Windermere Basketball Academy to open $1.2 million facility in Ocoee

After a lifetime spent dedicated to the game of basketball, both as a player and coach, Nik Winkleman will tell you despite being a hoops lifer, the game didn’t always give back to him what he put in. 

“I always knew I wanted to be in basketball and spent some time coaching at the college level,” Winkleman said. “Financially, though, it just didn’t make sense for me to keep going down the coaching path, so I shifted to the business world but always with the goal of being able to eventually have enough success that I could train and coach players for free in my spare time.”

That’s exactly what happened. Winkleman was in a position that allowed him to return to his pursuit of pouring into the young people through the game he loved, returning to college as an assistant coach but his return was short-lived as the school shut down the basketball program in his first season back. 

“I’ve loved basketball my whole life — way more than she’s loved me,” Winkleman said. “Playing and being part of this game is just something I absolutely love.” 

That passion for the game was why Winkleman was eager to get back into coaching when his return to the college game was cut short. In 2018, after meeting Ryan Trimbee, Winkleman proved just how badly he wanted to get back into coaching.

“When I met Ryan, I had literally just left that coaching job … and I was just looking for something to do, man,” he said. “I really wanted to just get back into basketball again, so when I bumped into him and he asked me about doing some private training with kids, I was all in.”

Winkleman’s resolve didn’t waver when Trimbee called him up to schedule their first private training session with a young boy named Kay, who had almost no basketball playing experience.

“I think Nik had just gotten back from some international trip, and I remember showing up to the session and there was this tiny little 6- or 7-year-old, who’s probably never dribbled a basketball at that point,” Trimbee said. “I’ll never forget this first session. The kid’s mother called me and said Kay was interested in training with us, and I remember calling Nik all excited and telling him we got our first one. And when we got there, Nik came in just so ready. He had his big basketball bag with every piece of basketball knowledge ready and loaded to work with the kid one-on-one. That’s when I realized the type of guy Nik was, because the kid could barely dribble the ball, but Nik never treated him differently. He never changed his approach, his level of commitment and his enthusiasm for training him. That’s what I love about Nik and why we’ve been able to build from that moment.”

Since that first session, the two formalized their partnership and founded Windermere Basketball Academy, going from having one trainee to building a youth club organization with 11 coaches across a variety of age groups and a reach of more than 10,000 athletes and their families via social media and other marketing avenues. 

“I knew training Kay that day, where we were going with this idea,” Winkleman said. “And I don’t say this in an arrogant way … I just knew the love I have for the game and the work we were willing to put in. It’s crazy to remember training Kay in those early days in that gym one-on-one, and now we’ve got more than 100 kids in our gym at once. It’s been a really cool journey, man, and having those memories are really special to me because we started literally from zero to what’s about to happen.”

Starting Friday, Aug. 1, thanks to its tremendous growth, Windermere Basketball Academy will rebrand to 407Basketball and combine forces with 407Volleyball Club to form parent organization, 407Sports. Shortly thereafter, the two clubs will relocate to a 71,000-square-foot warehouse facility in Ocoee, which will house $1.2 million worth of athletic equipment upgrades from the newly formed youth sports organization to build a state-of-the-art facility. 

“The decision to expand our reach is really driven by the market demanding more from us,” Trimbee said. “We view this new facility as the opportunity to fulfill that need. These 71,000 square feet are going to be designed to elevate the training experience for our athletes, which will be key to our next phase. … The community is asking for more leagues, they’re asking for more training, they’re asking for more AAU opportunities. So we’re trying to meet them where they are and this facility should help us do that and truly help kids who want to play at the highest level reach their goals.”

Trimbee expects the new facility to house multiple indoor basketball and volleyball courts with premium hardwood floors, a full training space for small group and individual workouts, weight training areas for strength and performance and specialized speed and agility training zones.  

“Once we’re up and running in Ocoee, we’ll be able to offer leagues year-round, team practices year-round, camps year-round and a ton of other specialty programs,” Trimbee said. “Just talking about all of this blows my mind, especially when I consider where we started this. Having Nik as a partner in this, it was easy to see early on that we could make this a thing and now with the reputation we’ve built in the area, the consumer being really hungry for more and having the financial backing through a partnership we’re ready for this.”

A large part of this evolution both physically by moving into its new facility and organizationally as a multi-sport youth program is the partnership with 407Volleyball and its founder and director Matti McKissock-Oliver — a former standout women’s college and high school volleyball player, as a member of The First Academy Lady Royals. 

“I founded 407Volleyball Club with the goal of bringing a high-level, college-style training environment to young female athletes in Orlando,” she said. “As a former All-American setter at Georgia Tech and UCLA, my journey began at The First Academy, where I helped lead my team to a state championship in 2017. … Growing up in Orlando’s volleyball community, I saw the need for a club in Ocoee that emphasized strong fundamentals, elite coaching and a positive, competitive culture. At 407, we train like college programs — focusing on the details, building from the ground up and creating an environment where athletes can thrive.”

The vision McKissock-Oliver has developed for the club she’s built from the ground up not only aligns with Winkleman’s and Trimbee’s, but also her experience at the highest-level of collegiate sports is a vital resource the new organization will use to expand the opportunities for its athletes. 

“With everything we’re doing one of the biggest parts we want to develop is our ability to grow the level of exposure our athletes are getting at the college level,” Trimbee said. “I’ve been in this travel ball kind of circuit in my personal life for the first time this summer — at a national level — and I’ve learned a lot that I want to implement, and the new facility will be a big part of that. Being able to host coaches from all over the country at a place that’s going to be the perfect stage for our athletes to put their talents on display is about to have me start knocking on doors aggressively. I’ve already done a lot of research, and I know there are coaches open to coming to these type of college exposure camps, and that’s going to be something we prioritize moving forward. … We bring in these college coaches, host them, take care of them and give them a chance to interact with our players, and give our guys a feeling of that reaching their dreams are possible. I really want that to be a big part of what 407 is really going to help with.”

For more information on 407Sports, email [email protected] or call (407) 217-6263.