ROANOKE, Va. – Roanoke native Mackenzie Lewis grew to love the game of basketball through high school and even into college. While he experienced success, he realized that the ultimate pivot in life wasn’t far off.
“I knew when my playing career was done I wanted to have the game be part of my life in some way,” Lewis said.
It didn’t take long before he found a new way to still be involved with the game through coaching and player development. Then, a dream was had.
“I wake up in the middle of the night like, ‘I should do this.’ Just started writing and literally two weeks later came up with Hoop Love Academy.”
The HLA team has been working hard to effect change in the community and will now be able to do it even more so with a new space and continue their year-long programs and camps.
“You know what it’s like to work for something and I am grateful,” Lewis said. “Just to see something that was a dream five years ago. I have this saying that I always say, ‘Started as a dream and still building the community.’ And we are still building our community And we’re still building the bigger community with Roanoke in other areas but it all started as a dream. Like in 2019, I didn’t know. I knew where I wanted to go in a way but I didn’t know how that would look.”