About
Academics & Athletics Connection/LV Stars, Inc. is a non-profit organization located in the Greater Las Vegas, NV area aimed at helping youth reach their full potential by promoting, encouraging, and fostering athletes and non-traditional educational training.
Mission
To promote health and wellness, develop integrity, and instill discipline and respect in the classroom, on the basketball court, and in life. We promote diversity and inclusion through all stages and elements that they may experience each day. We want to provide unconventional programming that encourages at-risk youth with an opportunity to become self-sufficient while gaining knowledge and fulfilling their potential.
Vision
To provide student/athletes educational leadership and athletic development while providing an avenue for social success. Through positive and consistent communication and leadership everyone will be able to embrace change and create a new reality for them, their families and our community.
Goal
To break the cycle of Despair-100 percent high school graduation rates; family units thriving in all aspects of life; developing well-rounded and responsible young adults with the knowledge to overcome poverty, mental health, bullying, academic and social issues, and any other hurdles that may come their way.
Our story
Academics and athletics seem to be an oxymoron. However, James Ray Wroten, the Founder and Executive Director of Academics & Athletics Connection/LV Stars, Inc. effortlessly combined the two.
Founded in 1996 and incorporated in 1997, the Las Vegas, Nevada native was sparked with an idea after attending several boys basketball league games at various community centers in the Vegas area. Wroten consistently left the gym disappointed with the bad attitudes, lack of sportsmanship, and discipline. From their actions, the kids didn’t even appear to be having fun. This is when Wroten decided not to criticize, but take action.
Through his actions, Wroten has coached countless Las Vegas youth in the game of basketball, football, and baseball as well as strength training for over 20 years. He has interacted with youth from single-parent homes, youth that were HIV positive, youth dealing with ADHD, and youth coming from homes with drug, sexual, physical, and emotional abuse.
He has assisted over 450 youth in obtaining both academic and athletic college scholarships. Wroten has received a number of awards for his service in the community at various churches, community centers, specialty programs, and private organizations.
His teams have won a host of competitive tournaments over the years, local and out of state. These tournaments provided a unique cultural experience for many of the youth in the program, many of whom have never traveled outside of their community.
Coach James also mentors and guides his student-athletes in the following unique ways, to name a few:
- Athletic Recruiting Education
- SAT/ACT and College Entrance Exam Preparation
- NCAA Clearinghouse Registration
- Locating, Identifying, and Applying for College and Scholarship Programs
Wroten is the father of two sons and a daughter. He realizes and understands that being a parent is mostly on the job training. There are no scripts or handbooks to follow, but there are some key elements that go a long way in helping a child succeed. Discipline, he learned from his father. Balance and love, he learned from his mother and says, “she was the GREATEST mother and woman he has ever known.”