MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Trey Draper’s journey began at Mitchell High School as a player and then to the University of Memphis. He returned to his alma mater, Mitchell as an assistant coach for five season and helped the program win a state title in 2016. He moved on to IMG Academy and helped the program win a national championship in 2019. Now he’s written a book about winning along the way.

” The Winning Language power of relationships, loyalty and integrity. It’s about winning. But when you look at everything that is paved, the way for me is relationships. It’s loyalty and it’s integrity. And those are three character traits that I have in everyday life,” said Draper.

‘The Winning Language’ maps out skills and principles that has helped Draper succeed off the court, and he hopes his story can help others win in life as well.

” The interesting part about this book is, it’s not a sports book. It’s a book about life, it’s a book about principles. This is a book about things that every one of us have inside of us. It’s just how do we pull that out of them,” said Draper.

Draper now works with Grizzlies superstar Ja Morant and he says it wouldn’t have been possible without the power of building relationships.

” Ja blows up to stardom and just being very instrumental in my life. He’s been just one of the most loyal individuals I have ever been a part of. And you just look at the journey. ‘You say, wow, like I’m blessed’. But you also you see these relationships. You build relationships because you’re loyal, because you had integrity in every stop.”

Most importantly, he’s never forgotten where he started, which is something that has also helped him maintain long lasting relationships.

“A Lot of people think if you work hard is not the way to go. You know, I’m looking for the quick cash or the quick. Somebody can just hire you for being who they are or whatever, but he went and worked for everything,” said Mitchell High School principal Kelvin Meeks.

When he is home and available, Draper goes back to his community and workouts his former high school players.

” Mr. Meeks allows me to come here to this day. What type of person would I be? The young men who helped me along my journey, I work them out free of charge. I don’t want anything. I just want to see you win,” said Draper.

” The Winning Language” will be available for retail on June 26th.