Mike Klinzing

Head Start Basketball
Founder & Executive Director

_DR16364Mike Klinzing is the Founder and Executive Director of Head Start Basketball.  He is a Licensed USA Basketball Youth Development Coach and a Positive Coaching Alliance Certified Trainer.Mike loves the game of basketball and he always has.  When you hear stories about the kid who was always playing basketball in the dark, in the snow, in the living room, that was Mike.  He kept a journal of all his practice sessions when he was a young player and pushed himself to excel at the game. Mike understands young players and is a great teacher of the game.  Mike believes young players will have more fun when they can play the game well and play it the right way.

HIGH SCHOOL
Mike played his high school basketball at Strongsville, OH High School.  During his career at Strongsville, Mike was a three year varsity player.  He was named first team All-Pioneer Conference in his junior and senior seasons.  As a senior Mike was named Pioneer Conference MVP, All-District, and All-State.  Mike is still the all-time leader in free throw percentage at Strongsville at 88%.  In 1995 Mike was elected to the Strongsville High School Hall of Fame.

COLLEGE
Mike went on to earn a full scholarship to play Division 1 basketball at Kent State University in the Mid-American Conference.  While at Kent State Mike became just the 15th member of the university’s 1,000 Point Club.  As a three year starter, he was named to the All Mid-American Conference Academic Team three times.  Mike was also named to the GTE-COSIDA All-America Team three times. He still holds the record at Kent State for the most three pointers in one game (9) and the record for most steals in one game (8).

PCA_CertifiedTrainer_logoCOACHING CAREER
Mike began his high school coaching career back at Strongsville, OH High School as a junior varsity assistant coach.  From there Mike returned to school to earn his elementary teaching certificate.  During those two years Mike was the Junior Varsity Head Coach at Bay High School in Bay Village, OH.  Mike was hired as a teacher at Richmond Heights, OH Elementary School in 1995 and was the Assistant Varsity Basketball Coach at Richmond Heights High School for fourteen seasons.

HEAD START BASKETBALL DIRECTOR
Mike began working at summer basketball camps while still playing at Kent State.  He was able to work with and learn from coaches at camps like Michael Jordan’s Flight School,  The Ron Harper Basketball Camp,  The Scott Roth Basketball Camp, The Ohio State University Basketball Camp (Gary Williams and Randy Ayers), and The University of Michigan Basketball Camp (Steve Fisher).  After graduating from Kent State and with his extensive basketball experience Mike set out to develop a basketball camp that would be great fun for kids and teach them the game too!  That is how HEAD START BASKETBALL came to be and why it is so successful today.   Eight years ago Mike began offering HSB Skills Training in the Cleveland area.  Mike is now one of the most sought after basketball skills trainers in Ohio. One of Mike’s most well-known trademarks is his ability to remember the name of each player at his camps.  Test him on the second day of camp or come back years later, chances are Mike will remember you!

Addicted to Getting Better - On and Off the Court