What makes a really special team? Skill. Love for the game. Hours and hours poured in toward a shared vision.
That’s Oak Park High School located on the suburban edge of Los Angeles bordering Calabasas and Valley of the urban metropolis. That team coached by the steady Aaron Shaw who is a teacher on campus.
I watched them have nice wins over Campbell Hall and Moorpark High. Oak Park gets after it as much as any in the vaunted Mission League. But what is the nuclear power plant that powers this level in success and energy you ask?
It comes in the form of the most spiritual, motivating, passionate, and skillful type of trainer you can find: AJ Moye who happens to be an Oak Park assistant coach extraordinaire.
Ajay is so freaking off-the-charts valued that I’ve heard that his Alma mater Indiana University offered him the main assistant job there a bit back. Lord knows he’s that qualified and respected as a coach and developer of talent nationwide.
E-Woods talks to the best D1 Power 5 coaches who tell me AJ is that dude to them for training their guy to the L indeed. Fye! Ask anyone in the hoop world in SoCal. AJ is the man. 100.
Moye is the Master Trainer at The Sports Academy and was known to be close to Kobe Bryant when Kobe was coaching his Mamba AAU team and conducting skills camps. You could always see Ajay in his ear giving him advice. 100.
Ajay is also close to Dwyane Wade because he’s just the best kind of guy you can ever be around to learn from and share with in a meaningful way.
A-Moye was a McDonald’s All American out of high school, and Mr. Georgia because of his academics and overall smartness.
Get to know him enough and you start to realize he’s just a next, next level mind that has these crazy gears within his own life as a father and mentor. He uses all this to help push athletes to the limit of their abilities as they actualize their best versions of themselves.
Ajay might be the most humble dude I know; he never likes to take the credit for all the phenomenal ballers he has Frankenstein-ed.
He’ll be the first to put prayers up for you if he knows things have hit your life hard. I have also prayed to God that his family stayed in God’s grace in trying times.
My point is, everyone that is blessed to know Ajay knows that he touches lives in a really meaningful way.
We have many friends like Jaime Jaquez who gives Ajay so much props for his training and mentorship. Also Skyy and ZZ Clark will tell you the same, and the whole Slajchert fam, along with Riley Battin, Dusty Stromer, Roxy Barahman, and Brooklyn Shamblin.
I could go on for days naming junior high, prep, college, overseas, G-League, WNBA, and NBA pros Ajay has completely helped transform.
It’s staggering to contemplate how big a heart Big A has for people really. Mind boggling. He’s that Mt. Rushmore level trainer deserving of a story that details his whole life, but A is too humble to sit and give me such details really.
Click here for Erik's feature story on Jaime Jaquez
This story seeks to give much praise and props to a couple great upcoming ballers that have found fantastic synergy with Ajay, one being junior Seshsha Henderson. He’s Oak Park’s fearless junior 6 foot guard that I see having D1 recruiting potential and is playing with Why Not AAU team this season.
Sha helped lead Oak Park High by example to an undefeated record this season at home along with his guy on the team senior Isaiah Sherrard. Big I as I call him is that 6-7 do it all small forward with guard skills who plays with boundless passion with Sha.
That’s why I call them “2 Live Crew” when I’m in the stands and people ask me what I know about them. They have this unbreakable bond in game of strong play as they both have trained hard with Ajay for years.
They are friends off the court as many from Oak Park’s team are. The kids attend a school that is a top 10 public school that rivals the best private education that the Mission League schools such as Loyola High provide.
The place is dope and continually cranks out many D1 ballers because the whole coaching staff cares about the kids. They have a campus supervisor, “Irish,” who is a bit older which provides him wisdom and a big heart.
Oak Park is a really great place to send your kids no doubt!
Sha loves his school and I’ll let this great old soul cool kid tell you all about his future goals, “I want to take care of my relatives when I get older. I’m hoping that basketball is my ticket to a great future where I make great amounts of money to help my family.
“But I believe I can do it from other ways like starting a business. I just want to help others as they’ve helped me my whole life.”
Sha Henderson is a really special dude to your writer E-Woods. Vibe more of this incredible youngster’s dreams, “Growing up vs. my older brothers who were athletes I had to get better fast to earn their respect.
“My brothers Jelani and Elijah would ball me up at the park and push me so hard. It was always about the footwork, getting quicker, defense. They gave me a competitive edge in my mind.
“I just want to pay all my family back by setting everybody up by being a business major. Get my degree, start that thing that hits big. I always have God in my heart and mind powering me always. Praise up.
