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Texas Christian University sophomore Bobby Deftos started small when he started coaching basketball in his Chicago suburb.
It began with one kid whose mom saw Deftos shooting hoops at a varsity high school game. He was just a junior. Over the following summers, it grew to around 25 families. From one-on-one coaching, he moved to mini clinics and kid camps.
When he came to TCU, he decided to run with his idea even more. He paired up with TCU classmateDylan Lafferty, and in the fall they launched MVP Training.
This summer they started marketing the Brock Harding Basketball Camp, a six-hour one day camp with TCU basketball point guard Harding.
In June, they began a 40-day Instagram campaign with zero campers and no venue. By day 40, the day of the camp, they had over 50 players, boys aged 8 to 13 years old, and a venue, Fort Worth’s AP Ranch.
Deftos talked to the Report’s Shomial Ahmad on his approach to basketball camp, how he’s leveraged the Big 12 university’s resources and what his little league basketball team would be known for.
The interview has been edited for clarity and space.
Contact information:
Instagram: _mvptraining_
Phone: 630-408-7402
Email: mvptrainingfw@gmail.com
Shomial Ahmad: How do you set yourself apart from other basketball camps?
Bobby Deftos: The most important thing is providing quality training. I have a ton of confidence in our ability to help kids grow, not only as players, but as people. A lot of other trainers are more focused on the actual X’s and O’s and those types of things. We really focus on teaching attitude, effort and respect. When the kids leave, the parents see a real change in the kids.
That’s what ends up building great athletes down the road. Having a great attitude leads to practicing and playing incredibly hard. A lot of people look at playing hard as an intangible, but it truly is a skill that needs to be worked on and developed — and it’s vital that it gets developed at a young age.
It started as a great way to make spending money, but it grew to be more than that. You also see these kids develop. You get a message, “My son made the team. I’m so happy. He’s so stoked. Thank you so much.” You get a video of a kid playing on the A team. Or you get a text from a parent, that says, “Hey, AJ just cleaned up the dinner table at night.”
Those are the moments when I decided to really run with it and let it take off.
Youth basketball players sharpen their game at MVP Training’s Brock Harding Basketball Camp at AP Ranch on July 12, 2025. (Shomial Ahmad | Fort Worth Report)
Ahmad: How did you leverage the resources that you had at TCU to make your camp successful?
Deftos: I’m a student manager on the TCU men’s basketball team. I’ve been lucky to tap into the knowledge and expertise. I like to think of myself as pretty intelligent and focused on basketball, but I’m 19 and just finished my first year at TCU.
I can walk into coach Tony Benford’s and coach Duane Broussard’s offices and pick their brains as people who have been working in Division I basketball for decades.
I can call my boss who has run TCU kids camps for 10 years now, and ask, “Like, how do I do this?” He tells me a couple of ways to get a tax break, how to keep kids entertained after lunch, how to make myself a better coach and how to train the kids better.
Ahmad: What’s your goal with the camp?
Deftos: Our goal is to learn. I mean, it’ll be good to make a couple of bucks and all that good stuff. But we want to grow as people, as entrepreneurs and as basketball minds.
We walked into 65 different stores and pitched sponsorships. I walked into the first one and was shaking just from being nervous, and when I walked into the 30th one, I sold a sponsorship. That kind of personal growth — overcoming social anxiety and learning how to pitch people — doesn’t happen if you’re sitting behind a desk working an internship for some random company.
Ahmad: What are some key lessons that you learned along the way since starting the camp?
Deftos: The first one is pretty obvious, but it’s to leverage your connections as much as possible. Our camp space, some of the ways we advertise or market our sponsorship came from, “Hey I know this guy, or I know a guy who knows a guy.”
The same goes the other way. Because we’ve helped out a couple of people in our field who are trainers, now maybe we can use their gym space. It becomes a community because that’s what sports really is at the end of the day: a community of people who have the same goal. Get better at the game, have fun and play.
