Sophomore Guard Aaron Bryant Brings A Fighter’s Mentality To The Future Of Gillion Academy

A martial-arts-style weekly showdown, an eight-hour-a-day training grind and a family journey from Taiwan to the DMV fuel Aaron Bryant’s rise as a high school basketball player.

Gillion Academy founder and head basketball coach Kenny Gillion (right) makes a point to star sophomore guard Aaron Bryant during a recent practice. / The Gillion Academy

This is the next installment of our continuing series on Northern Virginia’s Gillion Academy, which is among the country’s premiere prep basketball programs in only its first year of existence. Here are the previously published Parts I and II. 

The Kumite, an ancient martial arts tournament sponsored by the Society of the Black Dragon in the 1988 film “Bloodsport," has a basketball derivative at Northern Virginia’s Gillion Academy.

It’s woven into the fabric of the school’s unique culture every Friday.   

Aaron Bryant, one of the top sophomore guards in the nation, had only been at Gillion a few days this fall after transferring in from nearby national power Paul VI, but his surprising Kumite debut immediately solidified his standing among his new peers and coaches.

“Each Friday, random players, regardless of position, are selected to go one-on-one, half-court, with the whole school watching,” said Gillion head coach Kenny Gillion. “It’s intense, a test about being ready. You never know when your number’s going to be called or who you’ll be matched up against. The rules are - you make it, you take it, you have six seconds to make a move and the first player to score five wins.”

Passing Intense Early Tests

After morning academics and lunch that initial Friday, as the players began stretching and warming up, the whistle blew for the Kumite to commence. 

Bryant was informed that he'd be matched up against 6-foot-3 junior Cam Austin. He won 5-0. 

The next Friday, he emerged victorious over prolific 6-foot-4 senior scorer and Arkansas State-signee Aaron McGee by a score of 5-1.

“I’d only been at Gillion for a couple of days and the overall adjustment was a process,” said Bryant. “I was thinking about the friends and relationships I left behind at Paul VI, wondering if leaving was the right move for me. The Kumite was pretty cool, though. I’d never experienced anything like it. And it made me feel welcome. I felt respected and accepted. It kind of solidified my place there.”

In addition, the mere mention of the Kumite, and the combat imagery it conjured up, provided its own welcoming sense to Bryant, who’d earned a 2nd Degree Taekwondo Black Belt at the age of 11.

Bruce Lee, Black Belts and Basketball Dreams

His fascination with the martial arts began when he sat down with his dad, Matt, to watch the 1973 classic Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon when he was five years old.

“I was the biggest Bruce Lee fan ever after that,” said Bryant. “There was something about his confidence, how strong and disciplined he was, how he was able to outthink and defeat his bigger opponents. And he was a philosopher in the way he was able to express himself.”

His parents learned an important lesson about their son back then that has remained consistent.

A love for martial arts created confidence and discipline in Aaron Bryant at a young age. / Michael Bryant

“One day when he was in kindergarten, his dad sent me a picture of Aaron wearing a Taekwondo uniform,” said his mom, Dr. Tiffany Bryant. “I learned then that once Aaron set his mind to something, he was going to do it. From day one, he had a strong work ethic and dedication. He enjoyed testing himself, the discipline, routine and practice required to climb up each level in his martial arts training. And that showed up in school and his daily life as well.”

That desire and diligence did not simply appear out of thin air.

From the Liwu River Valley to the DMV Hardwood

Matt Bryant was the son of a military man who fell in love while stationed in Taiwan during the Vietnam War. Matt’s mom hailed from the indigenous Tayal tribe in Taiwan whose roots in the mountainous Liwu River Valley stretched back thousands of years. She was a naturally industrious sort.

As a military brat, Matt moved around often, from Taiwan to Germany, Panama, Texas and other stops in between before his parents settled in the Virginia Tidewater area. While his dad worked at the Pentagon, his mom owned and operated a number of hair salons and restaurants.

He ran track, played football and excelled at basketball, earning All-City and All-Conference honors in the early 1990s as a 6-foot-3 shooting guard at Deep Creek High School in Chesapeake. 

But his hoops exploits were overshadowed by a friend and remarkably gifted teammate on his Boo Williams AAU squad.

“You didn’t hear too much about me because there was a guy on the other side of the bridge named Allen Iverson,” said Matt.

On one of his first few days at Christopher Newport University, he brazenly walked into the room of a quiet, fellow freshman and dorm mate. That brief interaction would profoundly alter his life trajectory.

“I was a huge reader, introverted, and a high academic achiever who was into my books,” said Dr. Bryant. “Matt came into my room and tried to take my Fruit Loops and Cap’n Crunch cereal. He was cute and caught my eye. I acted indignant when I kicked him out, but I smiled a little bit after he left.”

The two began dating shortly thereafter. Upon finishing his four-year college basketball career, Matt went back to his birthplace and mother’s homeland of Taiwan to play professionally in the Chinese Basketball Alliance. 

“It was a great league with a lot of talent,” said Matt, whose older cousin Mark Bryant played in the NBA for 15 years and is currently an assistant coach with the New York Knicks. “My roommate was Brian Reese, who won a national championship at the University of North Carolina.” 

