Bronx coach Jhoan De Jesus transforms lives on Spuyten Duyvil basketball courts

Those guys changed my life. I’m 32 years old and I feel like I have a purpose and a sense of what I want out of my life and I’m grateful”

Jhoan De Jesus, basketball coach

When the sun is shining, expect to find basketball players of all ages practicing on the Spuyten Duyvil courts. Through even the latest of summer’s sweltering heat, Jhoan De Jesus and his players spend hours practicing on the courts. 

De Jesus has been coaching basketball at the courts for five years and he said, in it, he has found his calling. 

“Those guys changed my life,” De Jesus said of his young players. “I’m 32 years old and I feel like I have a purpose and a sense of what I want out of my life, and I’m grateful.” 

When he isn’t leading his own workouts, De Jesus is the eighth-grade basketball coach at Riverdale Country School. 

De Jesus is a one-man staff, running his practices entirely on his own. On a blazing day in early August, he sprints back and forth on the courts with the children as they scrimmage before a weekend of tournaments. He switches between playing with the children, coaching and monitoring the next court over, where younger children scrimmage. The youngest of his players is 11, while the oldest is already thinking about college, but De Jesus said he feels like a big brother to them all. 

“The kids have access to me 24/7,” he said. 

He says the kids text him at all hours about both basketball and life. This element of his coaching is vital, De Jesus said, as he didn’t have that kind of mentor growing up. He struggled to figure his life out and find direction through what he referred to as his pain. He did it alone. Now, De Jesus said he wants to ensure these children have an outlet. 

“I teach them skill and the importance of working hard, the importance of intentional working,” he said. 

De Jesus said his coaching mentality is not to mold the kids into what he wants but rather to create an environment that guides them into being both the players and people they want to be. He tells children he isn’t a drill sergeant, but lazy working is not allowed on his courts. He pushes his players to work hard in the hopes to also help them build skill, character and critical thinking, both on and off the court. 

But it isn’t easy. With his players coming from different economic backgrounds and traveling to the courts from all over the Bronx, De Jesus tries to help out wherever he can. Sometimes coaching means picking up kids in his own car, paying for Ubers, providing children lunch or keeping them hydrated. Some of the kids travel from as far as Throggs Neck, and some can spend up to an hour and a half on public transportation for the day’s three-hour practices. 

“Whatever I can do,” De Jesus said.

He said he tries to offer a less expensive price than other teams or practices, but there are still some parents who are unable to afford the program. To De Jesus, this doesn’t matter; he tells his parents he’ll figure it out, even if it means pulling from his own pockets.

Sponsorships from both local businesses and other parents with children in the program have helped fund the ability of a handful of his players to continue working hard on the courts. 

De Jesus said his friends have urged him to do better marketing. With his Instagram — range_unltd — doing the advertising for him, De Jesus said he isn’t interested in being in any sort of spotlight; all he wants is his kids to be able to play.

De Jesus grew up shy. He said basketball helped him come out of his shell, and, especially now that he has his own players, he introduces himself to everyone he meets because he says every connection matters. 

His program includes both workouts, like the ones he leads Monday through Saturday during the summer months, and a team sign-up in which children get to travel and play. He has children as young as five training with him individually. 

His team has no cuts. De Jesus said the players coming to his team don’t have to be the best, they just have to be committed to working hard. 

Camaraderie amongst the players is another important piece of De Jesus’s coaching work. He doesn’t care where the children come from to be on the court; he urges them all to respect one another. The program has a rule in which any new player must be greeted and welcomed in by current players.

And, De Jesus said, the children all get to mingle, often leaving practice for the day to get lunch and hang out together before returning to their various neighborhoods throughout the Bronx. 

In 2010, fresh out of his Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy graduation, De Jesus said he knew more schooling wasn’t really what he wanted but he was lost on what to do next. He began working at the Riverdale Y as an after-school counselor with kindergarten-aged children, figuring his experience helping to take care of his two younger sisters would make working with kids “a breeze.”

His older-brother experience aside, De Jesus said the real reason he wanted to work at the Y was to gain access to their gym, paying the $20 a day for a local gym was out of his budget and all he really wanted was to play basketball. 

De Jesus said basketball has been his guide for a long time. Shortly after graduation, in 2012, his uncle died and, after falling into a depression, De Jesus discovered basketball helped him find his way.

He continued working at the Riverdale Y through 2019, when he was named the athletic director, but it still wasn’t enough, so he quit to pursue his dreams of being a basketball coach. 

His pursuit of branching out on his own was heavily supported by his mother, whom he credits for helping push him through the difficulties of getting his program off the ground. 

Now, five years into his basketball coaching career, De Jesus plans on growing. He dreams big — of owning his own facility and gathering more and more children to mentor — but, for now, he’s found his calling with his players on the Spuyten Duyvil basketball courts.