Yoeli Childs (born January 13, 1998) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the

Saga Ballooners The Saga Ballooners is a professional basketball team that competes in the second division of the Japanese B.League. Coaches * Aljosa Bjekovic * Luis Guil Torres * Yuta Miyanaga Roster Notable players * Aljosa Bjekovic * Trey G ...

of the Japanese

B.League The B.League is a professional men's basketball league that began in Japan in September 2016. The league is operated by the Japan Professional Basketball League and was formed as a result of a merger between the National Basketball League that w ...

. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

BYU Cougars The BYU Cougars are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Brigham Young University (BYU), located in Provo, Utah. BYU fields 21 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) varsity athletic teams. They are a member of the West ...

High school career

Childs played at

Bingham High School Bingham High School is a public high school located in South Jordan, Utah, United States. It is one of eight high schools in the Jordan School District. Teacher/pupil ratios are budgeted at 1 to 27.3, with actual class sizes varying. The school's ...

, a class 6A high school, in

South Jordan, Utah South Jordan is a city in south central Salt Lake County, Utah, United States, south of Salt Lake City. Part of the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, the city lies in the Salt Lake Valley along the banks of the Jordan River between the Oquirrh ...

. During his sophomore year, the 2013–14 season, he averaged 11.1 points per game and 5.3 rebounds per game as Bingham advanced to the state quarterfinals. During his junior year, the 2014–15 season, he improved his average points per game to 16.4 and his average rebounds per game to 10.7 when Bingham again reached the state quarterfinals. In the 2015–16 season, Childs, now a senior, averaged 18.5 points per game while he maintained an average of 10.7 rebounds per game and Bingham High School won the state championship.

Recruiting

In the 2016 recruiting class, Childs was ranked by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

at 53rd in their Top 100, 2nd in the state of Utah, 6th in the region and 13th among

Power Forwards Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may ...

. As a consensus four-star recruit, Childs received athletic scholarship offers from

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...

Auburn Auburn may refer to: Places Australia * Auburn, New South Wales * City of Auburn, the local government area *Electoral district of Auburn *Auburn, Queensland, a locality in the Western Downs Region *Auburn, South Australia *Auburn, Tasmania *Aub ...

Boise State Boise State University (BSU) is a public research university in Boise, Idaho. Founded in 1932 by the Episcopal Church, it became an independent junior college in 1934 and has been awarding baccalaureate and master's degrees It became a publ ...

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day ...

Idaho State University , mottoeng = "The truth will set you free" , established = , former_names = Academy of Idaho(1901–1915)Idaho Technical Institute(1915–1927)University of Idaho—Southern Branch(1927–1947)Idaho State ...

Utah State University Utah State University (USU or Utah State) is a public land-grant research university in Logan, Utah. It is accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. With nearly 20,000 students living on or near campus, USU is Utah's ...

, Vanderbilt and

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

, but committed with Brigham Young University in September 12, 2015.

College career

Freshman year

Childs had an immediate impact with the Cougars as a true freshman during the 2016–17 season. He played in 33 of the team's 34 games, starting in 26 of those games. He averaged nearly 26 minutes per game, scoring 9.3 points per game and getting 8.2 rebounds per game. He was selected to the All-

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting of ...

Freshman Team alongside teammate T. J. Haws.

Sophomore year

During the 2017–18 season, in his second year with BYU, Childs' numbers improved dramatically. His points per game increased to 17.8 and his free throw and 3-point percentages increased to .643 and .313, respectively. Childs was selected in January 2018 as a WCC Player of the Week. At the close of the season, he and teammate

Elijah Bryant Elijah Brigham Bryant (born April 19, 1995) is an American professional basketball player for Anadolu Efes S.K., Anadolu Efes of the Basketball Super League, Turkish Basketball Super League (BSL) and the EuroLeague. He played college basketball fo ...

were named to the All-West Coast Conference First Team.

Junior year

Prior to the start of the 2018–19 season, Childs decided to enter his name in the NBA draft pool. While he did not hire an agent, in order to possibly return to BYU for another year, many believed that he would not return to play for BYU for his junior season. After receiving what Childs called "valuable feedback," he did decide to play at BYU for his junior year. Childs was named to the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year award preseason watch list and was later named as one of the 10 finalists. During the year, his name was included on the Lute Olson Player of the Year and the Lou Henson Mid-Major Player of the Year awards. In December and again in January, Childs was named a WCC Player of the Week. Childs finished the year first in the WCC in scoring at 21.2 points per game and first in rebounding at 9.7 per game.

Senior year

After the close of his junior year, Childs again decided to enter his name into the NBA draft pool, this time hiring an agent. He unexpectedly decided to return to BYU for his final season saying, "I'm coming back for my senior year. Let’s make some magic happen." For the second straight season, Childs was named to the watch lists for the preseason Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award as well as the Lou Henson Mid-Major Player of the Year Award. He was also listed as a preseason candidate for the

Naismith Trophy The Naismith Trophy is a trophy awarded to the men's champion of the FIBA Basketball World Cup, and is named in honor of basketball's inventor, James Naismith. The trophy was first awarded to the winner of the 1967 FIBA World Championship. The ...

