Daytona Beach, FL: For the second consecutive season the DME Academy Postgraduate Blue team competed for a PG National Championships. With a season record of 20-5 the team has been extended an invite to the big dance. This year’s event is being held in Rocky Hill, SC and will take place this weekend, March 12-14th. On Friday night, March 5th, DME Academy faced the Hargave Military Academy and won the game 63-61.
Understanding the importance of this event, Coach Wesam shared, “I’m very excited and happy for our team, they have worked very hard this season. We are happy to be there, but we are there to compete and maximize this experience for our players.”
While college coaches may not be onsite as in years past due to Covid-19, that doesn’t mean they won’t be watching. The Phenom PG Tournament host has live streaming options available and are expecting a great turnout of college coaches and scouts.
While the team fell short in their next match up, then ended the season as a top five team in the country.
Interested in playing at DME, get on our radar here!
No successful athlete ever has an easy path to success, and the same is true for Iowa Star and former DME Academy standout, Keegan Murray.
Typically, star athletes are offered scholarships in High School and head right to college following their graduation. Well, Keegan Murray didn’t follow the traditional star athlete path. Following a senior season at Prairie High School (Cedar Rapids, IA) he decided to forgo his college scholarship offers and head to basketball powerhouse, DME Sports Academy (DME) for a Post Graduate year, in search of more lucrative Division I opportunities.
DME was all business as soon as Keegan arrived on campus, training for about 6 hours a day, between strength and conditioning, practice, film sessions, and individual workouts. “Keegan is a very coachable athlete with a strong work ethic, which helps me become a better coach,” says Wesam Al-Sous, Head Post-Graduate Coach at DME, when asked about Keegan’s character. “But not only is he just coachable, he’s a selfless team player, and does anything he can in order for the team to be successful, which means putting in the work at practice —he definitely shows up in practice just as much as he shows up in the game.”
That work ethic, and his coachable mentality, helped Keegan gain interest from over 40 Division I programs, before landing a scholarship with his dream school, the University of Iowa, where his father, Kenyon Murray, also played. “When Keegan joined us [DME], he had great potential, he just needed to be pushed and compete at a higher level, in order to show his full potential,” commented Al-Sous on Keegan’s. Showing his full potential is exactly what Keegan did at DME, averaging 22.4 points per game on 50.75% shooting (41.7% from 3-point range), which helped put Keegan on people’s radar, ultimately landing a scholarship at the University of Iowa.
Since arriving at the University of Iowa, Keegan has helped boost the Hawkeyes to a #5 national ranking, while averaging 6.8 points per game and shooting a 55.8% field goal percentage on 15.8 minutes per game.
“At DME, we focus on improving every single student-athlete, through individual training schedules and customized programs for each of our athletes, we were able to give Keegan that personalized attention he needed to help elevate his game and get him to the next level,” explained Al-Sous.
If you’re interested in elevating your game to the next level, connect with one of our sport advisors here!
Mark your calendars: Spring Travel Team Basketball Tryouts are February 21st and 23rd.
This season, travel basketball is back in the hands of the DME Academy.
Travel Ball at DME Academy is unlike any other experience. Our amazing team of college- and professional-level coaches and trainers offer elite perspective and insights into the development of young athletes. What’s more, they’ll serve as mentors to each player, improving their game with our professional-grade sports facilities, premium equipment, training systems and technologies. Each student-athlete receives instruction and developmental training geared towards helping him or her reach their full capacity on and off the court.
Our main goal is to help players improve their game, individually, while ensuring they gain valuable on-court experience in preparation for the upcoming high school seasons. That experience and preparation has made DME Academy’s Travel Ball such an exclusive and in-demand program.
The season starts on March 9th, runs until June 6th, and is open to ages 4th-12th graders.
Make sure you come out to tryouts and experience the DME family atmosphere, where we work with kids individually and help them get prepared for the next level.
You can get all the details and register for tryouts right here.
DME Women’s basketball had a successful weekend at The MLK Shootout event.
After trailing most of the first half vs Spruce Creek, DME fought back with a great performance from Sophomore Sophie Rueppell. Rueppell finished with a career high 32 points and broke the DME 3 pointer Record with 10 made 3’s! Coming down the stretch, Sophie hit a three pointer that put DME on top 68-67 with less than one minute to play in the game. Game one was in the books for DME with a 68-67 win.
