Devon Gibson

Like most kids who grew up playing or watching basketball, I wanted to play in the NBA. But then a life changing event took place. I realized I wasn’t that good. My dreams were shattered. However, I still had a passion for the game and wanted to figure out how I could continue to stay involved. As an avid fan of the Detroit Pistons of the early 2000s, I spent hours research players history and looking at stats. The saying amongst kids at my high school was that I knew everything about the Pistons…and their mothers. One day while research a new signee, I noticed he majored in sports management. I did a bit more research and determined that’s what I was going to do.

To get a good base for my career in sports, I took every business elective in high school to prepare. I job shadowed with the Western Michigan University Athletics Department and was taking business courses at the local community college.

That was when a real life changing event took place. I was a witness to a homicide that took place in front of my house. At that moment, I decided to put my dreams on hold to give back to my community. I started volunteering with a new nonprofit organization that had no money. When it finally did get funding six months later, the founder hired me to run our youth program. We grew that organization from nothing to an organization with a budget of nearly half a million dollars within a few years and provided nearly 100 youth with an opportunity to grow as people. But something was missing.

I started to miss being around the game of basketball.

I started a youth program at a local church that went from a group of five kids to 60 over night. The program taught kids the fundamentals of basketball and life. One parent asked me if I coached anywhere. That was when I decided to coach at the school in which my dreams of playing in the NBA had been squashed years before. But there was a big problem. I had no experience.

To have some sort of resume to present, I started doing research. First, I became a Youth Development Certified Coach through USA Basketball. Then I became and Accredited and Certified Interscholastic Coach through the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Finally, I enrolled in the Sports Management Worldwide Digital Video Editing with Synergy course. In the summer of 2017, I completed the Basketball GM and Scouting Course. I’m also enrolled in the NetScouts Basketball Scouting Certification Program and will be completing that next year.

In 2015, I joined the coaching staff as a video coordinator, an unpaid position. I ended up being the assistant coach for our freshman and junior varsity teams as well. By hard work and an interest to learn, I gained more responsibilities. From initially just recording and breaking down games to player development work and coaching our summer team. This year, I prepared advance scouting reports on opponents and even filled in for the head coach for press interviews. Next year, I’ll be moving from the video side to the bench.

In my two seasons as an assistant coach/video coordinator, our team has gone 36-11(77%) and won back-to-back District Championships for the first time since the early 1990s.

I currently work at the Battle Creek Community Foundation as a Community Initiatives Associate. In my role I provide administrative support, coordination and customer service to support the advance and engagement of community initiatives and projects within the Battle Creek Community Foundation and other community partners. My work in our community led me to be named one of 120 Fellows in the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Community Leadership Network out of over 2000 applicants.

For a sample of one of my advance scouting reports that features a brief player personnel report, please visit the link below.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/9u2gaq24yxdl8o1/Jackson%20Scouting%20Report.pdf?dl=0