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The
1% CLUB was officially founded in 2003 by Jeremy Russotti.
However, it was the few years previous when the club
really began to
evolve to where it is today.
At
the time, Jeremy Russotti was the head coach at Casa
Grande High school in Petaluma, Ca. Within his team,
he developed a close bond and relationship to two of
his players - Angelo Tsagarakis (Oregon State) and Josh
Akognon (Washington State). Because of their endless
hours of training, and the belief that only a small population
trained at their level, they jokingly labeled
themselves with the 1% CLUB moniker.
Most
impressive was Josh Akognon, who went from never playing
organized basketball until his freshman year of high
school, to the 4th leading scorer in the state of California
(30.1 ppg) by the end of his senior year. Josh accolades
include being a member of the Nigerian National Championship
team; being named as FIBA World Championship Top 20
up
and coming players; elected most "underrated player
in the PAC-10"
by Sports Illustrated; voted PAC-10
player of the week for his 25-point second half scoring
outburst vs. National Champion runner-up UCLA. Recently,
Josh transferred to Cal State Fullerton where he averaged
over 20ppg, while being top 5 in the nation in both three-pointers
made
and free-throw percentage.
In
2008, Josh Akognon led his team to a Big West Conference
Title, earning MVP of the Big West Tournament. In the
NCAA tournament,
Big Ten Defensive Player
of the Year, Michael Flowers. ESPN Analysts Doug Gottlieb
and Digger Phelps mentioned Josh as the "best player
nobody ever heard of", as well as the "Players
to watch list", respectively.
The
2009 season was a banner year for Josh. Most notably
was being selected by the NCAA as an All-American
(Honarable Mention Team).; recognized as one of the top
players in the nation. For his league, Josh was named
Big West Player of the year, as well as as
to the
1st
team NABC All-District team (2nd year in a row). Josh
finished 5th in the country in scoring (24 ppg), while
breaking the single season CSUF record of 764 pts (5th
all time for Big West Conference). Josh also broke the
Big West single season 3-pointers made record of 136.
(2nd in the NCAA). Also, Josh finished 5th in the NCAA
for free-throw percentage at 89%.
This past fall, Josh played in the CBA (Chinese Basketball Association) with
former NBA players Stephon Marbury, Ricky Davis, Steve Francis
and more. Josh ended up tearing up the league, averaging
30ppg and leading a last place team, to the 2nd seed of the
play-offs. On April 3rd, 2013, Josh officially signed with the Dallas Mavericks! 13 years of hard work finally validating his efforts in reaching his dreams.
1%
CLUB athlete, Angelo Tsagarakis signed with French Professional
Team JL Bourg for the 2008 play-offs. He finished the
playoffs averaging
10 points per game (19 mpg), shooting
44% from 3pt. land, 50% FG and 100% FT (6 games). After
that season, Angelo signed with another French Professional
Team, Paris Levallois
in 2008-2009. Currently, Angelo made it back to JL
Bourg for the 2010-2011 season, averaging 12ppg.
Coach
Russotti says, "the chemistry these two guys had
together was something special. They fed off one another
and pushed each other to unlimited heights. I was fortunate
to be part of their development and it
was a great ride." Now
Coach Russotti follows his passion and dreams in spreading
the principles and training methods of the 1% CLUB to
a variety of elite basketball players throughout the
nation and the professional ranks with his "GREEN ROOM
TRAINING" program. Green Room Training is an all-inclusive
training program for professional and elite high school
athletes.
Most recently, Jeremy Russotti has started Global Sports Innovation, LLC. Not only a top skill development specialists, Jeremy is has developed some of the top sporting goods aids in the market today. In 2009, he invented an released the
J-Glove Shooting Aid (www.jglove.com). Within a matter
of years the J-Glove is being considered the top invention
for basketball instruction in the USA (20k sold). The J-Glove is being used
by teams such as the San Antonio Spurs, Miami Heat, and
Memphis Grizzlies; as well as NCAA teams such as Stanford,
UCLA, Memphis, Louisville, Miami, LSU, Boston College,
and many more. More recently, Jeremy has released V-Bands, O-Bands, J-Strap, J-Bow, and working on products in the field of Golf, and MMA.
The future remains bright - more to come.......
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