COACH JIM HUBER

Tournament Director | Best of KC Catholic Youth Basketball Tournament

Coach Jim Huber has over 32 years of coaching, teaching, and mentoring experience at the youth, high school, college, and professional levels. Throughout his career, he has helped develop players who have advanced to the NBA and prestigious college basketball programs, including Duke, Kentucky, and Michigan State. He has also helped more than 70 high school student-athletes earn opportunities to play college basketball.

Jim’s coaching background includes serving as a head and assistant coach at Avila University, an assistant coach at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC), and a head coach and Director of Basketball Operations with MOKAN Basketball. In 2013, he guided his MOKAN 17U team to the prestigious Nike Peach Jam.

Since 2013, Jim has served in a national leadership role with Breakthrough Basketball, helping develop coaching and camp curriculum while training coaches and athletes across the country. Through his involvement, Breakthrough Basketball has expanded its nationwide camps and positively impacted thousands of young athletes and coaches each year.

Jim is also the owner of 4D Hoops and co-founder of 4D Leaders, organizations dedicated to developing young people through sports. His philosophy focuses on developing the whole person through four dimensions: Mind, Body, Heart, and Spirit. He believes coaches, parents, and athletes must work together to develop character, leadership, life skills, and positive relationships that extend well beyond the basketball court.

A Kansas City native, Jim graduated from St. Thomas Aquinas High School, where he was a three-year varsity starter and earned honorable mention All-State honors. He continued his basketball career at Allen County Community College and Avila University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Communication with an emphasis in Business and an MBA in Marketing.

Jim’s passion for the Best of KC Catholic Youth Basketball Tournament reflects his belief that youth sports should provide more than competition. They should bring families and communities together, create meaningful experiences, and help young people grow into great men and women.

His mission is simple: Use the game of basketball to help young people win the game of life.

COACH TIM WARIS

Tournament Director | Best of KC Catholic Youth Basketball Tournament

Coach Tim Waris has over 20 years of experience coaching and mentoring young athletes at the grade school and high school levels. Since beginning his coaching career in 2004, Tim has dedicated much of his time to developing basketball players, building successful teams, and creating positive experiences for young people through sports.

In 2007, Tim founded the Bill Waris Blue Jays Basketball Club in memory of his father, who attended Creighton University and proudly named his basketball teams after the Blue Jays. What began as a way to honor his father’s legacy has grown into a meaningful opportunity to give back to the community through youth basketball.

Since 2007, Tim has helped organize and operate youth basketball tournaments that have raised more than $500,000 to support families and individuals in need through the St. James Food Pantry. Tournament proceeds have also supported educational opportunities at area grade schools and high schools.

Throughout his coaching career, Tim has coached boys and girls in the Parochial League, winning nine city championships with Our Lady of the Presentation and St. Thomas More. He also spent two years coaching the girls C team and junior varsity at Notre Dame de Sion High School and has served as the freshman boys basketball coach at St. Michael the Archangel High School in Lee’s Summit, Missouri.

Tim’s involvement with the Best of KC Catholic Youth Basketball Tournament reflects his commitment to honoring his father’s legacy, bringing Catholic school communities together, and using basketball as an opportunity to serve others.

For Tim, basketball is about more than winning games. It is about developing young people, building relationships, strengthening communities, and making a positive difference in the lives of others.