Catherine Rongoe
Emmanuele Rotondi
Matthew Satalino
St. John's University
Charles Wankel
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Empowering and encouraging lifelong health
Promoting learning and opportunities for all ages
Helping individuals achieve personal goals that lead to mental and physical well-being
The innovation for this business venture stemmed from Rico and his co-founders, who had a desire to share their passion and love of sports and physical activity with a meaningful and productive mission for the greater good. Sports training is only one dimension of this business innovation. The founders of Sports Elite Performance created a business in which they could share with others, through education and specialized training opportunities, all the elements that encompass what it takes to perform like a top athlete in order to feel mentally and physically strong to take on everyday activities. This includes correcting posture, working on balance, or enhancing reflexes, which are all necessary components that people rely on every day in their day-to-day routines and common activities, yet which often are neglected and can lead to long-term discomfort or pain. Additionally, Sports Elite Performance seeks to instill in its clients the positive attitude and mindset of a top performer, with the self-esteem, confidence, patience, perseverance, dedication, and inner as well as outer strength to lead a happy, healthy, and productive life.
Rico, a native of Queens, NY, received his degree in the spring of 2017 in Sports Management from St. John’s University’s College of Professional Studies. At just 25 years old, Rico is a young, enthusiastic, and driven entrepreneur, who had admirable ambitions to apply his business acumen to an entrepreneurial venture in which he could also make a positive impact in his community and contribute to a meaningful mission.
Rico describes the aim of the company as “essentially a training facility where individuals of all ages two and up, athletes and non-athletes alike, go to improve their physical and mental performance.” What is unique about this business innovation is the underlying belief that the goal to improve performance does not apply solely to sports; enhancing one’s performance is a lifelong journey, and it applies to everyday life. The company believes that not only athletes, but all individuals should have access to coaches and educators who will help them make adjustments to their physical movements in order to enhance their overall quality of life. Techniques to fine-tune physical skills start on a small scale by helping clients improve upon ordinary activities they encounter every day, such as holding a grocery bag properly or practicing better posture while sitting at a desk, standing, or driving a car.
Rico, a sports enthusiast himself, draws his inspiration for this business from his own personal experience. Sports Elite Performance focuses on important concepts that he wished he had learned earlier in life when he was active and playing sports at a young age. Sports have always been a part of Rico’s story, so when he was approached to join the business venture of Sports Elite Performance, he was excited at this opportunity to get involved and be connected to a cause that is very personal and dear to him - one in which he could lend his relevant experience and expertise, having focused his university education on sports management. This business opportunity to serve as a trainer and educator resonated with his personal motivations and what Rico himself is passionate about – movement, being active, working with and educating young children, and helping individuals improve their health and physical condition to be and feel their best.
We asked Rico what his motivation is every morning when he wakes up and takes on the daily challenges of owning a business and serving as a driving force behind the mission of Sports Elite Performance. Rico takes the approach of getting up and pursuing his passions day in and day out. He loves being active, he loves sports, and therefore he believes in what he is teaching the children who come to Sports Elite Performance. “I love sports, I love being active, I love doing everything that we are teaching these kids,” Rico said, highlighting the personal satisfaction that comes from working with children and helping to positively influence their education and formative years.
Rico reflected upon his own personal story as an athlete, and wished he had had access to such resources, education, training, and coaching as offered by Sports Elite Performance, and how this has inspired and driven him to want to help others:
“A part of me feels like a lot of the reasons why I personally maybe didn’t make it as far as I wanted to in the sports world could be attributed to the fact that I didn’t know the things that I know now, in terms of how to train, in terms of what to do, little things that I think would have helped me go a long way, and so I think that is a big motivational factor for me - being able to pass that knowledge to future generations and knowing that I can potentially make a difference in someone’s life is a big motivational factor for myself.”
Ensuring the healthy lives of all who participate and come to the training facilities of Sports Elite Performance is the company’s number one long-term objective. The business is people focused and people oriented. Sports Elite Performance positively impacts individuals through its core mission to educate and emphasize improvement across many different areas, such as the importance of proper nutrition, proper physical form, and technique to “run smarter, jump smarter, faster,” Rico adds. The company welcomes clients of all backgrounds with varying levels of physical abilities. Sports Elite Performance teaches the following categories of core competencies:
Injury prevention
Better decision making
Technical skills
Strength and conditioning
Coordination
Speed agility
When children are introduced to sports or physical activities at a young age, they are active and having fun, but do not necessarily learn fundamentals and knowledge that could benefit them in the long run. As adults, we rely on our physical capabilities to perform day-to-day tasks, such as holding a grocery bag, but we may not be using proper form or the best technique. Sports Elite Performance creates an opportunity to teach these building blocks and promote lifelong learning to all – males, females, and individuals of any age group and any walk of life, athletes and non-athletes alike. The company works to help its clients correct everyday actions, such as by using better posture while walking or improved balance while standing, which are routine actions yet critical to the demands of everyday life.
