Going into his sophomore year, Ethan Smith got cut from his high school basketball team.

"I wasn't good enough," he says today. "So I took that to heart. I held onto it. It drove me to become a better basketball player. That's why I want to make every person I train or coach the best they can be."

By the time he finished high school—even though he didn't make the team—Ethan had begun training on his own. Before long, he was attracting the attention of college basketball programs. But instead, he turned his attention to training, deciding to pursue a career applying what he had learned to help kids like him improve their game. Since 2011, Ethan has coached competitive boys and girls AAU basketball teams and recreational YMCA and Kids Inc teams. He has spent the last five years training children, teens, and college athletes and has worked high school camps and private elite skills camps alongside college and professional basketball players. He also spent several years helping run the sports department at a local nonprofit.

Ethan graduated from West Texas A&M University in 2015 with a degree in sports and exercise sciences. He is a certified personal trainer (CPT) with the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA).