Some people are just meant to lead.
That was the thought rambling through E.J. Gallup’s head, even while he wore the red, white, and blue on his chest. It was Summer 2025, and Gallup, a Gloversville native, was serving as an assistant coach and advisor for the Team USA Basketball 3×3 program, but he was thinking bigger.
“It’s not that I feel in any way that I’m above being an assistant,” Gallup, 44, said in a phone interview last Tuesday. “I just really like being a head coach.”
It all spawned from conversations he’d been having over the winter with his friend, a former eight-year NBA veteran, Trevor Booker. Two weeks after stepping down as the head coach at Fulton-Montgomery Community College, Gallup went to spend a weekend with Booker in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Booker co-founded The Combine Academy, an International boarding school for grades 9-12 and post-grads.
“I was just kind of learning how everything works, and how everything’s changed. Honestly, it just made me feel really old,” Gallup said. “But I learned that you can start your own academy, and you can build your own program, and the kids can be online for their academics. And that just blew my mind.
“It got my wheel spinning,” he added, “on getting back to Myrtle Beach.”
Located just minutes from Coastal Carolina, where he finished his college career, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, is the site of Gallup’s next undertaking as the head coach and founder of the Palmetto Post Grad Academy for boys’ basketball.
A Class of 1999 Gloversville graduate, Gallup himself opted for a postgraduate year at Bridgton Academy in Maine. He went on to play four years at the NCAA Division I level at UAlbany and Coastal Carolina, finishing with 1,359 career points. He retired from professional basketball at 38, with a resume that included playing in Germany’s top league, championships with the Schenectady Legends and Albany Patroons, NBA tryouts with the Knicks and Hornets, and a TBT (The Basketball Tournament) Final Four run with Team Fredette.
Having seen the value of the gap-year firsthand, Gallup wants to open up similar doors for the next generation.
“I was like the millions of kids from small towns, so I didn’t get the exposure that other kids could, and I didn’t get to develop against higher-level players,” Gallup said. “When I went to do my post-grad [year], every single day I was on the floor with five or six other Division I players.
“It just did wonders for me as far as my basketball career, and getting me ready for college,” he continued. “Without that post-grad year, none of that would have ever been possible.”
For reference, a postgrad year follows a student-athlete’s high school graduation and precedes their full-time enrollment at a college or university. Postgrad enrollees can get a head start on earning college credits while getting another year of athletic competition without exhausting any collegiate eligibility.
Compared to his post-high school playing career, Gallup believes the value in the gap year has increased due to the ever-changing collegiate landscape.
“These [college] coaches are out loud talking about how they want older players,” Gallup said. “This gives you that extra year of exposure and development.”
Palmetto Post Grad will play its inaugural season in 2026-27, and the preparations, Gallup said, are still ongoing. He’s joined by associate head coach/academic advisor Eddy Davis, a former FMCC coach, as well as T.J. Fredette, who’s serving as an advisor/scout.
Building a new facility in Myrtle Beach was neither feasible nor necessary, according to Gallup, as they were able to “lock down a couple of different facilities” in the area to house practices and games, including the Myrtle Beach Sports Center. PPG is also leasing a one-family housing facility in Myrtle Beach, where student-athletes, along with an assistant coach, will live full-time.
“What’s great about coming back to the Myrtle Beach area,” Gallup said, “there are a lot of other Coastal grads here, so there’s a great network of people that are willing to help me out.”
All PPG student-athletes will be required to partake in some form of academic curriculum, and the website states that there will be “structured classroom time Monday through Friday.”
“When they go to college, they’re going to be in classes, so we want to make sure that we’re preparing them as best as possible,” Gallup said. “Every kid’s going to be different as far as what they’re going to need or want academically, and we’ve found a couple of really good programs.”
In its first year, PPG Academy will play an independent schedule, including appearances at jamborees in Orlando, Atlanta and Charlotte.
“I’ve always tried to play against the best, and I’ve always tried to measure myself up against the best, so we’re going to try to schedule the best possible games against the best programs we possibly can,” Gallup said. “We’re probably going to need to prove ourselves before Oak Hill says, ‘We’ll give you a game,’ but it doesn’t hurt to call.”
Gallup has already landed commitments from four players for the 2026-27 season: 6-foot-10 center Ozzy McGowan, 6–foot guard Ayden Beach, 6-2 guard Lucas Kemp, and Aundray Fowler, a 6-2 guard from Amsterdam.
Before his commitment, Fowler had narrowed down his options to either Brockport or PPG. However, conversations with the Eagles coaching staff revealed that their offer wasn’t going anywhere, especially if Fowler accomplishes what he hopes to during his year in Myrtle Beach.
“I’m going to be stronger and still have another year to develop myself,” Fowler said. “I feel like by going there and playing with those guys, I’m going to be ready for my college career.”
Fowler, who was called up to the Rams’ varsity team toward the end of his freshman season, said he had considered transferring to a private preparatory school as early as his sophomore year. Bound by a determination to help complete the program turnaround, Fowler stayed through his senior year, leading the Rams to a Section 2 Class AA championship this past season, as well as an appearance in the state finals for the first time in 31 years.
“It still hasn’t hit me hard yet, but I can tell you that I’m very proud of not only myself, but my teammates,” Fowler said. “It’s a pretty wild feeling, seeing the entire community come together. There are still people that I see you know on the golf course or at restaurants, and they say, ‘thank you,’ because we were really that close to having another state championship.”
Fowler said he’s known Gallup since he was 5 years old and that he believes in his vision for PPG Academy. The idea of the program, Gallup explained, is that PPG student-athletes will use the added exposure to access greater opportunities in the future, whether it be at the Division III, II, I, or professional level.
“I’m not an agent. I don’t collect N.I.L. money or any of that type of stuff. For me, it’s just really about, ‘How does a kid fit into our program?’” Gallup said. “We’re just trying to develop our kids as best we can. That’s really our goal down here, is to just get kids developed and as ready for college as possible.”
In the future, Gallup said that he would “love to” expand beyond just the postgrad level, potentially with a PPG High School program.
“Year 1 is just one team. It’s all I can handle,” Gallup said.
As for the operational cost of starting a school, Gallup said he did not have an estimate.
“I wish I had a number,” he said. “I would sleep better if I had a number.”
Tuition for PPG Academy, Gallup said, ranges from $10,000-$30,000. Acceptance and financial aid are determined by a four-person committee, which reviews applicants based on academic track record as well as athletic ability.
“We take into consideration what type of player they are, what type of student they are, and where we kind of see them going,” Gallup said. “And I wanted to have other voices and other opinions on it.”
Since that first conversation in Charlotte, Gallup quickly learned that the process of building PPG Academy would not be an easy undertaking. The investment has facets beyond finances, and Gallup is going “all in.”
“If you had told me a couple of years ago that I’m going to turn down an opportunity to wear Team USA on my chest, that’s a crazy thing to say,” Gallup said. “But I’ve got to be all in. And I’ve been all in for about a little over a year now. We’re at the point now where guys are signing and committing, so it’s starting to feel like there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”