Skills trainer Jeremy Hays and Fadeaway Fitness are putting on a “skillcase” on July 31 and August 1 for promising hoopers in both middle school and high school.
The event takes place at The Highlands Sports Complex from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. for middle-school boys (2026s through 2028s) and then from 2 p.m. until 6 p.m. for high school players. Boys go on July 31, while the girls’ event is set for the following day. Start times and age breakdowns are the same.
“We’ll being doing a lot of individual development drills for the first hour, hour and 20 minutes. We’ll also be doing NBA combine testing, checking your measurables like the three-quarter court sprint, your vertical, your height, wingspan, and a couple other data points,” Hays said. “After that’s done, we’ll have live action games, 1-on-1, 2-on-2, 5-on-5, a mix of everything, to get that live action work going.”
Hays noted he’s got a good number of athletes already registered. His videographer and media crew will document the entire event and will be able to provide pictures, videos, mix tapes, and anything else the participants would need to show off their skillsets to recruiters.
He’s also been blasting all of his personal and Fadeaway Fitness’ social media accounts to ensure maximum exposure.
For the athletes, that means scouts and coaches aware of an interested in the event.
“Several of the coaches in the local area, as well as ones that follow me on social media, have hit me up about the skillcase,” Hays said. “There are also media sites and recruiting sites that will be in attendance, evaluating and writing reviewers.
The cost is $125 per participant and those interested can sign up online at fadeawayfit.com.
Hays’ new online platform allows clients to train with him any time of the day. 
There are nearing 100 skill training videos and counting on the online platform.
Expanding the Business, Brand
Hays began Fadeaway Fitness back in 2017. He’s come a long way since offering hour-long training sessions to local and regional players, both collegiate and scholastic.
He still does so, also hosting group camps and workouts in addition to the private workouts.
But his name and brand have filtered far beyond the reaches of the Ohio Valley through the years and now Hays is poised to make his skill development training a national platform.
That’s because you can have Hays serve as your personal trainer at any hour of the day and have nearly 100 (and growing) skill workouts at your fingertips.
Fadeaway Fitness has partner with Solin, an online streaming platform, to bring the Fadeaway Fitness experience online and available to the masses.
A five-day trial can be found here, along with a monthly subscription that includes two live training sessions, challenges, workouts, and weekly programs, along with access to FFs full program library.
The digital platform just launched a week ago, but Hays noted he’s already received 100 signups and counting.
“My initial goals are to get to 100, 500, 1,000 signups and, once there, then you really get that snowball effect going,” Hays said. “The cool thing about this project is all I have to do is update my content, organize it, and the site runs it and takes care of all the back end stuff.”
That will allow Hays to continue to work with clients individually, put on camps and skillcases, travel across the country and run other camps, and a whole host of other events.
“Going digital it should allow me to skyrocket my brand, be promoted all over the entire country vs. just in the area. Before I could only do training sessions if I was in town, but with the videos, people can train from everywhere.
“Now you can train with me anytime, anywhere, and its unlimited each month.”
National Credibility
Know who DJ Sackmann is? If you’re involved in the basketball world, you do, or certainly should.
Sackmann is an NBA skills coach and a basketball clinician known and respected the world over. He’s also the lead director for the Adidas Nations Training Camp and one of six trainers worldwide to represent the Adidas brand globally.
He works individually with both NBA and WNBA players. Not just in the know. He is the know.
Hays originally connected digitally with Sackmann through a fellow skills trainer that Hays ran a camp for down in Charlotte, Jordan Paris of Hoop Dreams Training Academy.
Paris connected the two and Hays and Sackmann began talking back and forth digitally.
Anyone who knows Hays knows he likes to work—a lot. It’s not uncommon for Hays to string together 12-16 or more hour-long training sessions per day, back to back. His record is 20 sessions straight, going strong from 4 a.m. until midnight.
So, on Hays’ 29th birthday last month, he opted to finally take a day off. That is, until he received a phone call.
“I got a call from a close colleague about running a Hoop Group event that was being put on by Sackmann. I was basically going to be the second main skill guy there and I’d be helping him run the camp. I canceled my plans because doing this was a no brainer.”
Hays worked the camp and had plenty of opportunity to talk with Sackmann, both during the camp and after hours.
They are working together again, as Hays will be rejoining Sackmann in the Poconos for the second session of that high-level skills camp from July 10-11.
“It’s kind of crazy, as a kid, you look up to people in your field and as I grew in the training game, there were a handful of trainers I looked up to and D.J. was one of the ones,” Hays admitted. “I wanted to model my business and company after his success, and to be able to connect with him on a personal level was huge.”
Hays is working on something big for the coming months, but until everything is cemented, he didn’t want to reveal too much. But in the meantime, he’ll continue to grow his brand, whilst training some of the top players in the area, the region, and now beyond.
It’s all part of his plan that’s seen countless hours of hard work really begin to pay off.
“I think a lot of people see the posts on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, but what they don’t see is me sleeping in my car, eating gas station food all the time because I’m always on the go,” Hays said. ‘That’s obviously my choice, but there’s been plenty of 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 hour days, back to back.”
