Katy Raptors 7th grade team – Van Hoozer Basketball Academy

January 19, 2021January 19, 2021

2021 Basketball Tryouts

We are excited about the upcoming AAU basketball season and are beginning planning and preparation for what this year will look like. We will be having tryouts for our boys 9th grade team as well as a new 7th grade team on February 7th at Campbell Elementary. The 9th grade team will have tryouts from 9 am to 10:30 am, and the 7th grade tryouts will be from 10:30 am to 12 pm. We will be abiding by Katy ISD health and safety protocols including having every player wear a face covering and socially distancing from others when not engaging in an activity on the court. Please make sure that your son brings a mask or face cover to wear.

If you are interested, click on this link to register.

January 23, 2020January 23, 2020

Looking Forward to the Spring and Summer

It has been a great year for all of our Katy Raptors players who are playing on their respective Jr High and High School teams. After working hard for 3 solid years, all of the players on our Katy Raptors 2025 team made their school’s A Team. Our Katy Raptors 2024 players are showing off their skills and making an incredible impact on their school teams as well. We are so proud of these players and grateful for our coaches and trainers who are building leaders on and off the court and helping them maximize their potential!

Our Katy Raptors 2022 players are also making a great impact on both Varsity and JV teams for their schools. We are so proud of them for setting a great example for our younger teams as they work hard to pursue their goals. For this upcoming season, we are planning to move this team up to be a Varsity team made up of 16-17 year old players. We think this team is ready for the challenge and is already playing at this level for their respective school teams. We also have had a lot of older players ask if they could play for our program, and we have not had a team for them.

As we prepare for this transition, we are accepting inquiries for high school players who might be interested in playing for this Varsity team. Ideally, we are looking for a few post and wing players. If you are interested in playing for a program that provides great coaching, solid and purposeful skill training, leadership and mental toughness development sessions, and helps prepare players for the next level, we would love to hear from you about your experience and interest. You can email Mike Van Hoozer and provide the following information:

Name and Age
School Team including which team you play for (Varsity, JV, etc.)
AAU Experience over the last 3-5 years
Height and Weight
What you are looking for in an AAU experience

Based on the interest, we will conduct some private workouts in the coming weeks.

March 12, 2019March 12, 2019

2019 Season is off to a great start!

All of our teams are now full and practicing and playing in tournaments! Our 2024 teams have led the way so far with some impressive finishes in their tournaments including final four finishes in the Rytes Warriors Spring Break Tournament this past weekend! We look forward to making this season a great moment and helping to develop our players to be leaders on and off the court!

If you are still interested in playing on one of our teams, you can email me to be put on a waiting list. While we may not be able to get you into one of our programs this year, there still may be opportunities for your son to train with us either in a group or individual setting with one of our coaches or trainers.

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.

June 15, 2017June 15, 2017

Success Comes From Competing

by Coach Mike Van Hoozer

Hard work, discipline, preparation, and focus are necessary ingredients for the recipe for success. The willingness to compete is the temperature that is needed to make these ingredients come to life. As we entered the month of May, our 7th grade Katy Raptors team knew it had what it takes to have success both on and off the court. Their confidence had been developed through practice and tournaments in April and led to more wins against some great teams in May and June.

We played in the Houston Hoops “Summer Prep Showcase” in May. Our team went 2-0 in Pool Play, winning in decisive fashion in both of our games. We then advanced to the tournament bracket and went 3-0 in tournament play winning the overall tournament with an overall weekend record of 5-0. We beat some great teams in both the semifinals and the championship game and did it with only 6 players!

In June, we played in a Prime Time Sports Tournament going 5-0 and winning the whole tournament, again with only 6 players due to some injuries. We earned a ton of respect from opposing teams, coaches, players, and people who watched us play in both our May and June tournaments!

Overall, we are 17-4 through 5 tournaments. Our success as a team led to an at large invitation to play in the Prime Time Sports National Basketball Championship in Dallas July 26-30, 2017. We are really looking forward to this opportunity and are preparing to represent our school and community well! If you want to make a donation to our Basketball Academy to offset the costs of practice facilities, tournament fees, and travel costs, you can make a donation here.