Other teammates included, among others, Kentucky alum Andre Riddick, the University of Maryland’s Johnny Rhodes, and Tremaine Wingfield, who played his college ball at Louisville and Texas.

Thanks to his father's cousin Mark Bryant (background), an assistant coach with the New York Knicks, Aaron Bryant got the chance to meet one of his NBA heroes, Chris Paul. / Matt Bryant

During his four-year pro career, Matt lived in Hsinchu, Taiwan’s cultural center and most populous city, which afforded him the opportunity to reconnect and forge close bonds with his mom’s extended family.

While he was following his hoop dream, Tiffany was providing patient care in a hospital after graduating with her bachelor’s degree in Nursing. 

When Aaron was born, his dad was working in the field of fiber optic cable installation while his mom was on her way to attaining her Doctorate, teaching in both hospital and academic settings.

“Aaron was always full of energy and such a sweet, kind kid,” said Dr. Bryant. “He’s still that way today.”

But that sweet kindness wasn’t very evident when he first began playing ball prior to middle school.

“Not only was he a ball of energy, but he was also very competitive, " said Matt. “He still had a lot of that Taekwondo in him when he began taking basketball seriously.”

Initially, some of those martial arts instincts naturally kicked in on the hardwood.

“When kids got past him on defense, he was kicking and kneeing them in the back,” said Matt. “There were a lot of dads that wanted to fight me at some of those first practices.”

The Summer That Created a Prospect

Aaron approached his basketball education and Taekwondo training in similar fashion. 

“When he decided to commit to playing, I’d tell him to take out the trash and he’d go missing for a couple of hours,” said Dr. Bryant. “I’d go outside and find him out there dribbling.”

The Bruce Lee YouTube clips he’d sit with for hours were replaced by Trae Young, Michael Jordan, Steph Curry, Chris Paul and Kyrie Irving highlights.

The summer prior to entering sixth grade, he initiated a strict training regimen while his parents were at work.

“We’d recently moved next to a basketball court, so I set a goal to work eight hours a day, like my parents did, and get up 1,000 shots every day,” said Bryant. 

He began each morning with ball handling drills for an hour, then followed a routine of four segments - 250 layups, 250 shots in the paint, 250 mid-range jumpers and 250 three-pointers, all broken up into ten sets of 25 while keeping a tab of his percentages. 

“I’d work out, come back in the house during breaks for snacks, lunch and to hydrate,” he said. “I saw myself getting so much better in a very short period of time.”

“We can always spot that summer when we’re looking at old pictures based on his tan,” said Dr. Bryant. “That’s just Aaron when he puts his mind to something. There’s no half or partial, when he’s in he’s all in.”

Once he made the commitment to be a basketball player, Aaron Bryant worked relentlessly to be the best player he could possibly be. His workouts included up to 1,000 shots per day and hours devoted drills and conditioning. / The Gillion Academy

Within months, he leapfrogged many of his peers who’d been playing on elite travel squads for years. 

In middle school, he shined while being coached by Georgetown University legend Jerome Williams, aka The Junkyard Dog, for the elite DC-based Team Takeover AAU program.

Matt was hands off early on, letting his son’s basketball journey take its own course. 

The affirmations he heard - “He can be something” or “He’s gonna be really good” - began crystallizing when Aaron won the “King of the Summer” award after averaging 23 points per game at the PYBL, the area’s showcase middle school summer league where all of the top Maryland, DC and Northern Virginia private schools come to scout and recruit.

“He really surprised me when he started showing out against the best kids in the DC area,” said Matt.

It was around that time when serendipity brought Matt, Aaron and Darrance Gillion together.

“My daughter did competitive cheerleading and had a practice inside the K Sports complex in Manassas,” said Darrance, Gillion Academy’s Head of School. “I naturally gravitated toward the gym and saw Aaron going through one-on-one drills. He was in the eighth grade and his talent was evident in the way that he shot the ball, his patience and tempo. His natural rhythm and pace at that young age was unbelievable.”

Darrance approached Matt and talked about what he and his brothers had cooking in terms of their own practice facility, training modules and Team Breakdown AAU program.

He also dropped a seed that piqued Matt’s interest, telling him that plans to launch their own school, based on the European sports academy model, were about a year away. 

As a ninth grader last season at nationally ranked Paul VI, Bryant was a varsity contributor playing alongside Jordan Smith, the nation’s top guard recruit in the Class of 2026 who’ll be suiting up for John Calipari at the University of Arkansas next year. 

Bryant became a national revelation during one of his first high school games in early December, when Paul VI faced the country’s top ranked team at the time, Florida’s IMG Academy and their supremely gifted point guard Darius Acuff at DeMatha’s National Hoopfest. 

Fans came for the highly anticipated matchup between Smith and Acuff, who currently leads the SEC in scoring and assists at Arkansas and is projected to be a Top-10 lottery selection in the upcoming NBA Draft. 

But many left talking about the skinny freshman from Paul VI.