, the

Wooden Award The John R. Wooden Award is an award given annually to the most outstanding men's and women's college basketball players. The program consists of the men's and women's Player of the Year awards, the Legends of Coaching award, and recognizing the ...

and the

Julius Erving Award The Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award is an annual basketball award given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame to the top men's collegiate small forward. Following the success of the Bob Cousy Award which had been awarde ...

. Due to paperwork errors as part of the NBA draft exploration process, Childs did not participate in the first 9 games of the season. On February 22, 2020, Childs scored 28 points and had 10 rebounds in a 91–78 upset of second-ranked Gonzaga. On February 29, 2020, Childs scored 38 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in a 81–64 win over

Pepperdine Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and th ...

. This put him over 2,000 points for his career and made him the first player in school history to score 2,000 points and collect 1,000 rebounds. At the conclusion of the regular season, Childs was named to the First Team All-

Professional career

After going undrafted in the

2020 NBA draft The 2020 NBA draft was held on November 18, 2020. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 25, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecti ...

, Childs signed an exhibit 10 contract with the

Washington Wizards The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast D ...

. He was waived on December 18, 2020. He was then added to the roster of the Wizards'

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

affiliate, the

Capital City Go-Go The Capital City Go-Go is an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Washington, D.C., and are affiliated with the Washington Wizards. The Go-Go play their home games at the St. Elizabeths East Entertainment and Sports ...

. He was assigned to the Erie BayHawks as a flex player when the Go-Go declined to play the NBA G League restart in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. He averaged 8.9 points and 4.8 rebounds in 12 games with Erie. After joining the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their ...

for the 2021

NBA Summer League The NBA Summer League, also known as the Las Vegas Summer League, is an off-season competition organized by the National Basketball Association. NBA teams come together to try out different summer rosters instead of their regular season line-ups ...

, Childs signed with

MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg Riesen Ludwigsburg ( en, Giants Ludwigsburg), for sponsorship reasons MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg, is a professional basketball club that is based in Ludwigsburg, Germany. The club currently plays in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL), the first tier of ...

of the easyCredit BBL on September 11. In three games, he averaged 7.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per game. Childs parted ways with the team on December 5, after sustaining a knee injury.

Salt Lake City Stars (2022)

On January 13, 2022, Childs was traded from the

to the

Salt Lake City Stars The Salt Lake City Stars are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Salt Lake City, Utah, and are affiliated with the Utah Jazz. As of the 2022-23 season, the Stars play in the Maverik Center in West Valley City, U ...

Hamburg Towers (2022–present)

On June 24, 2022, Childs signed with

Hamburg Towers Hamburg Towers, for sponsorship reasons named Veolia Towers Hamburg, is a professional basketball team, based in Hamburg, Germany. The Towers are currently playing in the Basketball Bundesliga, after promoting from the ProA in 2019. Founded in 2 ...

of the German

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the highest level league of professional club basketball in Germany. The league comprises 18 teams. A BBL season ...

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;",

BYU Brigham Young University (BYU, sometimes referred to colloquially as The Y) is a private research university in Provo, Utah. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day S ...

, 33 , , 26 , , 25.9 , , .550 , , .000 , , .585 , , 8.2 , , 1.2 , , .6 , , 1.4 , , 9.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 35 , , 34 , , 34.0 , , .541 , , .313 , , .643 , , 8.6 , , 2.2 , , .9 , , 1.8 , , 17.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 32 , , 32 , , 33.3 , , .507 , , .323 , , .708 , , 9.7 , , 2.1 , , 1.0 , , 1.0 , , 21.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 19 , , 19 , , 28.8 , , .574 , , .489 , , .538 , , 9.0 , , 2.0 , , .7 , , .9 , , 22.2 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 119 , , 111 , , 30.7 , , .537 , , .356 , , .636 , , 8.8 , , 1.9 , , .8 , , 1.3 , , 17.1

Personal life

Childs is the son of Kara Childs and has one brother. He is a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Christianity, Christian church that considers itself to be the Restorationism, restoration of the ...

. He was baptized in the church in July 2016 at the age of 18. He was married on August 3, 2018 to the forme
Megan Boudreaux
who was a member of the Utah Valley University volleyball team.

References

External links

BYU Cougars bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Childs, Yoeli 1998 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball players from Utah BYU Cougars men's basketball players Erie BayHawks (2019–2021) players Hamburg Towers players Latter Day Saints from Utah People from South Jordan, Utah Saga Ballooners players Sportspeople from Salt Lake County, Utah Power forwards (basketball) Riesen Ludwigsburg players Salt Lake City Stars players