“We are really excited about Sophia’s progression and where she is going. Our showed the grit we have to compete.” DME Women’s Head Coach Ricky Claitt said. “ It was a great weekend and I am looking forward to progressing more as a team this season.” he continued.
Success followed DME Academy into day two of competition with a final score of 57-50 against Colonial High School. Four players finished with double figures starting with Senior, Bella Weary with 20 points. Junior Gaby Fontan and Senior Taylor Gardner both finished with 12 points. Sophie Rueppell also had 11 points. Finishing on top from a strong performance the DME Academy Girls program is now 13-3 on the season.
You can watch all games on our Youtube Channel Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLW3tV1ARHJXWlMBF5ox5d1XpYXBJopM0m
On Saturday, November 7th, DME Sports Academy (Daytona Beach, FL) traveled to Bradenton, FL for a showdown against Florida Powerhouse, IMG Academy. While the stands weren’t packed and there weren’t any glamorous dunks or midcourt three pointers, or even any 5-star athletes, it was an exciting middle school showdown, which featured a ton of future stars. Gabe Stewart (8th grade) and Jon Powell (8th Grade) led the way for DME combining for half of the teams total 68 points, while 5th grader Camden Cooper put up 12 points.
DME set the tone early and led almost the entire game, but IMG Academy was able to keep it close throughout the game, but in the end, DME was too much to handle for the Florida Powerhouse and walked out with the 68-65 victory. “I’m very happy with the effort from our team, but I know we can be much better,” Head Coach Matt Panaggio of DME Sports Academy.
DME Middle School will be back in action this Saturday, November 21st at 11 am in an inner squad battle between DME Middle School Blue and DME Middle School White.
DME Alumni and Canisius College forward Jacco Fritz has maximized his minutes and role at forward in his first season of Division I Basketball. Netherlands native Jacco had an incredible rookie year, with three #MAACHoops Rookie of the Week honors. He is just the third Canisius player to earn this award multiple times in a season since 2006-07.
He also earned a spot on MAAC All Rookie-Team. Fritz is the 12th player in school history to earn MAAC All-Rookie Team honors. One of the highlights of Fritz season was his career-high of 16 points performance against Mercer University! He also had a career-high of 10 rebounds vs. St. Bonaventure. Fritz also is considered one of the “luckiest players” in the MAAC by growing an inch before joining the Griffs in the fall.
Before joining, Fritz played the 2018-19 season here at DME. He averaged 10.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game at DME. He played in 25 games in 2018-19, where he shot 64.5 percent from the field, 40.0 percent from 3-point land, and 62.8 percent from the free-throw line. Jacco is now on the campus of Canisius during this pandemic and campus shut down due to COVID-19. Jacco expressed how he didn’t want to deal with online classes and the Netherlands six hours ahead of Buffalo.
We are going Instagram Live with Jacco (Friday, May 8th @ 2 pm) on his update, family, and basketball career, and will have a Q&A from the viewers. Ask this Netherlands native all the questions, from transitioning to the USA for postgrad and from DME to college!
You can tune in here at 2pm: https://www.instagram.com/dmesportsacademy/?hl=en
In September 2017, straight on the heels of Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria further devasted the island nation of Puerto Rico. Amidst great tragedy, a mother made the very difficult decision to send her son to Daytona Beach to live with family. When Derrick arrived as a high school sophomore, he didn’t speak a word of English but had a true passion for the game of basketball. That is how he found DME Sports Academy.
As a commuter student, Derrick worked diligently on his English language skills and soon added other courses to his personalized learning plan. Outside the classroom, he took his raw yet very athletic basketball skills to the court and became a favorite of his teammates and coaches for his love of the game.
As his junior year began last August, Derrick became a full time Academy student athlete. As of now, his English skills have blossomed, and he is proud to be studying chemistry in English. On the court, his game is steadily improving, and he is hopes to earn a college scholarship.
In his own words, Derrick said that “I love the school, the social atmosphere, the workload, the interaction with the teachers and the students, and the flexibility to also focus on basketball.”