Greenlight Guru CEO offers top-flight gym to boost young basketball players

David DeRam cuts the lithe figure of a serious recreational athlete, so it’s no surprise that the 54-year-old tech entrepreneur believes sports teach life lessons.

Anyone who has felt the bitter sting of disappointment on the field or court, worked through pain in practice, or experienced the power of teamwork can relate. But DeRam has pushed the credo to a grand scale as he works to help put young athletes on a successful path.

The founder and CEO of medical-device-software provider Greenlight Guru has used his Progeny Foundation and contributions from clients and partners to invest $10 million in a private, world-class training arena for youth basketball in Indianapolis that opened last year.

The aim is to help local youth athletes from a variety of backgrounds leverage high-quality athletic and academic scholarships by providing state-of-the-art training on and off the court for success in life and the classroom. DeRam said it’s a mission driven in part by his Christian faith.

The program already has found success with Brebeuf Jesuit Preparatory High School senior Evan Haywood, who went from virtual unknown to hotly sought-after college recruit.

He was ranked the 107th-best player in the state when the Progeny Guru Arena opened last year, and the program turned out to be the turning point in his development. By this summer, he was ranked No. 6 and received 11 scholarship offers, ultimately committing to Butler University.

“They’ve pushed me to the point that I didn’t want to come back,” Haywood admitted. “But if I want to do this professionally, then I have to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. I never waste a day there.”

Formerly the home of Shoot 360, a high-tech basketball entertainment facility in the mold of Top Golf, Progeny Guru Arena is on Georgetown Road just north of West 79th Street. That’s considered part of “Super 71,” the nickname for 71st Street in the Indy basketball scene.

The term refers to the hoops pedigree along and near this artery, including Pike, North Central and Lawrence North high schools, among other powerhouse programs.

In terms of landing talent, the Progeny arena has benefited from the proximity but has operated largely under the radar for the past year. Most kids have landed in the program through word of mouth, and the review process is rather informal.

Unlike other elite training gyms, Progeny doesn’t allow tournaments, leagues or rentals at the facility. It’s only for the 50 Progeny kids from first to 12th grades, and they have access to it seven days a week, before and after school.

Progeny also fields teams during the summer that travel to compete against other elite squads. In all, the program’s annual operating costs can run anywhere from $400,000 to $1 million, DeRam said.

Giving back

All training, equipment and travel-team costs are provided to players for free. DeRam said the offerings are his way of giving back to the community after his software company in 2021 landed a $121 million strategic growth investment.

“The spirit of it was … let’s leave something behind that will be there for 100 years and represent what Greenlight has done here,” DeRam said of the youth sports facility. “Our mission is to improve the quality of life. Let’s do that for the community.”

The gym’s unlimited access for players gives them better opportunities for development, said Damon Howard, Progeny’s manager of basketball operations.

“In other places, I’d have them for two days. I’d have to stack drills on top of each other, and they might not fully grasp the drill before I had to move on,” Howard said.

In addition to the unparalleled access, the facilities are elite for youth sports. The floors are NBA-rated. The goals that send the ball back to the player, called “guns,” have the same analytical technology Steph Curry uses to perfect his shot. DeRam said he holds up the workout area, stacked with Thrive’s fitness system, against the Colts’ and the Pacers’ training facilities.

The agility training, customized for each kid, comes from the strength team of trainer Ryan Grubbs of the Houston Texans.

And then there’s Howard, the self-described drill sergeant who builds Progeny’s hungry players into physical warriors. The former University of Southern Indiana football player has an A-list resume as a basketball trainer around Indianapolis, working with Trey Lyles, Indiana’s 2014 Mr. Basketball, as well as Hoosier standouts Harris Brown and T.J. Henderson.

Haywood, the Brebeuf phenom, said Progeny’s system and its state-of-the-art facilities helped push him to new levels.

“Every day, our coach would let us know that there’s a reason you’re not the No. 1–ranked player, and if you’re not, then why aren’t you pissed off coming into the gym?” Haywood recalled.

DeRam and Howard knew their formula was working for Haywood when he threw down a 360-degree dunk for the first time. “We were thinking, ‘He is getting awfully athletic to go along with the other parts of his game that were already great,’” DeRam said.

How did Haywood do it? “He made use of this place,” DeRam said. “It’s like the miracle of compound interest.”

Rob Blackwell, owner of Blackwell Basketball and a 20-year veteran of elite basketball training in Indianapolis, said he can’t think of another amateur pre-college basketball training facility that’s exclusively for one program and open only to its players.

“Other programs give kids better exposure to Division I schools. But for some of the underserved kids, Progeny is a great opportunity. They get enough exposure.”

Mindset training

Another secret weapon available to Progeny players is executive-level “mindset training.”

DeRam is a believer in the training and has used it to elevate Greenlight’s success. Greenlight teams work with Indy-based Dreamfuel, a sales training company that uses neuroscience techniques to improve productivity. The practices range from visualization—which many top athletes and executives swear by—to self-hypnosis while you sleep. The goal is to wrangle control of the self-conscious and, in the simplest form, develop a reflex for positivity. Progeny players receive the same training.

“We’re always coaching mindset,” DeRam said. “We’re getting kids mentally and emotionally ready to play.”

DeRam said Progeny Guru Arena is turning out exactly as he visualized it in 2008, when he drew up his playbook for a better basketball program. After DeRam coached high-school hoops for nine years in South Bend, a conversation with a priest moved him to help even more, especially when he began to understand the reality of some players’ lives.

“It was a surprise to me that some of these kids have to have [firearms] to go through certain neighborhoods,” DeRam said.

He wanted more than a gym. He wanted a world-class clubhouse. His dream is for kids to come on Saturday morning for breakfast, train, receive tutoring, play pickup games, and hang out to watch college football.

Right now, the Progeny arena has a couple of lounge areas for the teens and a room where one player has been giving haircuts before Friday-night games. The floors were changed to Progeny’s colors of blue and orange and have quotes inlaid with its motto, “Light shines in the darkness,” part of a Bible passage. DeRam has more in store, including a locker room modeled after Gonzaga University’s, a full kitchen and an Xbox room.

The Progeny program itself started off impressively with a freshman team in 2008, operating out of SportZone on the northwest side. One student earned a college scholarship. But younger Progeny champs tended to transfer to marquee training programs sponsored by Nike, Adidas and Under Armour, holding back its reputation.

Then, in 2015, a high school Progeny team beat some of the best league teams around the country, and all 10 players earned rides to college.

After those players graduated, Howard decided to rebuild with younger players. Since then, Progeny didn’t have a college recruit to boost its reputation until Haywood. With his Butler announcement, the secret was out about Progeny Guru Arena.

DeRam said there will be many more success stories when he scales Progeny as he would a software company—slowly, over 20 or 30 years, and with the right people—including trainers, players and parents.

“Being able to help a kid, there’s just nothing like it,” DeRam said. “I think I’m called to do it. I couldn’t not do it.”•