The Drive Sports Team

A Drive for Basketball Excellence

Drive Sports is an athletic performance and basketball training brand located in Orange County, NY. The programs, led by founder and owner Kieran Begley, provide a well-rounded system of development to youth athletes aged 5-18 in strength, balance and skillsets, both physically and mentally.

Throughout the year, in various court locations around New York & New Jersey, our team of well experienced, knowledgeable and passionate staff offer private 1-on-1 and small group training, position-specific workouts, classes, clinics, camps, select travel basketball teams & more!

Drive Sports believes in having a strong group of dedicated trainers, coaches, and staff members who are passionate about the roles that they play on our team!

50+

Years of Basketball Experience

12+

Years of College Coaching/Training Experience

10+

Years of College Playing Experience

25+

Years of Youth Coaching/Training Experience

Kieran Begley

Owner/Founder/Trainer/Coach

For the last 15+ years, Coach Kieran has been coaching, training, and developing basketball players from 4 years of age all the way up to the Division I and Professional level. He draws a lot of his drills and life lessons from his 10+ years of playing and coaching college basketball. Kieran has spent countless hours studying the game in books/videos and exposed to some of the best coaches in the game at various camps, clinics, and College and NBA practices/workouts around the country. He also had an exciting basketball playing career included winning Mt St Mary College’s 2nd Skyline Conference Championship in school history (2004-2005) and playing against 3-time NBA Champ & 2-time NBA MVP Steph Curry at Davidson College during his senior year of college in a non-conference match-up.

From a physical standpoint, Coach Kieran’s style of training focuses heavily on proper warmup, effective footwork, basketball-specific resistance training, dribble & passing efficiency, shot preparedness, and game-speed/multi-combo drills that tie everything together for a complete game-ready player! From a mental and emotional standpoint, coach Kieran educates his players about short-term and long-term goal setting as well as various methods of measuring their progress. This allows players an opportunity to learn how to hold themselves accountable and become more self-sufficient, which is critical to long-term character AND athletic development!

HS & College Playing Experience

  • Monroe-Woodbury Varsity | Class AA | 2000-02
    • 2002 OCIAA Champs
    • 2002 Section IX Runner-Up
  • Mt St Mary College | Div III | 2002-03, 2004-07
    • 2002 Skyline Reg Season Champs
    • 2004 Skyline Conference Champs
    • 2004 NCAA Tournament Appearance
  • Overseas in London,  England | Middlesex Univ | 2003-04

15+ years Youth Development Experience in:

  • Private/Small Group/Team Development
  • AAU Coaching
  • 3v3 and 5v5 League Director/Coach
  • Camp Director
  • Recess & After-School Sports Programs

College & High School Coaching Experience

  • SUNY Morrisville | Div III | 2007-08
  • Marist College | Div I | 2008-2012
  • Don Bosco Prep | HS Freshman | 2015-2017

National Federation of High School Certification in:

  • Concussion in Sport
  • Heat Illness Prevention

USA Basketball Gold Member Certification in:

  • SafeSport
  • Youth Development
  • NCAA Eligibility

Mickey Dennis

Coach/Trainer/Camp Director

Coach Mickey brings over 5 years of college player development/coaching experience and 10+ years of youth basketball camp/league and AAU coaching experience to our team. A true brain when it comes to breaking down the x‘s and o’s of drills, practices, and games (live and on video), Mickey‘s encyclopedic knowledge (especially on the defensive end) grows by the day. Whether he is attending a local game or one of his coaching friend’s college games throughout the season or a coaches clinic and his annual trip down to Duke for 2 weeks of summer basketball camp with Coach K and his staff of coaches and players in the off-season, Mickey’s always “in-season”!

College Managing/Coaching Experience

  • Marist College | Div I | 2010-14
  • Vassar College | Div III | 2014-15

Youth Coaching and Player Development Experience

  • Camps
  • AAU Coaching
  • Private/Small Group Player Development

10+ years Youth Camp Experience

  • Marist College
  • Drive Sports
  • Duke University

Ryan Bucci

Trainer/Coach

14-year ex-pro in the European Italian 2nd Division, Ryan Bucci began his long and successful playing career in his hometown of Newburgh, NY. Son of former New York Net George “The King” Bucci, who won an ABA Championship with Julius Irving in 1975-76 season, Ryan was a standout basketball player for the NFA Goldbacks. As the Times Herald Record Player of The Year in 1999, he earned a scholarship to play college basketball at CW-Post (Div II). This was only the start to his playing career, as he played 14 straight seasons professionally overseas in Italy. His career highlights include being named the Italian 2nd Division MVP (2008). During that same season, Bucci led his team to the League Championship and was named the Finals MVP.

The development and training that Ryan received and learned throughout his career allowed him to play 18 seasons of basketball without sustaining a significant injury! His focus on mobility, stability, flexibility and mindfullness added to his incredible work ethic was constantly an asset to any team he played on and equally an issue for any team he played against.

Ryan has joined our staff as of the fall of 2017 and is excited to continue to share his knowledge with the next generation of basketball players through our position-specific workouts, no-school training camps, private training and various leagues that we will be running in 2018. If you are interested in meeting Ryan, contact us and we can let you know which programs he is currently involved!

1999 Times Herald Record Player of The Year

College Playing Experience

  • CW-Post | Div II | 1999-2003

Professional Playing Experience

  • Overseas in Italy | 2003-2017
  • 14 Consecutive Seasons

Italian 2nd Division MVP

  • 2008

2nd Division Champs and Finals MVP

  • 2008

John Rahn

Power Performance Consultant

Coach JR has 10+ years of elite athletic development and runs his own power performance training business in Monroe, NY called “Believe Elite Athletic Training” that caters to elite athletes of all sports; but he has been playing basketball his entire life and also brings with him 2 years of college basketball experience. His unique range of experiences that includes training many athletes at the Div I, Professional & Olympic level allows Coach JR to package his lessons and introduce young athletes to the importance of proper movement & power training technique with a focus on nutrition and balance in their life at an age where they are still forming good habits!

  • 2+ years College Basketball playing experience
  • Certified Fitness Personal Trainer
  • Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
  • Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist