Since leaving Atlanta GA, summer 2011 on full pursuit of developing my new rugby career, I honestly had no idea what was in store for me. I was however open for whatever and where ever the wind blew me and believe me when I say, 2012 was a windy year.
I started the year with a dream, to dominate in Rugby and develop my company PeppNation, which helps kids get into college through athletics. I'm happy to say that I was successful in both those DREAMS; my team NYAC, won the national Championship for Super League rugby and we helped 11 kids get into college and they signed for nearly a half a million dollars worth of scholarships. Was I successful? YOU BETTER BELIEVE IT!!! But how did this happen, how was I able to accomplish all the things we did over the past 12 months? Well read on and I'll tell ya...
When I tweeted in 2011 that I was done with football and now I'm playing rugby, I had no idea how much influence my twitter actually had. No I don't have 1 million follows, heck I don't even have 100,000, even a 1000 followers would be a stretch. I have 205 follows on twitter and at the time I don't think I had that many, but my reach is long. What I soon come to realized is that my influence is much larger then I had ever imagined. My 205 followers have a combined following of well over 500,000 people. Which means when something I tweet is retweeted, I'm actually making an impression on a very large network and that's exactly what happened June 2011.
My tweet, "I'm done with football and I'm playing Rugby now, was retweeted and picked up by a lady who was a former ESPN executive. She immediately sent me an email and said that she would like to introduce me to some well respected gentlemen in NYC. Now at the time I'm traveling the nation playing rugby in multiple states and had no intention on moving to NY, but was open to all possibilities. Around the same time PeppNation was beginning to develop it's own identity and I liked the direction it was headed. Young people from all over the country were reaching out to me, asking specific question like: How I got to college? What college did you go to? What was college like?... It became clear to me even in the beginning stages of PeppNation that there was a need for information and I was the one to provide it. Obviously right? :)
Long story short this lady makes an introduction and the gentlemen she introduced were the founder and member of the executive team for Play Rugby USA (PRUSA). They told me they were interested in my ability to communicate and motivate young people. If I would like to come to NYC and sit down with them regarding this opportunities with their org, they would be open to that. My question then was, will you pay for me to come, because if not I don't think it's going to happen. I'll never forget his response, "We're a not-for profit org and don't have money for that", then I thought to myself, well I guess I wont be coming lol. Two weeks letter I received a phone call from the Connecticut Wildcats about playing in a Rugby League Championship game, and guess where? You got it, NYC; I guess it was meant to be.
So we meet, they make me an offer to work for them and develop PeppNation and I decide to make the move. Now the plan was and still is to create a web page where PeppNation could flourish. I later found out that this cost a substantial amount of money, but the concept could still be developed and implemented. So here I was, in NYC, playing rugby for NYAC, working for PRUSA and developing PeppNation what more could a young man like myself ask for; how about more? My vision is to run sports camps nationally and develop an unmatched website for future, current and former student athletes. They both in my eyes were possible, but looking at the numbers alone, the camps were more feasible at the time. So that's what I did going forward in December of 2011 and through August 2012.
I focused all my attention on developing the best youth sports camp money could buy and what better place to host my first annual camp then my hometown, Milwaukee WI. Instead of going out and recruiting kids for our camp, I decided to reach out to a place that helped develop me as a young man; The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Milwaukee and they approved. Now don't get me wrong, this task was not easy by any means. I was told YES to PeppNation Sport Leadership Camps (PNSLC) plus $20k, then NO to both PNSLC + NO to $20k, then yes one month prior and no to the $20K. Now I had already done demonstration for over 1000 Boys and Girls Club members and it was to late to back out. I remember the last demonstration we did one of the kids said to me, are you going to come back or will this be the last time we see you like the other guy; I wasn't going to be that other guy. So we pressed on and ran one of the most successful camps and end of season tournaments the Boys and Girls Clubs have ever had. Now my goal at the time was to run the camp and all funds raised beyond our break even number, to go towards developing that web page I mentioned earlier. That never happened but this did.
Summary
Long story short:
-We have nearly raised the funds to cover 2012 camps ran in both MKE and NYC.
-I flew between NYC and MKE every Thursday and Sunday night for the entire summer (10 weeks) to ensure our programs ran to the highest standards possible.
-We had over 300+ members participate in our camp in Milwaukee Wisconsin and 70+ in NYC.
-15 Youth Development Mentors (YDMs) working for PNSLC this summer, 21 employees total.
-5 future collegiate student athletes, 5 current and 4 former which included 3 school teachers. I called our staff The Dream Team
-We took 40 student athletes on a college tour to Rutgers University.
-Helped 11 kids get into college, 6 from an alternative school.
-Sign for nearly 1/2 million dollars worth of scholarships, all of which I might add are doing excellent in college.
-I've visited all of them and they are all doing well in college
-I was asked to be a guess speaker at the University of Minnesota Duluth Labovitz School of Business and Economics Sports Marketing Class
Check out our Pics from the summer
PeppNation Sports Leadership Camps
Yeah, I put myself in financial turmoil and no I didn't start my web page as I had anticipated in 2012, but look as all that we did accomplish in year on e of business. I couldn't be more proud of what's in store for 2013. Welcome to my world and Happy New Year PeppNation
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