Upon graduating from high school where I was fortunate to play for my father for two seasons, I enrolled at the Emory & Henry College (Emory, VA) to play for the well-known coach Bob Johnson. After a semester in Emory, I decided it was not the right fit and I transferred home and attended Brevard Community College to figure out the next step of my life.
On my 21st birthday, that next step was determined. People talk about “life changing moments”, this was definitely one of them. I received my letter of admittance to the University of Florida; soon after I would be hired by Matt McCall (whom I now consider to be one of my best friends) to be a manager for the men’s basketball team.
During my five seasons as an undergraduate manager and graduate assistant, I was fortunate to experience many things in basketball that most only dream of. 1 SEC regular season championship, 3 SEC Tournament Championships, and 2 National Championships. The trophies and rings are all nice, but it was much more than that. The number of relationships and memories I formed with such extraordinary individuals was absolutely priceless.
Upon graduation, I accepted a position at FastModel sports and spent five great years at FastModel (2009-2014). During my time at FastModel I was fortunate to create an unimaginable number of relationships with coaches from all around the world at all different levels of basketball.
In June of 2014, I decided to change directions in my life and began an exciting career with Better Basketball.
Fast forward two years to the spring of 2016, I decided to take my talents to Pure Sweat Basketball where I am assisting in content creation and a strategic basketball skills coach.
From 2011-2016 I was a varsity boy’s assistant basketball coach at Fort Myers High School.
March 2016, I accepted the position of head boy’s basketball coach at Astronaut High School, in my hometown of Titusville, FL.
Among those, one very special relationship began to form, little did I know at the time that relationship would be with the love of my life whom I married June 2011. It is amazing how everything happens the way it does. We are blessed by God with the most beautiful daughters, Kinsley and Rylan. They say fatherhood will change your life and I could not be any happier!
The number of people I owe thanks to for whom and where I am today is unfathomable. As I continue to grow as a professional, a husband, and a father, I do owe everything to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Kyle you area special young man and I am so happy to call you my nephew. I know that God has great plans for you because I have already seen him working in your life. You are a hard working and dedicated young man. I wish you and Jenna all the happiness in the world.
Coach, that was nice to read! I am happy for you and your success. You have a beautiful family. Thanks for all the work you put into the website and on Fastmodel. Got a couple of great plays and drills off of that. I just finished my first year as an assistant in college and am always looking to network and create great professional relationships.
I’d love to hear back from you.
-Ido.
Ido,
Thank you for your kind comments, I am glad you have been able to grab a few concepts from my website to help you in your career. That’s great, where are you coaching? If you contact me via Twitter @KyleGilreath I can get you my email address if you want it.
-Kyle
Hey Coach,
Just wanted to stop by and say thank you! I’m currently a sophomore and student assistant at Grand Valley State University in Allendale, MI. I often will work our guys out, and when I’m home in the summers I have a group of old high school teammates who are playing college ball who I work out as well. I can’t tell you how many drills that you’ve posted throughout the web that I have been able to use in our workouts, but I owe you much thanks for it all!
As someone who took a similar path into coaching as the one I am attempting to take, I definitely appreciate your story. I’d love to get in contact with you to build a professional relationship and share ideas as I continue to go through this journey into coaching.
Thanks and I hope to hear back from you soon!
-Dylan
Just read your post on breaking down game film on The Tribe website. Would love a copy of your post game report. You can email it to me at rmack0423@comcast.net
Thanks, Bob McCormack
Kyle,
Just heard you on the Whistle & Clipboard podcast. Really liked your insights. You touched on a lot of the same concepts and ideas that we speak about in the organization Proactive Coaching. Not sure if you have heard of Proactive Coaching, but you should check out our FB page. We are about to go over 200,000 people who have “Liked” the page and who are getting 3 or 4 character-based coaching nuggets everyday.
I’m also curious if you know Justin Scanson from your time at Fast Model. I was Justin’s varsity basketball coach his junior and senior years. He was a great kid, and I knew he was destined for big things. He has actually just started posting my blog posts on the Fast Model site, and I have received a lot of positive feedback from coaches all over the country from those.
I look forward to connecting with you in some way. Check out my website – http://www.coachwithcharacter.com – or email me if you are interested in starting a dialogue on some of the coaching/athletic topics that I heard you discuss. Thanks for all you are doing to help coaches and kids have a great experience through sport!
Scott