“I didn’t expect to play at all against IMG,” said Bryant. “No one knew who I was, but coach put me in late in the first quarter, which surprised me.”

Bryant proceeded to splash his first three, then knocked in his next as the crowd began buzzing. In the second half he banged in another from deep, with many asking, “Who is that kid?”

In the game’s critical waning moments, with Paul VI clinging to a two-point lead, Bryant was fouled with seconds remaining. He knocked down both free throws to seal the 67-63 upset win and finished with 11 points in limited minutes.

“I didn’t have a big role, but my mentality was to be aggressive,” said Bryant. “I saw some decent minutes early on, but not as much toward the end of the season because I had some athletic and strength deficits that hurt me on defense.”

Matt stayed in touch with Darrance Gillion and as Aaron’s freshman season progressed, he became more convinced that his son, who stood 6-foot-1 and weighed a mere 135 pounds, needed a stronger emphasis on development to address those deficiencies. 

Gillion Academy was set to open in the ensuing fall, and the prospect of a one-stop shop - where AAU and prep basketball, weight training, conditioning, elite coaching and a serious emphasis on academics - resonated with him.  

Darrance wasn’t pushy. He encouraged Matt to do some research and his words kept echoing - “Go ahead and search around. People know us nationally. We believe in your son’s talent and can take him to a higher level.” 

It was more than just some used-car-salesman slick talk. Matt did his due diligence and was impressed. 

Kenny Gillion had achieved national success with a focus on developing players for the next level during his coaching tenure at West Oaks Academy in Orlando. The brothers’ Team Breakdown AAU rosters have sent over 300 kids to the Division I level during the program’s 20-plus years of existence.  

Matt was specifically intrigued by one Gillion Brothers protégé who Darrance said Aaron reminded him of, current Chicago Bulls guard Anfernee Simons.

“Anfernee is Kenny’s godson,” said Darrance. “We started working with him early and he was very much like Aaron in that he was scrawny and didn’t pass the eye test. But he could shoot and score against anybody. He wasn’t remarkably athletic but he was incredibly crafty.”

Matt was convinced that Gillion’s prep school, which began operating this fall, was the best option for his son’s overall athletic growth. 

Dr. Bryant accompanied her son on a parent visit and listened attentively as Kenny talked about basketball development, followed by Darrance who talked about the academic side of the equation.

“Dr. Bryant wasn’t interested in the basketball as much as she was the education part,” said Kenny. “Darrance made it clear that through our curriculum, Aaron would be challenged and have the credentials to attend any Ivy League school or top university in America.”

Dr. Bryant walked away impressed.

“I was familiar with the academic model and liked the variety of classes, the level of independence and the work ethic and consistency needed to be successful,” she said. “Academics has always been important to me because the basketball is going to stop bouncing one day. What then?”

There was another element of the environment that appealed to her in ways she hadn’t expected.

“I saw these excellent Black men pouring into my son as educators, role models and mentors,” she said. “The way the program is set up, with both the academic and basketball training, took all of my worries away. The whole experience thus far has been tremendous.”

On the day of the parent interview, Kenny also put Aaron through an individual workout.

“It was obvious that he could shoot the ball really well,” said Kenny. “He was hitting 15 out of 20 shots off the dribble, off the pick-and-roll and off the catch-and-shoot. And his endurance was impressive. He was going full speed for the full 40-minutes and kept getting stronger, whereas most kids begin to tail off toward the end. He was in great condition and his work ethic was top notch.”

Why Gillion Academy Was the Right Fit

Bryant’s been a solid spark off the bench as a shooter, facilitator and passer for Gillion during his sophomore campaign. Case in point was the game against Hargrave Military Academy, where he made clutch free throws down the stretch, knocked in a deep three to seal the win and finished with 13 points in limited minutes.

This past weekend, Gillion went unbeaten in their Orlando Grind Session games to up their overall record to 18-10. Against Lewisville, Texas' iSchool on Saturday, February 21 at the Orlando Magic’s former practice facility, the Lions were led by center Marcis Ponder’s 23 points and 16 rebounds, and Willie Burnett III’s 30 points in their 70-68 win.

The Grind Session, considered the country’s best prep league, is a national winter circuit of elite high school hoops featuring some of America's most absurdly talented teams, along with an assortment of first-class international squads.

Last year’s top Grind Session players included the cream of this season’s supremely gifted college freshmen class like Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, BYU’s AJ Dybantsa and Louisville’s Mikel Brown, among others. 

This season, Bryant was able to test himself against the likes of McDonald’s All-Americans Caleb Holt, Bruce Branch III, Toni Bryant and Jaxon Richardson.

Against iSchool this weekend in Orlando, his head coach elected to play him sparingly in favor of more strength, length and defensive prowess.

And even in that space, as he waits his turn for a more featured role at Gillion next year, his name is resonating. 

In the fourth quarter of the iSchool game, during a lull in the action, one of the refs walked over to the bench and said, “I love number 5,” referring to Bryant.

“That game turned into a defensive struggle and Aaron was solid, but his minutes were limited,” said Kenny Gillion. “But he’s the future, and we’re excited about it.”