As he was getting ready to lace up his sneakers to play in his fourth Hoopfest 3-on-3 basketball tournament this summer, Ryan Collins ’22,’ 24 was disappointed to see his team wasn’t able to play on the Vandal court in downtown Spokane. But he didn’t let that affect his game.
Collins has lived in nine U.S. states and two foreign countries – he has a knack for feeling at home wherever he happens to be.
After graduating this spring with a master’s in kinesiology and leisure sciences with a specialization in recreation, sport and tourism management from the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences (EHHS), Collins is preparing to transform his U of I experiences into his dream of creating basketball camps for children of U.S. military members living on bases overseas.
“I lived at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, and we had over 1,200 students in our high school on the base,” he said. “There isn’t much for them to do over the summer. Basketball is very popular in Europe right now. My friends and I played all the time, but it wasn’t organized. I want to help create an organized basketball camp for military kids.”
Getting down to business
After experiencing life around the world as part of a U.S. Air Force family, Collins moved to Moscow to attend U of I in 2018. One of the benefits of relocating to North Idaho was being close to family members in Spokane, including an influential uncle who was a long-time basketball coach at East Valley High School.
Once on campus, Collins got to work. He enrolled in the College of Business and Economics (CBE) as a marketing major – the idea of his basketball camp already percolating.
The first thing I noticed about Ryan was that he had a purpose for choosing everything he did. Some students will participate in things to build their resume, but Ryan always chose activities to gain experience in things that were important for his plan and to widen his network.
Erick Larson
Student engagement director
Collins chose CBE activities he knew would help bring his vision into reality. To obtain more experience speaking in front of an audience, he helped create CBE’s Vandal Biz Talks, a student-led podcast that focuses on helping CBE students land meaningful internships and jobs after graduation.
“The first thing I noticed about Ryan was that he had a purpose for choosing everything he did,” said Erick Larson, CBE’s student engagement director. “Some students will participate in things to build their resume, but Ryan always chose activities to gain experience in things that were important for his plan and to widen his network.”
Another way Collins widened his network on campus was becoming a volunteer practice player for the Vandal Women’s Basketball team — thanks to a suggestion from his basketball coach uncle. It was here that he learned about what kinds of drills to run in practice.
His campus network grew even more when he helped re-establish the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) Greek house on campus shortly before graduating in Spring 2022.
Completing his education
Collins remained in Moscow after graduation, enrolling in the EHHS graduate program specifically to learn more about the inner workings of collegiate and professional sports.
Already having a general idea of how he wanted to put his basketball camps together, EHHS faculty members like Brian Fowler helped Collins, who was also a teaching assistant for recreation, sport and tourism management classes, refine his business plan to increase his chances of success.
“I don’t want to take credit for his idea, because it’s amazing and it’s all his,” said Fowler, EHHS clinical assistant professor. “But I think as a team we were able to break his plan down into stages – to start small and then let that initial success build momentum.”
Using his Ramstein connections and knowledge of the area, Collins plans to start his first camp there, with a targeted start date of 2025. Based on the success of the first camp, he plans to expand to other military bases around Europe.
Using his experience from practicing with the Vandal Women’s team, as well as from helping run camps at major college basketball programs like Duke and Stanford, Collins plans to run the day-to-day operations of the camp himself.
Collins wants the camp to be a non-profit organization so participants do not have to pay. To do that, he’s seeking to leverage some of his relationships to obtain equipment donations and, down the road, sponsorships.
Among the first people he contacted about those possibilities was his former TKE big brother, who works for Jordan Brand at Nike, as well as a U of I alumnus who spent 12 years at Adidas.
Game time
Trying to get an idea this big off the ground may seem like a lot of pressure to some, but for Collins, it may not even be the most nerve-racking situation he’s been in this year.
During the Duke basketball camp earlier this summer, Collins found himself coaching a player named Kai Redick. Kai’s father is JJ Redick, the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and the all-time leading scorer for Duke’s men’s team.
“So I’m doing shooting drills with Kai and I see JJ and (Duke head coach) Jon Scheyer in the background watching me,” Collins said. “JJ is a Duke basketball legend and played 15 years in the NBA and he’s watching me teaching his son how to shoot. That was interesting.”
No matter how many ups and downs Collins might face during his journey, he intends to see it through because, like someone who was raised around the military, he believes in the mission. And according to Larson, Collins is also doing it for the right personal reasons.
“I love telling students the biggest investment they can make is in themselves,” Larson said. “Ryan loves basketball and he loves the international communities where he’s lived. He was a determined student who identified a need and I know he’ll find a way to fill it.”