Michael "Myke" Scholl

Always give back, never give in. Michael (Myke) Scholl lives by these words every single day. He has forged a career built on service to others. He is a coach, a youth activist and a philanthropist. He is also a cancer survivor.

Combining a passion for basketball with an uncanny ability to make friends across many cultures and from every walk of life, Myke has turned sports into an avenue for empowerment and education.

Born in Columbus, Ohio and raised in Sacramento, California, Myke made the journey in reverse for college. He received a basketball scholarship at California State University, Sacramento, playing for two years at the campus. He transferred to Ohio Wesleyan University where he played two more years on scholarship while completing degrees in Sociology and History. He then attended University of Maryland School of Law, completing his JD in 1994. It was at Maryland that Myke first became deeply involved with helping youths. While serving on the Student Bar Association council, including two year as president, Myke convinced his fellow officers to devote the SBA annual budget to hands-on programs for homeless and near-homeless children rather than using it for self-serving social functions.

Post graduation, Myke served a few years as a sports representative for several professional athletes, including players from the NBA and NFL as well as professional boxers. But, he felt drawn to do more to benefit those with less.

In 2000, Myke moved to Johannesburg, South Africa where he joined Miles & Associates as a partner, becoming the Director of Sports and International Programs. His accomplishments in this role are myriad. During his directorship at Miles & Associates, Myke assisted in building the foundation for the loveLife campaign and the loveLife organization in South Africa. loveLife, internationally acclaimed for its creative and hard-hitting HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention program, has received funding from the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and was voted at the United Nations as the most innovative and creative program of its type.

During his tenure, Myke’s hands-on work took him into the field throughout eastern and southern Africa. Under his guidance, over 300 full service youth centers and clinics were built in South Africa and more than 500 basketball courts were built in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Kenya, Uganda and Zambia. He helped establish the first ever national high school basketball league in South Africa, with 1800 boys and 1800 girls teams and more than 42,000 participants. He developed a modular life-skills motivational program, Success by Choice, which graduated over 250,000 students. He also helped acquire scholarships for 75 African students to attend high school and/or college in the United States.

Beyond his work as a youth activist, Myke has an extensive professional background in the world of basketball. He has been an international scout in the NBA for both the Dallas Mavericks and the Detroit Pistons. He has coached at various levels with the South African, Nigerian and Senegalese national teams and was one of the original coaches during the early development of the NBA Basketball Without Borders Africa program. He has also been a commentator and analyst for numerous international basketball tournament television broadcasts.

In 2008, Myke returned to the United States to become an assistant coach at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. During his first season at LMU, Myke was promoted to Associate Head Coach where he served for six years. In 2014, Myke joined Dan Monson at Long Beach State as an assistant coach. He specializes in player development, working on the person as well as the athlete.

Myke is a devoted husband, father, brother and son. His deep commitment to helping and caring for many extends even more deeply to his beloved family. In 2011, Myke was diagnosed with prostate cancer. He has aggressively treated it and is now a cancer survivor, not a victim. Never give in, always give back.

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