Bruce Bright turned his spring marketing project into a business – all during his transition to online classes in the midst of COVID-19.

In February, Bright, who will be a senior in the fall, created the website Elevate Basketball Academy, an online resource for basketball training. He started the project for Dr. Ream Shoreibah’s digital marketing class, but he was inspired to build something beyond the site itself.

“I’ve always known I wanted to start my own business and started a couple here and there with friends, but they never worked out in the long run,” he says. “I quickly realized the only thing I’m really an expert in is basketball. I thought about what players need and settled on a basketball program that players could do on their own at home, without hiring an expensive and under-qualified basketball trainer or trying to train themselves.”

Students in the digital marketing class each had to build a website throughout the term. While most students created personal websites, they could also use the project to sell a product.

Bright plays basketball at Birmingham-Southern, which helped him develop the training programs for athletes. Elevate now has three 12-week training programs for point guards, shooting guards, and post players that include drills, calisthenics training, nutrition guidelines, and mental and emotional intelligence training, taught by the BSC basketball team’s psychologist and Bright’s father, Bruce Bright, Sr.

In February, Bright began working on the website for his project before launching the programs for sale in May. Bright says that the programs, designed for high school players, provide much more information and training than a typical basketball trainer.

“I’ve gotten interest from a couple local high schools that are interested in trying out the program and giving me feedback that I can use to improve the program before I go after more schools, so that is very exciting to get some kids actually training,” he says.

In just a few months, Elevate Basketball Academy has gained more than 2,000 followers on Instagram. Bright plans to soon utilize paid advertisements and influencer collaborations to keep the business growing and connect with more high school programs.

“I’ve got a lot of things planned for the media side of the business, including a blog about basketball training on the website, regular YouTube videos, and a growing Facebook community. The more of a community we form around the brand, the better,” he says.

As a business major, Bright has drawn from his BSC business education to help build Elevate Basketball Academy. His concentration in marketing particularly helped him promote the business and see so much growth so quickly. His experience as a student-athlete made the business even stronger.

“My basketball career at BSC has also been a major help in this whole process because I came into college knowing a small fraction of what I know now about basketball. And it has given me connections in the basketball world that have helped me build the program and helped spread the word around.”