It was the final middle school basketball tournament for Julia and Steve Eckstrum’s oldest son, William, before he headed off to high school, but the team was in disarray.
Two players didn’t show up for the event’s second day because the team had lost the day before. Only five players were warming up as the clock wound down for game time.
But the team was also missing someone else: its coach. The night before, Leo Svete, the team’s head coach, was at a party in Napa.
“We’re all sitting around like, ‘Where the heck is Leo?’” Julia Eckstrum said.
When the parents got ahold of Leo, he told them he was sick.
“He’s telling us he’s sick, yet I can see him posting all over social media that they’re partying the night before,” Eckstrum said.
Julia’s husband, Steve, coached their son and his teammates’ final game.
That tournament no-show was rock bottom for Svete. His drinking and partying activities started to spill over into his training and coaching business.
Two years after his absence from the tournament, Svete has overcome his struggles and become one of the most prominent shooting coaches in the country. Based in Los Angeles, he has worked with players including Golden State Warrior Brandin Podziemski, Los Angeles Sparks center Li Yueru, top-30 high school basketball prospect Tounde Yessoufou, and many more Division I and professional players.
But before Svete earned the trust of some of the country’s best basketball players, he needed to find his way.
Julia Eckstrum was looking for a basketball trainer for her son. She wanted someone who would help improve his skills and also be a mentor. She attended one of Leo’s training sessions and approached him about working with her son.
At the time, Svete traveled between the United States and other countries to play professionally, anywhere from Bosnia to El Salvador to Mexico. In his offseason, he would train players and stay with the Eckstrums at their house in San Jose.
“It seems glamorous,” Eckstrum said. “You’re playing basketball in Europe, but it’s a lonely world.”
She observed Svete struggling to find himself amidst his hectic lifestyle.
“He lived out of a suitcase,” Eckstrum said. “When he went to Europe, we would store his stuff for him at our house.”
She saw that when Svete missed that tournament, it was also a turning point.
“That hurt his business,” Eckstrom said. “He realized, ‘Do I want my business and teaching the boys?’”
Svete’s issues stemmed from insecurity. He felt he had something to prove to others, so he wanted to show it off when he did something significant.
“I just got into the wrong stuff,” Svete said. “I’d be at the club until 2 a.m. and post on my Instagram story, and then I’d go train at 8 a.m. the next day, which the parents (of players) saw.”
Over time, Leo started to rid himself of his bad habits and dedicated himself to training. He no longer had time to go out at night because his training sessions started at 6 a.m.
“It wasn’t like I’m going to stop going out,” Svete said. “It was just I’m doing so much, I don’t have the time anymore.”
In 2022, Svete had the opportunity to go on a reality television dating show, “Are You The One?” On the show, a group of men and women attempt to find their perfect match amongst the group for a cash prize.
The show took away his phone for a month, forcing him to look within himself to change his life.
“You can’t hide from your problems when you got a camera in your face,” Svete said. “All the things I was going through were that fresh.”
When Svete returned from the show, he found himself in a better place. His passion for training was rejuvenated. He didn’t drink alcohol for 75 days and found a healthy daily routine. He found the discipline in his life that he had lost.
Svete started as a standout player out of Mishawaka, Indiana.
After graduating high school, Svete went on to play college basketball. He first attended Western Michigan before transferring to Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). He left after his redshirt sophomore season to play overseas.
When Svete was younger, he knew he needed to shoot the ball to play at the college and pro levels. He stands 6 foot, 5 inches but isn’t overly athletic. He became obsessed with shooting. When he missed, he searched for the reasons why and made adjustments.
Now, he brings the same approach to shooting to his players.
One of the players Svete reached out to when he started to get back into training was Trevon Scott. Scott attended the University of Cincinnati before playing overseas and on numerous NBA G-League teams. This past season, Scott played with the Osceola Magic, the NBA G-League affiliate of the Orlando Magic.
When Scott and Svete first connected, Scott was going through a shooting slump while playing with the Charlotte Hornets G-League affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm.
“What stands out the most now to me is just how serious (Leo) is about his craft,” Scott said. “He is really committed, and you can see it.”
In basketball training, there is a lot of emphasis on getting shot repetitions, but Scott believes Svete’s training goes beyond just “getting up shots.”
“He instills a confidence in his players,” Scott said. “You feel like every time you shoot the ball it’s going in.”
In one drill, Svete tests his players’ mental limits as a shooter. A player needs to make 10 shots in a row at five spots. If they miss, they start over at the same spot.
“You can’t think about missing,” Scott said. “You have to tell yourself every shot is going in.”
It’s a simple drill, but it takes even the best players a long time to finish.
Leo’s favorite part is seeing the players’ reaction after they finish the drill.
“They’re like ‘That’s the best I ever shot,’” Svete said. “Think about how tiring and nerve-wracking that is and to see a guy complete that, they’re just distraught with joy.”
Svete has developed a close bond with top-30 ranked incoming senior Tounde Yessoufou who has college offers from Kentucky, USC, Arizona, UCONN, and Kansas.
Yessoufou attends St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria, three hours north of Los Angeles. Svete would leave at 3 a.m. to make it to Yessoufou’s high school for a 6 a.m. training session before school started.
He recalls the first time he had to do Svete’s drill.
“The first time I did it, I struggled a lot,” said Yessoufou, who grew up in Benin in West Africa. “But when we kept practicing every time, all that stuff helped me a lot.”
According to Yessoufou, the drill teaches being “present in the moment.”
“When you start making a bunch of (shots), it’s easy and then you don’t get focused,” Yessoufou said. “You might start missing it, so you just got to be focused from the beginning to the end.”
Confidence is the biggest thing Svete instills in his players. It was also how Svete thrived in his basketball career after a knee injury at the end of high school. He obsessed over why shots didn’t go in, whether it was the turn angle of his body or whether his thumb on his guide hand influenced the ball.
“I constantly learned to think about my shot,” Svete said. “I thought every shot was going in, and that’s what made me have the tenacity to be such a good shooter.”
While Svete’s shot form worked for him, he doesn’t teach players the exact way he shoots. It all depends on the player’s needs.
“Well, everyone thinks you should shoot if your feet are turned,” Svete said. “If your feet are turned and you’re turning in the air and you miss left five times, you got to make a change.”
With the changes, Svete said there is pressure to make sure he’s right about shot corrections, especially with higher-level players.
“I had to be right because people are looking at me like, ‘Why are you touching my shot?’” Svete said.
Like his drive to improve as a player, Svete carries that into coaching. He constantly suggests new drill ideas to challenge his players better and present them with more realistic scenarios that can translate to the game. He also extends his motivation to get better into his day-to-day routine.
He starts his days with a cold plunge and meditation. He also journals daily about his goals and aspirations, which reminds him of his belief in himself. Svete said that belief pulled him out of the dark place he descended into.“I really worked on myself to see myself not be insecure,” Svete said. “I did the things I needed to do to grow. Addiction is a real thing. Alcohol ruins and disintegrates your body. You think you can do that and balance your life, but there comes a point where you can’t.”
For Svete now, he says he’s happy he’s seen as a leader for players at all levels.
“I think that’s what keeps me going,” Svete said.