And then there’s the importance of social media. In our 40-day Instagram marketing series, we grew like 620% to 700% with over 125,000 profile views now. That success takes time, effort and focus. It’s hard to pump out that much content but we get it done.
Then it’s just living the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Everything we’re doing is dependent on us. If something has to get done, we do it. There’s no mom and dad looking over our shoulders here.
Ahmad: If your basketball camp players formed a Fort Worth little league basketball team what would it be called and what would they be known for?
Deftos: They would be called the Fort Worth Toads. They would be known for playing so hard, giving the best attitude, effort and respect every single day.
The Toads would end the game, shaking hands with the other team’s players, thanking the officials and running off the court.
Shomial Ahmad is a higher education reporter for the Fort Worth Report, in partnership with Open Campus. Contact her at shomial.ahmad@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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Winter Dinner — To benefit Colorado Springs Philharmonic Guild, 6 p.m. Saturday, The Broadmoor, 1 Lake Ave. Tickets: e.givesmart.com/events/Mhq.
100+ Women Who Care Colorado Springs — 5:30 p.m. Jan. 21, The Warehouse Restaurant, 25 W. Cimarron St.; 100wwccs.com.
Jeffrey Alan Band — 7 p.m. Jan. 23, Stargazers Theatre, 10 S. Parkside Drive, donation of nonperishable food items or cash to benefit Care and Share Food Bank; stargazerstheatre.com.
Tennis Pro Am — To benefit Newborn Hope, 6-9 p.m. Jan. 30, Colorado Springs Racquet Club, 2529 N. Murray Blvd. Registration: secure.qgiv.com/event/newbornhopeproam2026.
“Neighbors” — A fundraiser to benefit Westside Cares, through Thursday, Auric Gallery, 125 E. Boulder St.; auricgallery.com.
Empty Stocking Fund — Go online to make a donation, through Jan. 24: emptystockingfundco.org.
Through Jan. 31: TreeCycle Christmas Tree Recycling — To benefit Colorado Springs Youth Sports, 7:30 a.m.-5 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays, Rocky Top Resources, 1755 E. Las Vegas St., $5 suggested minimum donation per tree. All decorations, stands and spikes must be removed from trees before drop-off. Tree debris, other than from Christmas trees, cannot be accepted; csyouthsports.net/treecycle.
MARCH
34th Annual Colorado Springs Wine Festival: Wines of South America — To benefit the Colorado Springs Conservatory, March 4-7, various Colorado Springs locations. Tickets: winefestivalofcoloradosprings.com.
Colorado Springs Plunge & 5K — To benefit Special Olympics Colorado, 9 a.m. March 7, Rock Ledge Ranch, 3105 Gateway Road. Registration: p2p.onecause.com/2026cosplunge.
St. Patrick’s 25th Gala Celebration — To benefit Catholic Charities of Central Colorado, 5 p.m. March 14, Cheyenne Mountain Resort, 3225 Broadmoor Valley Road. Tickets: ccharitiescc.org/event/st-patricks-day-shamrock-shindig.
APRIL
Angel Gala — To benefit Angels of America’s Fallen, 5:30 p.m. April 18, Hotel Polaris, 898 North Gate Blvd. Tickets: aoafallen.org.
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Email event details at least two weeks in advance to [email protected] with Community Calendar in the subject line.
The Central Penn Panthers Youth Ice Hockey Club is investigating an incident at a Hershey Bears game.
HERSHEY, Pa. — The Central Penn Panthers Youth Ice Hockey Club issued a statement Sunday after a fight broke out between its players during a “Mites on Ice” appearance at Saturday night’s Hershey Bears game.
The organization said the incident occurred while young skaters were on the ice between periods. The club did not describe what led to the brawl.
In its statement, the club emphasized that creating a safe and positive environment for children remains its top priority.
In another statement from the Atlantic Amateur Hockey Association, a spokesperson said they are aware of the staged fight, and that the parties involved will face disciplinary action. The organization also mentioned that the intermission game was not sanctioned by USA Hockey or the Atlantic Amateur Hockey Association.
