Both played their last two collegiate basketball years for John T. Reilly on the Gannon University Men’s Basketball team ending their careers on the PSAC championship team. A’Darius Porter is originally from Atlanta, Georgia and attended John Wood Community College in Quincy, Illinois. There he learned success comes from hard work one of the foundations of their business. He was named Captain of t
he John Wood Basketball team which helped him develop his leadership role and basketball skills to a point in which he earned an athletic scholarship to Gannon University. Raphell Thomas-Edwards is originally from Leicester, England and after playing for the English national team he came to the United States on a full basketball scholarship to the University at Buffalo. He then transferred to Gannon University, playing alongside A'darius Porter, where they both had great success individually and as a team. Along with the achievement of basketball at Gannon University, They have also successfully completed their respective degrees in the fall of 2015. Life after college is bright for both of them. They are on track for completing their original goals and aspirations with A'darius Porter going on to obtain his Masters in Business Administration, as well as Raphell Thomas-Edwards having a very promising professional basketball career. Fortunately, they have both been met with a very exciting opportunity, which is their vision: A&K skill development.
“What is A&K skill development?” It is a skill development service that we have great pride and confidence in. We use our passion, experience and knowledge to help kids learn the fundamentals of basketball and important life traits in the process. We think the biggest problem in the youth basketball community is that some kids get lost in the team. While we have tremendous coaches around us, sometimes it is hard for them to focus on individual players and give them the attention that they need to develop. Currently, kids have to wait until the summer camps to get better leaving months to be wasted without the knowledge they need. That is why our slogan is, “Bring the ATTITUDE, We’ll provide the KNOWLEDGE”. At this time we have numerous kids that we train and each one of the families that we have worked with describe our service as exceptional and have recommended us to friends.