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The
1% CLUB was officially founded in 2003 by Jeremy Russotti.
However, it was the few years previous when the club really
began to evolve to where it is today.
At
the time, Jeremy Russotti was the head coach at Casa Grande
High school in Petaluma, Ca. Within his team, he developed
a close bond and relationship to two of his players - Angelo
Tsagarakis (Oregon State) and Josh Akognon (Washington State).
Because of their endless hours of training, and the belief
that only a small population trained at their level, they
jokingly labeled themselves with the 1% CLUB moniker.
Most
impressive was Josh Akognon, who went from never playing
organized basketball until his freshman year of high school,
to the 4th leading scorer in the state of California (30.1
ppg) by the end of his senior year. Josh accolades include
being a member of the Nigerian National Championship team;
being named as FIBA World Championship Top 20 up and coming
players; elected most "underrated player in the PAC-10"
by Sports Illustrated; voted PAC-10 player of the week for
his 25-point second half scoring outburst vs. National Champion
runner-up UCLA. Recently, Josh transferred to Cal State
Fullerton where he is averaging over 20ppg, while being
top 5 in the nation in both three-pointers made and free-throw
percentage. Josh was voted by the National Association of
Basketball Coaches (NABC) 2nd team All-District 15; recognized
as one of the top 150 players in the NCAA.
Recently,
Josh Akognon led his team to a Big West Conference Title,
earning MVP of the Big West Tournament. In the NCAA tournament,
Josh had a 31-point outburst against the University
of Wisconsin,
and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, Michael
Flowers. ESPN Analysts Doug Gottlieb and Digger Phelps
mentioned
Josh as the "best player nobody ever
heard of",
as well as the "Players to watch list", respectively.
Also, Josh has been listed by ESPN as the top shooter
in the upcoming 2008 NBA Draft (with Chris Lofton).
Not
to be outdone, Angelo Tsagarakis was recently picked
up by Professonal Pro team JL Bourg (France) for the
play-offs. He finished the season averaging 9.14 points
per game (19 mpg), shooting 48 from the field and 92
from the
free
throw
line.
With
the success of his former players/trainees, coach Russotti
decided
to
put
his coaching
career on hold and follow his passion in spreading the
principles and training methods of the 1% CLUB to
a variety of elite
basketball players throughout California and the west
coast.
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