Georgian College

Not long ago, Justin Mitchell, a celebrated former player for Grizzlies Men's basketball, and co-owner of Elevation Athletics, was asked on a podcast what the secret was to playing college basketball. He replied very firmly, "Listen, I'm probably not the prototype to follow. It wasn't ideal or traditional. It was completely fluky by meeting the right people at the right time." It wasn't the response you'd expect to hear from an athletic guy who has always been involved in sports, like AAA hockey, gymnastics, soccer and high school basketball. Justin credits his high school coach with putting him on Georgian College's radar. He was signed on as a Grizzlies player, but for the first two years, was only on the court for a limited number of minutes in each game. At the end of the second season, head coach Matt Coulson saw something in Justin that no one else did. He told Justin that he would be his starting guard the following season. "I was like, me? What am I going to do for you?" Justin recalls, laughing. "He said, 'you're my starting guard and these are the shots I want you to take next year. These are what I want you to work on over the summer and come back and show me.' I'm like, whoa, this is crazy. I'm scoring six points a game right now. What does this guy see in me?" Justin describes the next season as "wild." He was scoring at least 20 points every game and became a valuable part of the Grizzlies team. The key, he learned, was treating basketball as a mental game. "I started visualizing success way more," he explains. "Every time I'd think about basketball I'd see myself in a game-winning three or a swish. So, the confidence was there. When I got into the game, I had already been there a thousand times in my head. Focusing on the mentals made it so much easier to play the real sport." At the beginning of 2018 he started Elevation Athletics to train youth as young as four in the same way. While training was first offered for basketball, and is still the mainstay, Elevation Athletics also provides training for badminton and dryland (track, hills, weights) skills. Justin has also recently been in the media for his obsession with pickleball, with leagues being offered through Elevation Athletics. "I like to say it's full-court ping pong on a badminton court with tennis strokes," he says chuckling, admitting it took him several years to fall in love with the game. "It could be the socially distanced sport of the future." The pickleball paddles and balls he sells through his first company, World of Pickleball, helps to fund Elevation Athletics. Since COVID-19 hit in March 2020, business has slowed down, but Justin's enthusiasm hasn't. He's ready to take on the next big challenge. "There's a huge business and sporting opportunity that isn't in Canada right now and we're in shock that we're about to build this pretty cool program," he notes. "My biggest excitement is placing all of these pieces together to create the program we want." 41 GEORGIANVIEW 2021 SPRING GRIzzLY ATHLETICS GRIZZLY GOT 'INTO HIS HEAD' TO SUCCEED Justin Mitchell, class of 2013

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