“Ajay has always been that brother, mentor, coach, uncle to me, an inspirational force to push me through all the envelopes. I owe him so much. Just the love we have. This Oak Park team means so much to us all. We’re family no doubt.”
Isaiah who is this laid back super cool articulate kid in convo when I talk to him. Both these two guys are like super mature yet happy go lucky in their own bag of life. Isaiah is this guy who is very proud of his basketball journey.
Being a good role model to his lil bro Luca is important to him. You feel it in Big I’s voice when he tells you how proud he is that Ajay is the first one to believe in him other than his parents and relatives that are supposed to believe in a kid.
He takes pride that his grandma Cherrie Sherrard was in the 68’ Olympics for hurdles, and he has that feeling that God is in him powering everything. You see the easy confidence, yet humble to the grind that Isaiah displays toward sport is amazing.
He turns to his dad whom he admires and he says this, “Every story ever written about me has always had something about my dad as well. His career in the NFL and being in the Super Bowl is great and we’re all so proud of him.
“That he went from being a walk on at UCLA football in 86’ to what he did is amazing. I want to obviously add to that legacy, but I want to respectfully blaze my own trail and make my own story for what I can do as well.
“I always have this feeling that if I’m doing 1,000 push ups, there’s a guy next door to me doing 2,000 push ups. I have to outwork the next guy to get where I want to be. It’s my journey with myself.
“I just have to have more resolve to realize these dreams. Ajay and this team have given me confidence to tackle life’s challenges after high school. Coach Chevalier, Shaw, and all the rest of the guys from the team that might not get mentioned by name in this story exist in my heart, Sha’s heart.
“We appreciate them and have had great times for so long. Ajay has made such a difference that we all can’t even put it into words really. He’s that kind of influence to be honest.”
#Ajay that real, real one
I asked Ajay for a quote on these two incredible young men and the Oak Park brotherhood they share. I never hardly ask A-Moye anything so my guy Big A told me
“E-Woods I got you.”
Feel his powerful words on Isaiah and Sha, “Sha and Isaiah are two of the closest young men to myself I have ever had in my camp of basketball players.
“I’ve been training, coaching, mentoring Sha since he was 10. We’ve been at this for nearly half of his life. He’s been everywhere with me and there is nothing I wouldn’t do for that young man.
“He’s otherworldly with his intellect, his innate feel for when and how to attack or manipulate a defense. He can shoot it out to 25-28 feet on down to midrange. He finishes with both hands on runners, floaters and he passes the ball with either hand quite fluidly with zip.
“On the personal side, Sha’s father Chuck is a big brother and uncle to me. His mother Lavon is a sweetheart and a rock for her family. His little sister is a light to the world, his brothers are supportive and super motivational for Sha. Family is a big deal to him.
“Isaiah Sherrard was a young man at the age of 13 when I met him and I saw the potential. He has arms and legs that don’t end and a tireless work ethic. When I saw that I said ‘Let’s get to work.’ Initially the thing I loved about Isaiah was that his skill set was so raw that his pallet was without any color on it.
“But one thing he loved doing was shooting the ball. So I was like ‘Hmmm, ok, interesting. Let’s roll with it.’ Isaiah and I have a unique relationship due to the fact that his father and I, both being former pro athletes, we both understood the sacrifices it requires to become great.
“In that regard his father Mike has been the most easy going human being I’ve ever dealt with. Mike always backs up everything I ever told Isaiah and has raised Isaiah to work for everything he has.
“Isaiah quickly became a shooter yet defensively to me is where his future lies. He can guard 4 positions and can blanket his side of the court. He has the most blocks in our school’s history and we have had some shot blockers here I tell you.
“Yet he can also score out of the post using 5-6 different pivots, can catch n shoot from any where, has jabs, and shot fake rip thrus. We’ve really worked on making him a complete player.
“What I loved this season was how much of an unselfish player he was, from his heightened assist numbers to him being a decoy on many plays. He just wants to win. His brother Jackson motivates him like you wouldn’t believe.
“His sister is an angel and means a lot to him and his mother gives him so much support. Again Family mean everything to my boys. So it’s no brainer to me why we ended up being a tight knit bunch.”
That’s the story here people. 3 Live Crew.
I published Run TMC about Clark Slajchert, Riley Battin, and others playing at Oak Park not too long ago.
They say it’s love that makes the world go round.
No one loves harder, gets his guys to push more and invest in the training unit than the singular Ajay Moye. Period.
Go see Oak Park Boys Varsity play, watch Ajay in his lab. You won’t be disappointed.