Education about proper nutrition, correct balance and posture, how to rehabilitate and recover from injuries, and how to care for your physical and mental health are powerful tools of knowledge. Fundamentals like these are the key to leading a meaningful, productive, and purposeful life, and Sports Elite Performance sets out to do just that. The short-term effects of this type of education and training have an impact on society by empowering individuals with the physical strength, knowledge, tools, self-esteem, and confidence to be healthy, active, and contributing members of society. This goal is sustainable in that it creates a domino effect: those individuals will share such resources with their networks and pass on this education and further help others. When one feels active and in good physical health every day, it gives the strength to also exercise sound mental and emotional well-being, contributing to an overall sense of empowerment, motivation, and inspiration to be the best version of oneself and to take on the challenges of everyday life and demands of day-to-day activities, not just the challenges that occur on the sports field or in the sports arena. Learning these lessons, particularly at a young age, provides lifelong tools to be the best version of oneself.
The company, which boasts a commendable and substantial operation, is run by a relatively small team that includes Rico and two other co-founders. These three are the primary business executives of Sports Elite Performance, and they are hands-on and involved in every aspect of the business. All three executives place importance on being involved as trainers and teaching classes in a traditional classroom setting.
Embedded in the operations and fundamentals of running a business, the three founders equally divide responsibilities and delegate various tasks and facets of the business based on each founder’s unique capabilities and expertise. Rico, for example, takes on additional collateral roles as head of marketing, content creation, and social media engagement. Another founder and business partner devotes his energy to sales and business development aimed at the company’s growth strategy. As with the responsibility of being an entrepreneur and owning one’s own business, this founder lives in the geographic proximity of the company’s training facility, and therefore he is on call at any time of day and dedicated to being the on-site manager to oversee day-to-day operations, logistics, and facility safety and working conditions inspections. The third founder is the principal instructor, who has a long history of certification in the field of personal and physical training, education, and nutrition. He imparts his knowledge to Rico and the other founder so that all three have the knowledge base to enable them to teach the courses and train on-site.
Regarding the business strategy, over the last year, the relatively young company has gone through reorganization and a recent rebranding to improve its own top performance. Rico described the initial scope of company as “one-dimensional.” The original focus only included one training element, that of improving reflexes and reaction times with the high-technology light systems. However, Rico and his co-founders viewed this as a limitation in the scope of the business. Additionally, they did not want to place any restrictions regarding age. So, the three co-founders changed course and evolved the business idea into what Sports Elite Performance currently offers, an inclusive training facility that takes a holistic approach to encompassing not just athletic performance improvement, but an educational and beneficial experience to clients of all ages, whether they are athletes or non-athletes. “We want to work with anyone who wants to join us and have us help them achieve their goal,” Rico added.
Sports Elite Performance has a lot of potential and intends for the name and recognition of the company’s mission to continue to grow, expand, and increase its positive impact and reach in touching the lives of more individuals. We asked Rico about his vision for the company over the next 10 years. He replied by stating that from the business perspective, growth and expansion have always been part of Sports Elite Performance’s long-term plan, with a major goal to open multiple branches. In order to achieve growth and expansion in the short term, the company will continue to focus on increasing its clientele. “At the end of the day, it’s about wanting to help as many people as we can, and the way we achieve that is by having as many facilities as we can, having more people join the team, and having more people coach and offer the services that we’re trying to provide,” Rico commented. Ideally, they would like to grow the management team at Sports Elite Management and train and empower more coaches to work hands-on with the clients.
Sports Elite Performance seeks to better the lives of individuals at all ages and stages of life, and to give them the knowledge and power to make this a lifelong opportunity of learning and improvement. For example, a customer could be an individual or athlete who is older and needs help recovering from an injury and who comes to the training center with the goal of rehabilitation. Or there could be an individual who wants to work on better posture to help alleviate pain or discomfort while sitting at a desk every day. The company welcomes individuals of all ages and from all walks of life, knowing the importance of physical activity and physical well-being as a means of feeling healthy, combating stress, or gaining strength to be able to partake in daily activities, not limited to just recreational or sports activities. Sports Elite Performance is founded on helping individuals be their best, physically and mentally, and customizes the training programs to work with one’s individual needs and personal goals. “It is our goal to help you achieve your goal, whatever that may be,” Rico stated.
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