New Orleans Saints player Taysom Hill, left, and former NFL player Tim Tebow will be featured during the event.
By Jon Johnson
GILBERT – Imagine spending the day being mentored by champions, being given insight on how to be the best version of themselves.
Well, imagine no more and click here to secure your spot at the Culture of Champions feature presentation at Gilbert High School on Saturday, May 25, from 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. Use Pima50 as a discount code for half off the ticket price!
Former NFL football player Tim Tebow will headline the event with author and in-demand speaker Damon West and Keaton “The Muscle” Hoskins. The event will also feature speeches by Hilary Grant, Pace Morby, and Josh Tilley.
New Orleans Saints all-purpose player and BYU alum Taysom Hill will have a 45-minute interview.
The Coaches Coach, Josh Tilley, of Pima, is the mastermind behind the event. Tilley has nearly two decades of experience in sports coaching and has had multiple successful businesses. His biggest passion, however, is instilling principles in youth and this event is his way of bringing that to a larger stage.
“I love building youth,” Tilley said. “That’s my calling in life . . . There’s no excuses of why you can’t create a great culture in whatever environment you’re in and I want to real-time prove it by doing this all-day event,” Tilley said.
Tilley brought that passion with him as an assistant to the Pima High School Boys Basketball team beginning in 2014. And since then, under Head Coach Cliff Thompson, the team with Tilley’s assistance has had the best winning percentage of any varsity boys basketball team in that time span.
The success spread word-of-mouth and soon Tilley had opportunities to speak to other school teams. That in turn blossomed into this speaking event, with a nudge from Hoskins.
The event is for older youth (16 and up) and its about creating a culture that creates winners on the court and field as well as at home and at business.
“It’s just some basic principles on how to establish a culture that translates to everyone,” Tilley said.
Featured speaker Damon West wrote “The Coffee Bean” (co-authored with Jon Gordon). Called “arguably the most in-demand speaker in America” by USA Today, West’s life plays out like a movie script.
After an injury derailed his career as a quarterback for the University of North Texas, West became addicted to drugs. While working on Wall Street, a fellow stockbroker turned him onto meth and West’s life quickly fell apart. He led a gang of meth addict burglars for years until Dallas SWAT took him down. Given a 65-year sentence in Texas, it was while incarcerated he learned his life message of being like a coffee bean when immersed in hot water and using it for change for the better.
West served 7 years and was paroled in November 2015 and became an inspirational speaker. After speaking to the Clemson Tigers football team, that coach, Dabo Swinney, told then-Alabama coach Nick Saban and West spoke to the Alabama football team as well.
“He’s one of the coolest guys I have ever met in my life,” Tilley said. “He’s the only speaker Nick Saban has ever publicly endorsed ever. He’s going to blow people’s minds.”
Keaton “The Muscle” Hoskins, is known for his role on Discovery Channel’s Diesel Brothers and his mentoring group Limitless Society. He is a successful entrepreneur with numerous companies under his belt.
Hilary Grant is from Pima and is the 3X Ms. Natural Olympia Figure Masters Champion and successful businesswoman as well as fitness professional.
Tilley said he plans to build on this first extraordinary event’s success and put on more of them every six months. He describes the movement as a personal calling.
“I just think when the youth have low self-worth and they don’t have a purpose, that’s when they just do stupid things,” he said. “So, I wanna build self-worth, identity, and purpose in the youth in whatever means I can and this is an avenue I think could be really, really cool to do that.”
The Culture of Champions will be at Gilbert High School Gym at 1101 E. Elliot Rd. in Gilbert, on Saturday, May 25, from 8:30 – 4 p.m. There will be a break for lunch and food trucks will be on sight. Seating is limited, get your ticket here. Use Pima50 as a discount code for half off the ticket price!
