Yale

Yale Men's Basketball Captain Went from ‘Starter' to ‘Startup'

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Between the World Series, football season at the midway point, the start of hockey and basketball seasons, the sports schedule looks back to normal.

But athletes at Yale have only been back to "normal" for about a month.

The Ivy League didn't play any sports last year and Yale men’s basketball captain, Jalen Gabbidon, had to make a tough decision, fast: Stay in school, graduate and miss his senior season or take a year off and come back to finish on the court and in the classroom this year.

Gabbidon opted for the latter, but you can hardly call what he did a “year off.”

The now-senior, who already held a summer internship at Google, wanted to try something different. So, with a little help from Yale head coach James Jones, Gabbidon connected with former Bulldog Jason Abromaitis to pick his brain about start-ups.

“I talked to Jason [Abromaitis] just to learn about start-ups and the next thing I knew, I was living with him, working on one,” said Gabbidon.

He joined Abromaitis’ small team, building the at-home athletic performance gym, “Launchpad.”

“I never thought I was a creative person but I guess I found out I'm more creative than I thought and building things is something that I’m really passionate about,” said Gabbidon. “It's about sports training so I got to stay involved in basketball heavily ... Going forward after college, you know some of the same things use on the court I want to keep using.”

Now Gabbidon can add CTO (chief technology officer) to his resume, right behind Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year.

The Ivy League did break from tradition to allow graduate students to compete, but that decision wasn't made until halfway through last school year.

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