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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
of the top 150
players in the NCAA.
In
2008, Josh Akognon led his team to a Big West Conference
Title, earning MVP of the Big West Tournament. In the
NCAA tournament,
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).
The
2009 season was a banner year for Josh. Most notably
was being selected by the NCAA for the All-American
Honarable Mention Team.; recognized as one of the top
players in the nation. For his league, Josh was named
Big West Player of the year, as well as as
to the
1st
team NABC All-District team (2nd year in a row). Josh
finished 5th in the country in scoring (24 ppg), while
breaking the single season CSUF record of 764 pts (5th
all time for Big West Conference). Josh also broke the
Big West single season 3-pointers made record of 136.
(2nd in the NCAA). Also, Josh finished 5th in the NCAA
for free-throw percentage at 89%.
1%
CLUB athlete, Angelo Tsagarakis signed with French Professional
Team JL Bourg for the 2008 play-offs. He finished the
playoffs averaging
10 points per game (19 mpg), shooting
44% from 3pt. land, 50% FG and 100% FT (6 games). He
now signed with another French Professional Team, Paris
Levallois for the 2008-2009 season.
Coach
Russotti says, "the chemistry these two guys had
together was something special. They fed off one another
and pushed each other to unlimited heights. I was fortunate
to be part of their development and it
was a great ride." Now
Coach Russotti follows his passion and dreams in spreading
the principles and training methods of the 1% CLUB to
a variety of elite basketball players throughout California
and the professional ranks.
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