the championship tournament bracket. In tournament play, we went 2-1, losing a very close game to a team that went on to finish 3rd overall. Overall, we went 5-1 and made it to the Sweet Sixteen out of about 100 very good teams. Our boys demonstrated that they can play with anyone and showed tenacity, grit, and leadership.

Throughout our season, everyone who played against us or watched our team play consistently commented that they loved how we played as a team including our tenacious defense and constantly moving the basketball and trusting each other on offense. To me, this is what basketball is all about and how basketball was meant to be played. It’s also what we are striving to teach all of the players across the teams in our academy. We also want to develop them as leaders on and off the court and help them grow in all dimensions of their lives – physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Thanks to everyone who supported us this year, and we look forward to another great season next year! If you are interested in supporting our leadership and basketball academy, we are a non-profit organization, and you can donate to our mission here. You can also email me to find out more about our program including the opportunity to sponsor our organization.