Double Digit Birthday

On September 20th Joshua turned 10! It's hard to believe that our 1st born is already 10 years old.

This year Joshua wanted to celebrate his birthday with his friends by....(I'll give you 1 single guess)...playing basketball of course!! We rented the gym for 4 hours. The boys played 5 on 5, had contests, ate pizza, dessert, and opened gifts, then played more basketball. As if that wasn't enough basketball, Joshua's team was asked at the last minute to play in a tournament. So, Joshua and a few of the boys played in 2 back to back games on Saturday, went to the party, slept over, then played in a championship game on Sunday!

Needless to say, the boys were exhausted! But it was a fun filled birthday weekend for sure. Joshua said that this was the best birthday ever.

Here's to a fantastic 10th year for our little (or not so little) Joshie!

Oh...what a year it has been!!!

Here is our post from exactly 1 year ago, about us starting our own youth basketball training business - Next Level Basketball Training.

Fast Forward to today...the past year has been a great year for us! We haven't surpassed the million dollars in revenue just yet, but we are having a blast! We started small (1 client) and have grown every month (a key in business). In the beginning, we were renting gym time at different locations (the Lincoln Community Center has been great to us - and is a great gym), and schools. We even did some sessions outside in the winter! Then we took a step (a chance, really) and became the youth trainers for Johnson Ranch Racquet Club - where we entered into our first "contract". All of these places were great - but my initial vision when we decided to start the business was bigger! I saw us in a much bigger "venue" at some point (where there were multiple courts, even other trining-such as plyometircs, speed & agility training), and knew it would take time. Not only that, I felt we'd have to buy our own place, so it'd take money AND I figured we'd have to become a VERY "established brand" - like Nike.

Over the year we worked on making a name for our business...we wanted to be professional and organized, but most of all we wanted to provide VALUE to all families we touched. We did camps in the winter and the summer, topping out at about 40 players. We also did an after school program with the City of Lincoln. We donated food to the local food closet, and we were able to sponsor a couple of kids through our "Make an Assist" donations so they could continue their basketball passion (a dream of mine - to provide some sort of "scholarship" opportunity for kids to keep their passion for sports.)

Ever heard the saying "you have to believe it,before you can see it"? Well...recently (9/8/2009) we held our first training session as the "Official Youth Trainers" for Hardwood Palace! Why is this so important? Only because the Hardwood Palace is over 100,000 square feet of indoor basketball & athletic training facilities (including plyometrics and speed & agility)!! 8 Hardwood courts, and more importantly - it is THE hot spot for youth basketball leagues and AAU basketball tournaments. Translation: HUGE amounts of traffic, and people!!! It is very close to my vision from a year ago! Needless to say, we are excited about the opportunities!

Here's some perspective: They had a big academy coming in from the Bay Area on the weekends to train their youth. This academy is VERY big in the Bay, and the GM of the Hardwood Palace brought us in to replace them! Wow!!

We've started a Training Academy for grades 1st-7th, we've got Shooting Academies, Special I.T. (Intense Training) Clinics and we'll be soon scheduling upcoming camps.

We consider this a VERY big step in the right direction, and we are very thankful for Hardwood Palace putting their trust in us and for all of the people that have supported us in our decision to start the business! We are looking forward to exponential growth in the coming months, and are excited about the opportunity to touch many young players' lives!!!

Here's to a great year!!!

Alex & Marisa's Summer Visit

Last month, after Mom and Dad spent a couple of weeks in Colorado, they brought Alex and Marisa here to stay with us for a little over a week. This was the first time Alex and Marisa traveled without their parents. Donnie flew in a few days later and joined us. What a fun visit we had. The kids had a great time playing, singing, dancing, and acting goofy as usual. They have always gotten along so well and are such good friends. Of course when Donnie arrived, all 4 kids attacked and terrorized him like they always do.

What a great way to end the summer!

Best Cupcakes Ever

On Lance's birthday this year, I ordered some gourment cupcakes at Icing on the Cupcake. Boy or boy were they YUMMY! These are definitely the most delicious cupcakes around. The Icing on the Cupcake shop is very cute! What a great thing they have going on...serving beautiful, scrumptious, decadent cupcakes. They have so many wonderful varieties and really unique flavors like,macaroon, peanut butter & jelly, chai, caramel apple, red velvet, etc. They're about $3 per cupcake but so very worth it. You have got to try some!!