Link Academy is Kanakuk’s “premier boarding school for Grades 9-12 in Branson, Missouri” housed on the Kanakuk Ministries campus, and known for its elite basketball teams. Link Academy was founded by Adam Donyes, and first established as a part of Kanakuk’s longstanding “Link Year” program. Link Year was a program within Kanakuk Ministries, founded in 2011, with a final graduating class of 2025.

Prior to the boarding school, the Link Year program had three basketball teams: Link Academy (an elite high school team), PG National (a post-grad team that travels nationally and internationally), and PG Regional (a post-grad team that travels regionally). In 2021, the Link Hoops website claimed that the pride had 38 active D1 players and 2 professional players (NBA and Overseas). Link Year served 67 enrolled students over the spring and fall semesters of the 2018/2019 academic year. During this period and prior to becoming a boarding school, Link Academy only recruited high school senior and post grad athletes. In 2022, Donyes announced that they planned to open a high school. 

As of 2026, the Link Academy website lists that it is accredited by the National Association of Private Schools and the WASC Accrediting Commission for schools. Their 2025-2026 tuition was $40,000. While hosted at Link Year, Link Academy indicated that they had been granted exemption as a religious school in the state of Missouri by the Missouri Department of Higher Education. 

“Link Academy” is filed with the Missouri Secretary of State as a DBA for Kanakuk Ministries, and “Link Academy LLC” was filed in 2022 with Kanakuk’s former Chief Business Officer, John Jensen, as its Registered Agent as of January 2026. “Link Academy LLC” was originally named “Lakeshore Academy LLC.”

Link Year

Kanakuk Ministries’ and Adam Donyes shared contrasting descriptions of Link Year’s program goals:

• Kanakuk’s Description – “Biblical Training”
  • Kanakuk’s 2017 IRS tax form 990 describes Link Year as “a gap year program with college credit, individualized mentoring, focused discovery of spiritual gifts and identity, spiritual growth and Biblical training for college, and encouragement toward world and community impact.”
  • Kanakuk’s website described Link Year as “a nine-month program for 19-20 year-olds designed to build a solid Biblical foundation within each student.”
• Adam Donyes’ Description – “Basketball Prep School”
  • In a podcast interview, Donyes (a former basketball player at Boise State) explains that Link Year was founded in response to his dream to create a basketball prep school, with the goal of connecting unsigned high school basketball players with NCAA Division I opportunities. Link Year academics were developed in response to advice he received to “get the academics in order first” in order to create a successful basketball prep school.
  • In another interview, when asked, “What does success look like to you and why?” Donyes responded, “My goal is to help boys become young men of character and also help them change the trajectory of their lives by assisting them in getting full-ride scholarships to get their college tuition paid for. Wins are merely secondary to that!”

Another contrast existed in the explanation of whom Link Year recruited as athletes for its basketball teams:

• Joe White has explained that the Link Year basketball team is used to minister to “inner city … or urban county situations who have DI promise” and its purpose is to allow students to “grow in their faith and leadership skills.”
• Donyes has shared his story of using basketball to serve urban youth during his career preceding Link Year as the co-author of Win By Two (with forward by Lecrae) and as a subject of the documentary Dave. He has shared a different story to explain the recruitment of basketball players for Link Year. Donyes explained that he started recruiting athletes through his college basketball fraternity or through Kanakuk Kamps, but now finds most of his students via Division I coaches who have athletes in need of a prep school due to low test scores or a lack of available spots on their teams.

Link Year athletes were not charged any fees but Link Year participants who do not play basketball are charged $15,000 in tuition, with some scholarships available. Donyes explained that they “are one of the few post grads that offer kids full-ride scholarships to come to our program […] the Kamps help us manage to do that with how much revenue we bring in to Kanakuk Kamps.” While both tuition-paying students and athletes are students of Link Year, the alumni group photos oddly do not include the athletes.

Leadership HIstory

Joe White and Adam Donyes’ relationship far predates Link Year. In a joint interview, Joe White and Adam Donyes described how they met. Adam Donyes was welcomed into White’s dressing room following one of his speaking engagements. Adam was a college student at the time. Joe White explained that “as soon as he looked Adam in the eyes,” he “knew that he needed to be… in his life.” Joe White and Adam exchanged letters until Joe invited Adam to Kanakuk where Joe explains that they “just fell in love” and built an “adopted father/adopted son” relationship.

In addition to their work together through Kanakuk, Donyes and White serve together at Woodland Hills Church alongside other Kanakuk leadership including Doug Goodwin (President/COO of Kanakuk Kamps). On their 2018 IRS 990 tax form, Kanakuk Ministries reported a $10,000 grant to Woodland Hills Church that was not listed in their disclosed conflicts of interest.