Cole Anthony And Mom Crystal McCrary Launch App To Help Aspiring Athletes
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Cole Anthony, point guard for Orlando Magic, and Crystal McCrary, writer and producer, are partnering to help families of aspiring athletes navigate youth basketball development. The mother and son are launching a new app, GameUp, in September. It will help parents become familiar with reliable organizations, development programs, trainers, and coaches.
“There are organizations for basketball development that can be really expensive for families to have their kids join, and they’re almost selling the pipe dream. ‘Join this organization,’ and then the kid never gets any playing time,” McCrary told PEOPLE.
McCrary is a mother to three athletes. Anthony is in the NBA while her 20-year-old daughter Ella recently won a New York State Championship, and her son Leo plays AAU basketball competitively for New York’s Riverside Hawks.
She was inspired to launch the app after other parents kept coming to her for recommendations.
“I’ve just been deeply immersed in this world for a decade plus at this point, and so I became that parent that other parents would constantly come to ask, ‘Can you make a recommendation for a basketball program? Can you make a recommendation for a team, a trainer, et cetera?’ Just recommendations for many aspects of the youth basketball world,” she said.
McCrary also noticed a growing demand as she saw the youth basketball business expand and aspiring players joining the sport at a younger age.
“Kids like Cole didn’t get to go to nationals until he was in fourth grade,” she told the news outlet. “His little brother went right after kindergarten, so it’s gotten younger and younger and more, I think, convoluted for families to navigate.”
As for Anthony, he has been enjoying seeing his mother work from behind the scenes and collaborate with her on the project.
“I have not taken this for granted at all, and I’ve just appreciated the level of expertise she has in the business field, especially when she came to me with her ideas. She’s just a superwoman,” he said.