Officials said the organization has begun an internal review and is working to collect information from everyone who was involved or witnessed the incident.
There are multiple investigations into a brawl between young hockey players during intermission of an AHL game on Saturday.
The incident occurred during the Hershey Bears’ Mites On Ice intermission segment. Players from the Central Penn Panthers Youth Ice Hockey Club began fighting as Bears and Cleveland Monsters personnel were in the dressing rooms at Giant Center in Hershey, Pa.
Hershey’s mites on ice game went off the rails again. 😂
Team White’s tiny but heavily padded goalie didn’t tend the goal and instead began cleaning house in a huge brawl.
The mite players, including goalies, rushed toward one another and traded punches. One player appeared to hit his teammate. No officials attempted to break up the brawl, and the crowd cheered on the youth players.
Video taken by fans from inside the arena began to spread on social media Saturday night. The fight was even mentioned on “Hockey Night in Canada.”
In a statement on Sunday, the Atlantic Amateur Hockey Association (AAHA) referred to the incident as a “staged fight.”
The AAHA said Sunday in its statement that “appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against those players and team officials involved with the staged fight” after an investigation. The AAHA statement noted that neither it nor USA Hockey sanctioned the Bears’ Mites On Ice Game on Saturday.
In addition to the AAHA’s investigation, the Central Penn youth club pledged an “internal review to fully understand the circumstances surrounding the incident” in a statement posted to its Facebook page. That statement said, “The safety, well-being, and positive experience of all participants — especially our young players — are of the utmost importance.”
The Central Penn Panthers are based in Lancaster, Pa., and were founded in the early 1990s, according to the club’s website. Teams feature players ages 4 to 18 from levels AA, A, and B.
On Sunday, the AHL’s Bears referred to the statement released by the Central Penn youth club at the end of their own statement.
“What occurred during last night’s youth scrimmage involving one team (split into two sides) held during an intermission of a Hershey Bears game did not reflect the values of the sport or the standards we expect when young athletes are on the ice,” the Bears’ statement said. “Hockey must always be played within the rules, with safety as the top priority.
“The Hershey Bears are proud to provide opportunities for young players to experience the game in a professional environment. At the same time, we cannot support or allow conduct that puts participants at risk.
“We are reviewing this matter and will work closely with participating teams and partners to ensure clear safeguards, supervision, and expectations are in place for any future youth activities held during our games. Our focus remains on protecting young players and upholding the integrity of the sport.”
At least one other recent Bears’ Mites On Ice game featured a fight.
The Bears are an AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Washington Capitals, who also feature games between mite-aged players during games. One on Thursday night featured Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin’s son.
Alex Ovechkin wasn’t about to miss his son playing hockey during the intermission 🥹 pic.twitter.com/gymro6RleU
The Whitefish Winter Carnival has crowned its first round of royalty, the Prime Minister and the Duchess of Lark.
Zak Anderson was named Prime Minister and Katie Akey was crowned Duchess of Lark during the Merry Maker on Saturday.
Zak Anderson is a longtime Whitefish community member with a career rooted in volunteer leadership and civic service. With over two decades of experience in hospitality, marketing, youth sports, and event production, Anderson consistently applies his skills to strengthen local organizations and community initiatives.
Anderson serves as board president of the Friends of the Flathead Avalanche Center, supporting public safety, education, and forecasting for backcountry users across northwest Montana. He is also a board member of Housing Whitefish, a nonprofit focused on workforce housing solutions, and previously served on the Whitefish Planning Board. In his role as executive director of the Whitefish Convention and Visitors Bureau, Zak serves on the city of Whitefish’s Sustainable Tourism Management Plan Committee, contributing to efforts that balance tourism, livability, and environmental stewardship.
Across civic planning, tourism, and public safety, Anderson brings a collaborative, hands-on approach. He leverages his experience in operations, fundraising, and communications to strengthen organizations that serve the greater Flathead Valley.
A lifelong local with deep roots in our realm, Katie Akey is a Whitefish native who embodies the town’s spirit of service and community.
