Hi, I'm Heather!

If you made it here, you probably want to know who's behind all of this and why!

I came to youth basketball the same way you might have, as a parent with a kid who loved to hoop. I brought an old, dusty camera to his first tournament, and I didn't stay in the bleachers for long. I wasn't a photographer. I was a mom who wanted pictures of my kid playing the sport he loved and I wanted to make sure his teammates had some too. Back then, no one was really taking photos of the kids who weren't headed to a D1 college or the league one day.

But they were playing their hearts out!

And when I'd tell them how great they were, they'd rattle off ten things they did wrong in the game they just played. Even the ones who looked confident didn't always believe in themselves. So I started showing them their own photos and saying, "Look. Do you see how amazing you are?" I’d post them on my little instagram account and pair their pictures with captions I’d write that I hoped would motivate them and remind them they were incredible. Something that started out with no plan, became a promise to these kids…every time I came to a game, the camera came with me and from that day on, I never put it down.

Creativity had always been a common thread throughout my life through art, piano, writing, and whatever medium inspired me next. But underneath all of it was something even deeper: a love for people, a curiosity about who they really were, and a desire to help them see themselves through the eyes of someone who already believed in them.

I just never imagined that picking up a camera for my son would lead me into a world that would teach me so much, matter to me so deeply, and change the direction of my life.

I left a career I had built for twenty-five years, one that was comfortable, safe, and so good to me. I traded it for floors in gyms, late nights on baselines, and hugging sweaty boys after difficult losses, wondering more than once if I had lost my mind or if I had found my calling. But all I could hear, over and over, was just keep showing up. So I did. I locked the door on my old life and never once looked back. It didn't make sense at the time. It just felt like peace.

Over the years, this community didn't just let me in. They trusted me. They welcomed me into the huddles, the benches, the locker rooms, the losses, the big moments, and the quiet ones most people never see. Somewhere along the way, they became like family. They kept teaching me and showing me what this world was really asking of the kids, their families, and the people leading them.

Part of me wanted to protect them, because as fun and incredible as sports can be, it can also get chaotic fast. Part of me wanted to show them, through my eyes, how great they already were before they ever picked up a basketball. Because as fast as I was watching kids find a confidence they never knew they had, I was also watching them lose it in a matter of seconds.

The more I saw, the clearer it became. As parents, we were doing everything we knew how to do, and still felt like most days we fell short. Coaches were navigating more than most people ever see, trying to build a whole team while every parent in the stands needed something different for their one kid. These kids, underneath all that talent and pressure, were just trying to be seen for who they actually were, not just what they could do on the court, all while growing up in a world none of us fully understood.

I couldn't walk away from that. So I stopped just capturing it, and started building something for it.

That's what The Heather Experience has become. Everything this world allowed me to see and learn, turned into something I could hand back to the people still living it.

It's the resources and tools I wish someone had handed me. The voices of the kids themselves. A community, so no parent walks this alone. And a reminder, for the moments you feel like you're going crazy, that you've got this, and so does your kid.

Hopefully now you know a little more about the person behind the camera, not just the photos.

— Heather Cleaves
Founder, The Heather Experience