Home / Where we train / Florence
FLORENCE, KY
Florence is the longest drive on this list.
Boone County is well south west of the courts Alex Grant uses, so a Florence family is looking at around half an hour each way. This page tells you that first, then tells you who should make the trip anyway.
Court
Players from Florence train at Bellevue Beach Park, a Newport court, or Swope
Drive
The longest of any town here, roughly half an hour north east
Surface
Outdoor public court, open air, no gym
Session
$200 per session, one on one or small group
01 / TRAINING IN FLORENCE
Should a Florence family drive that far for basketball training?
Only if they will do it repeatedly. It is around half an hour each way to the outdoor courts in Bellevue and Newport, or to Swope. Nothing in Florence or Boone County is used. Sessions are $200, one on one or small group, and a plan is built for the individual player.
Boone County has big programs and deep player pools. Boone County High School, Cooper, Ryle and Conner all pull from a large area, which means a talented kid is competing with a lot of other talented kids for the same fifteen roster spots. That is exactly the situation where individual development decides who plays, and it is also the situation where a lot of families end up buying showcase events instead of skill work.
Worth remembering what the destination actually looks like. The NCAA reported for 2024-25 that 3.6% of high school boys and 4.7% of high school girls basketball players reach NCAA basketball at any division. Source: https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2013/12/17/probability-of-competing-beyond-high-school.aspx. Training is still worth doing, because a better player has a better high school career either way, but nobody should be sold a half hour drive on a promise about scholarships.
03 / AROUND HERE
Florence notes
- 01
Deep Boone County rosters
Boone County, Cooper, Ryle and Conner all draw from large populations. Getting minutes there is a competition, and skill work is how a player wins it.
- 02
No court in Florence
Nothing in Boone County is part of this. Every session runs at one of three outdoor courts north east, and you are told which one before you leave.
- 03
Fewer visits, harder homework
Given the distance, most Florence players train less often and carry more solo work between sessions. Alex sets that work and checks it each time.
05 / Questions
What families in Florence ask
How far is it really?
Roughly half an hour each way from most of Florence to the courts in Bellevue or Newport, depending on traffic and which court is in use that week. It is the longest trip of any town covered here, and there is no closer option, because Alex trains at three outdoor courts only and none of them are in Boone County.
Would a small group make the trip more sensible?
Usually yes. Two or three players sharing a session cuts the driving burden per family and makes the drills better, since decision making at game speed needs a real defender. The group stays small enough that nobody is standing around. Group pricing is handled directly rather than published, but a single session is $200.
What makes this different from a camp?
A camp runs one plan for forty kids and a coach barely sees any single player. Here the plan is written for one player after being watched, and it changes as they improve. Alex has eight years coaching middle school, high school and college programs and has coached multiple 1,000 point scorers. That attention is the entire product, and it does not scale to a gym full of kids.