Kyle Dodd’s basketball playing days have been over for more than six years, but he still finds himself on a court on a Friday afternoon working out with a group of NBA Draft hopefuls.

No, the former ASU point guard is not looking to make any sort of comeback.

He’s now in charge of the Arizona Premier Basketball Academy in Gilbert, where players of all ages and levels come to work on skills and refine their games.

“The biggest part about this place is that it’s a teaching academy,” Dodd said. “If you’re a high-school player or a college player or a guy that’s going into the draft … I want them to understand that it’s a place to come and get better at basketball. It’s not a place that you’re going to come and [say], ‘Hey, we’ve got to win so many games.’”

Arizona Premier was started in 2004 by former UA interim coach and current Grand Canyon coach Russ Pennell.

But when Pennell and Mark Nelson, who was running the academy while Pennell was at UA, signed on at Grand Canyon, Arizona Premier needed a new leader.

Dodd, who played for Pennell when he was an assistant coach at ASU, was offered the job.

After all, Dodd had credentials. He was a graduate assistant at ASU after he was done playing, and he started his own basketball training academy in Orange County after that.

But Dodd was settled into a new life.

He was married and had 16-month old baby boy. He was working a “normal” sales job.

Coming back to the place he spent his college career wasn’t exactly on his radar.

“[When I was first offered the position] I was like, ‘Ah, I don’t know,” Dodd said. “I was comfortable. I grew up in Orange County, and my wife loved it. It was just a good place to be, but I wanted to get back into basketball.”

Pennell suggested that Dodd come out to Gilbert and spend a couple days at the academy.

And once he did, he was hooked.

“Once I got here, I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” Dodd said. “It was a no-brainer.”

Two weeks later, Dodd and his family left the beaches of the OC and traveled back to the desert just in time for the summer months.

“It was a lot of risk. I was giving up a lot to come to kind of an unknown,” he said. “It was a quick move. We were throwing clothes in the car and just got out here.”

Dodd has now been at Arizona Premier for about a month, and while the transition period is still taking place, he has still gotten plenty of chances to work with a variety of different players.

“I absolutely love it so far,” Dodd said. “You want to have [an] effect on every kid, but when you actually see somebody improve or their parents tell you they’re grateful, that’s better than any paycheck you could get.”

Dodd played at ASU from 1999-2003, where he ranked first in the Pac-10 in assist-to-turnover ratio (4.72) during his senior season and helped lead to the Sun Devils to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2003. And even though he only stands 6 feet tall, Dodd also participated in the NABC Slam Dunk Championship in 2003.

Dodd said he can still reach the rim — on a good day.

“It takes me a lot longer to get loose,” he said. “Sometimes I can do every dunk that I used to be able to do. Most of the time, I go home depressed and I have to watch my dunk on YouTube to just remember that I once could do that.”

Once his college career wrapped up, Dodd knew he wanted to stay involved in basketball by teaching the fundamentals of the game.

“There are a lot of people that lead, and the way that they lead is [they] yell and scream,” he said. “I have energy, and I yell and scream, but at the same time, I like to do it a way that’s positive and encouraging. Instead of saying, ‘What are you doing? You’re terrible,’ I say, ‘Hey, you’re better than this, man. Come on, let’s go,’ and pat them on the back.”

Dodd originally thought that his desire to teach and lead meant he wanted a future in coaching, but his experience as an ASU graduate assistant showed him that maybe wasn’t the case.

“In an ideal, perfect world, I probably would be a college coach that didn’t have to go to the games,” Dodd said. “Practice was fun for me, individual workouts were fun for me [and] breaking down film was fun for me. But the game days were hard, which is so weird, because it’s usually the opposite for everyone else. It just tore me up.”

But Dodd still found time to train aspiring college basketball players after moving back to California, including UA sophomore guard Kyle Fogg and 2011 ASU commit Kyle Caudill.

And in addition to keeping tabs on the ASU athletic department, Dodd stayed in touch with Pennell during his time away from Tempe.

“Coach P is one guy that I use something that I learned from him on a daily basis,” Dodd said. “He’s one guy that I would consider, in the coaching and teaching world, like a mentor for me.”

However, Dodd admits it was a bit strange seeing Pennell coaching ASU’s biggest rival in 2008-09.

“I would hope Coach Pennell would coach a great game, and I would hope Kyle Fogg would have 30 points, but I would still hope we’d kick their butt,” Dodd said. “I never really pulled for them to actually win, [but] I liked to see when they were doing well that people were giving Coach Pennell credit, because I knew once he got the job that he would surprise some people.”

Staying in contact with the former Wildcat leader is a big reason why Dodd is continuing what Pennell started five years ago, and while he said he “wouldn’t dare” make any drastic changes, Dodd is already implementing new ideas for Arizona Premier. He is starting a “rookie academy” for kids ages 5-8, as well as an “elite academy” exclusively for high-school boys and girls.

That gives Dodd the ability to have a positive impact on young players of all ages, which he said is the most rewarding part of the job.

“I had a kid the other day that I gave him a drill, and he couldn’t do it,” Dodd said. “I said, ‘Hey, if you get that done by the end of the week, I’ll bring in a Gatorade.’ And he came in [two days later], and he was so pumped because he got it done. He was probably so excited for the Gatorade, but stuff like that is cool.”

And while Dodd said he wouldn’t completely rule out coaching at a higher level sometime down the line, he is content with his most recent career move.

“Right now, my immediate goal is to help this place grow and help people get better at basketball,” he said. “Whatever that brings, I’ll be open to anything.”

Reach the reporter at gina.mizell@asu.edu