Guam’s basketball community has recently seen a growing number of highly skilled players, and UOG Men’s Basketball Assistant Coach Josh Enrique Torres is playing a role in spurring on this growth. Torres is developing talent through his own organization Nothing But Net Guam.

Nothing But Net Guam officially launched in March 2016, which started as idea that eventually became a reality. “It quickly grew into a program,” Torres said. “We host camps during each break that Guam Department of Education has and when the kids are not in school, we have the kids working hard in our camps.”

Torres grew up in Seattle, Wash. and started playing basketball competitively in middle school up until his senior year as a varsity player at Kentwood High School in Covington, Wash., where he was introduced to coaching. “In high school we ran clinics for the youth, we hosted what we called Cage Camp and our varsity team would be coaches for the players who attended Cage Camp,” Torres said. “I really started to enjoy the coaching aspect of basketball.”

Over a course of nine years in coaching, Torres accolades go beyond winning and teaching the fundamentals of basketball. “We try to inspire the youth to really get involved in basketball and sports to learn discipline, sharing, being a team player,” Torres said. “We are trying to teach good values and morals starting at a young age.”

The game of basketball is more than a sport for Torres. Torres learned the same valuable lessons he teaches at a young age growing up in a family of athletes. His mother was a junior Olympic swimmer, his father was a Division I football player, and his brother was a state champion wrestler. He followed suit by being a Division II football player.

However, his love for basketball and coaching carved his path into starting an organization. “I get real fired up when the players buy into the system, buy into team mentality, play consistently and together,” Torres said. “I really enjoy the cohesiveness in team sports, it is a reciprocal effect where I inspire them. They play hard and they play well, that inspires me to continue to coach.”