Though she left for a brief period, her return was marked by a seamless transition back into the local fabric, picking up exactly where she left off: championing the traditions and people that make Whitefish home and serving those who are lucky enough to visit.
As a manager of the Great Northern Bar & Grill, Akey oversees one of the last remaining original local establishments. Under her and her family’s dedication to the realm “The Northern” has remained a vital community hub, raising over $65,000 for the Whitefish Winter Carnival through its legendary Disco Party. She has never been one to be part of anything in name only. This is reflected in her extensive volunteer work as a Winter Carnival board member for over 10 years and treasure for the past four. Setting up logistics for travel, participating in parades and stepping in as a character when needed.
Akey’s dedication lies not only in Carnival but also in the town’s heritage, growth and future. Through the FIT program benefiting children for the past 10 years, she’s helped sort prizes weeks in advance all the way through coming home covered in pink and blue dye from the Color Run fundraisers. Also, a member of the Big Mountain Commercial Association board, Akey has a passion for keeping the SNOW buses running and free to all the public by donating space at The Northern and helping serve at the fundraising events. Whether she is behind the scenes at the Great Northern, Winter Carnival, or advocating for students and local mountain transit, Akey remains a driving force in preserving the unique character and future of the community of Whitefish.
The Whitefish Winter Carnival continues through Feb. 8. Up next is the coronation of King Ullr LX VII and Queen of the Snows at the O’Shaughnessy Center at 7 p.m. on Jan. 17, followed by the Disco Party the same evening. For a full list of events, visit whitefishwintercarnival.com.
Whitefish Winter Carnival Prime Zak Anderson. (Photo courtesy of Picture Montana)
Apparently, this is becoming the standard at Hershey Bears games.
Published•Updated
We may have just seen the hockey fight of the year — and it didn’t even happen at an NHL game.
During an AHL match between the Hershey Bears and Cleveland Monsters on Saturday, youth players hit the ice at intermission for a quick mites game. But the crowd at the Giant Center got more than they bargained for.
At one point during the game, a fight broke out between two of the kiddos. The boys threw multiple haymakers as if they were auditioning for a role in a Slap Shot remake. After the player in blue wrestled the player in red to the ground, teammates got involved — attempting to push the blue player off their fallen comrade. That is until another blue player came in and body slammed the pile.
That’s when all hell broke loose. Suddenly, it was an all-out brawl of miniature hockey players punching and tackling each other onto the ice. At one point, a blue player got lost in the moment and started swinging on his own teammate.
Even a goalie got involved!
WATCH:
Not a referee in sight.
Here’s another angle, in case you can’t get enough:
I see promising hockey careers and a lot of missing teeth in their future.
Apparently, though, these sorts of brawls have become commonplace at Hershey Bears mites games. Check out this fight from Dec. 20.
In case you cared about the actual AHL game Saturday, the Bears got the win, 3-2, breaking a tie in the third period while short-handed.
But that’s not what any of the fans were buzzing about when they left the arena.
Youth artists who live in households or receive housing-related services managed by the Cullman Housing Authority are invited to take part in the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) “What Home Means to Me” poster contest. (Cullman Housing Authority)
CULLMAN, Ala. – Youth artists who live in households or receive housing-related services managed by the Cullman Housing Authority are invited to take part in the National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) “What Home Means to Me” poster contest.
The contest is open to youth ages 5–18 and is part of a national program sponsored by NAHRO.
Since 2008, the competition has highlighted the artwork of children living in affordable housing, encouraging young artists to express what home means to them through original poster designs.
The contest is conducted in multiple rounds, beginning at the regional level. A total of 24 regional winners advance to the national competition, where 12 national winners are selected.
National winners have their artwork featured in NAHRO’s “What Home Means to Me” calendar the following year. Select winners also receive cash prizes and a trip to Washington, D.C.
Cullman Housing Authority officials encourage eligible youth and families interested in participating to visit the Cullman Housing Authority office at 408 Cleveland Ave. SW, Cullman, or call 256-734-6171 for complete contest guidelines and submission deadlines.
