'America's Got Talent' winner Brandon Leake inspires students at Pueblo schools

Minutes before a schoolwide assembly on Jan. 26, "America's Got Talent" winner Brandon Leake was draining mid-range jump shots in the gymnasium with students from Risley Academy of Innovation.

While he was a good enough basketball player to be recruited by a professional club in France, Leake won the 2020 edition of America's Got Talent with his spoken-word poetry — not his jump shot. Risley was one of three Pueblo-area schools that the California native visited this week to share his poetry and impart wisdom to students.

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Leake also held assemblies at Paragon Learning Center and Pueblo County High School before sharing the keynote address at the Pueblo Mentoring Collaborative’s eighth annual luncheon and performing “Insomnia,” a one-man play, in front of a crowd at the Sangre de Cristo Arts Center on Friday night.

"I just call myself ‘Uncle B’ oftentimes, because teachers and staff become pseudo parents and kids end up ignoring their voices in the same way they ignore their parents’ voices … I get the chance to tell these kids the exact same thing, but it sounds cool because it comes from me — the same way uncles show up in town,” Leake said.

Leake said his uncle Anthony and cousin Brian played similar roles in his life.

Assemblies at Paragon, Pueblo County and Risley were based on Leake’s ‘DREAMERZ’ curriculum that centers around four questions. Leake asked students what their dream was, to name three steps they can take toward their dream, name three roadblocks that might get in their way and name the reason for their dream.

He encouraged students to “dream big” and share their answers to each question with classmates during the assembly.

As a freshman in high school, Leake’s dream was to be the “next Kobe Bryant," but he was 5-foot-6, 120 pounds and “trash at basketball,” he said.

“Junior year, I was the starting point guard for my varsity basketball team that went to state championships,” Leake said. “Now, here's my question. What happened? What changed? Well, three things happened. I took three steps towards my dream.”

Leake’s first step was to improve his ballhandling skills. He dribbled a basketball about two-and-a half miles to and from school each day. He eventually became skilled enough to dribble tennis balls instead of basketballs. He improved his jump shot by shooting 1,000 shots from 8-10 p.m. at a local park each night. He also worked out seven days a week at a local gym.

“I'm sure there are things that you could do today to help you get closer to the person who you're desiring to be,” he told students. “I'm sure you could get better grades. I'm sure that if you're an athlete, you could work on your skillset more.”

Following the death of his best friend, Leake turned to poetry and eventually let go of basketball. However, he applied the same work ethic to writing that he did to basketball in high school.

He first tried out for America’s Got Talent in 2017, but was eliminated in the early rounds. The day after he won the show in 2020, he was "ecstatic,’" but the following day he felt "empty."

“If you only define yourself by whether or not you win or lose, you will have a very miserable life,” Leake said.

“If you learn to fall in love with being able to just do the right thing and fall in love with the process of becoming good at something, then you'll have a far more enjoyable life because you only stay at a destination for a short period of time. You journey for a long period of time.”

Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached by email at JBartolo@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: 'America's Got Talent' winner Brandon Leake visits Pueblo schools