Director and Personal Training Specialist

Team Concept Basketball

Conley Oliver is a familiar face in local high school basketball, having coached and worked with many successful athletes as a high school and club team coach, and as a private trainer. Co-founder of the Basketball Institute with Lindsay Strothers, Oliver helped build a program that produced some of the top high school players in the area, including Kate Kevorken, DI player at Univ. of Northern Colorado, Chelsea Carlysle, Ventura County MVP and signed to play at UCSD, Andy Winningham of Oak Park and Kyle Olandt of Westlake, both selected to the All-Ventura 1st team as seniors. Currently, Coach Oliver and Coach Dimitri Hodgkinson are building a Team Concept program that will help strengthen the future of local area basketball.

Oliver grew up in Portland, Oregon with a passion for basketball. He played high school basketball at Wilson High School with current NBA star Damon Stoudamire (San Antonio Spurs) where they won a State Championship, going undefeated and being ranked in the top 25 in the nation during the 1990-91 season.

After high school, Oliver enrolled in the University of Oregon and continued to work with Howard Avery and Triple Threat Basketball in Portland, one of the best basketball academies in the country. This gave him exposure to some great players such as NBA stars Terrell Brandon and Mike Doleac (Miami Heat), as well as college stars Matt Santangelo (Gonzaga), Antoine Stoudamire, Lisa Griffith (Arizona), Jenny Mo and Shaquela Williams (Oregon). Oliver also coached with Avery at Triple Threat in the summer of 1993. They went to Nationals in North Carolina with Matt Santangelo (plays in Europe), David Jackson (CBA), and Mike Doleac.

Oliver took his experience playing in Portland to Northern California, becoming a two-year starter at College of the Siskiyous (1994-1996) before finishing school at Cal State Northridge (CSUN). Oliver helped lead the Siskiyous to California?s juco version of the sweet sixteen. At Northridge, he began working with former CSUN Head Women?s Basketball Coach, founder of the original Team Concept program in Oregon, and current WNBA assistant coach for the Los Angeles Sparks, Michael Abraham. Oliver and Coach Strothers both assisted Abraham with the women?s varsity program.

After graduating at Northridge in 1999, Oliver continued to coach privately and at clinics with Coach Strothers in the San Fernando Valley until Coach Strothers became head girl?s varsity basketball coach at Oak Park High School in 1999. Following the 1999-2000 season, Oliver would go to work on Oak Park?s spring and fall training. His efforts helped Coach Strothers prepare his team for the 2000-01 season. Oak Park would go on to win the Southern Section CIF Championship in 2001, and go undefeated 4 straight seasons in league.

?Working with the Oak Park players during the off-season helped me realize just how much of an impact players can make on their high school teams by dedicating themselves to improving in between high school seasons,? said Oliver. ?If you look at the high school programs that are consistently successful each season, you?ll see that their teams are made up of players who are dedicated and who consistently hone their skills in the off-season by practicing and playing high-level club ball.?

The Strothers, Oliver tandem founded The Basketball Institute and began working with both boys and girls in 2002. Oliver continued running the BI program after Strothers left in 2005 to join Team Concept in Oregon. Oliver set his sights on starting a new program, Team Concept, which would build upon the knowledge, experience and successes he gained over the years working with so many great basketball mentors, and would include a structured system for producing top-notch players. Oliver founded Team Concept early in 2006 and brought Coach Hodgkinson on board to form another strong tandem that looks to guide Team Concept and local area players for years to come. Currently, Team Concept runs out of local area gyms between Ventura County, the Conejo Valley, Las Virgenes and San Fernando Valley areas.

During the 2005-06 high school season, Oliver joined Oak Park again as an assistant girl?s varsity basketball coach. Looking to work with several players he had helped earlier in their careers, Oliver helped head coach Bob DeCorsi and the team go 10-0, undefeated once again in league, and 18-9 overall, making it to the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division III-A playoffs.

Coach Oliver has run spring and fall training programs for area high schools including Oak Park, Agoura, Calabasas, and Oaks Christian. He has done private training for many current high school athletes as well as younger aspiring players. His philosophy is to create a positive learning environment for all age levels, teaching players the skills necessary to play high school basketball and providing the foundation for them to build towards a college scholarship if they desire.

Oliver, a mortgage broker with Ruland Financial Group in Westlake Village, is married and expecting his first child. They currently reside in Sherman Oaks, California.