Monthly message from our President & CEO, Steve Quinn. Every month, Steve will provide readers with an inside look at his life while discussing a wide-range of topics. Current Events, Business, Football and More!
What a year it has been. What unprecedented times we are in. Almost one year ago to the day, myself, and Erik Richards, became the sole owners of Football University. It did not take long for us to find ourselves in a completely unforeseen situation due to the current pandemic that is sweeping the globe.
These last 12 months have seemed like a blur. We took over the business 3 days before the start of the 2019 camp season. We had just enough time to fire up the truck, load it with all our equipment, and make the long journey from Rockaway, NJ to San Antonio, TX for the opening of the NEW FBU.
For those that are new to Football University I want to take a quick step back on how we got here. FBU was one of the first national camp companies to go on a nation-wide circuit 11 years ago. FBU has made a name for themselves by holding position-specific, technique-driven camps coached by former NFL coaches & players. There are many reasons we stand behind the FBU brand, but the central reason is the student-athletes. Over the last 11 years we have had the joy of working with and impacting over 100,000 athletes through our camps & All-Star events. That has led to us having countless alumni continue their football journey at every level, from NAIA to Division 1 and for some, the NFL. FBU has been part of these student-athletes journey at some point and the mission has never changed. Help them to become better football players, better sons, better brothers (or sisters) and better people. From the technique driven camps, to the all-star events, to the classroom sessions, to the seminars on how to be better student athletes, FBU has been a mainstay in helping student-athletes achieve success beyond just football.
I won’t lie..these last 12 months have not been easy. It has been exhausting, never-ending and challenging. We finished a camp series, 12 camps in 12 cities including our Top Gun Showcase event. We moved our entire headquarters and business operations from New Jersey to Naples, FL this past summer. We ran the most successful National Championship series this past December with 96 teams in 32 cities finishing with Championship Week in Naples, FL this past December. And, we’ve embarked on what will forever cement our legacy at FBU as we helped spearhead the efforts surrounding the brand new Paradise Coast Sports Complex in Naples, FL – of which, will house multiple turf fields that surround a large state-of-the-art, made for television, outdoor stadium! It will host our FBU Top Gun Showcase, FBU Futures Showcase, FBU Freshman All-American Bowl and the FBU National Championship. This complex will be many things, but most importantly to us, it will be home.
As I sit here at my desk having my morning cup of coffee, I cannot help but think about what’s next during these unprecedented times in our country. These last 4 weeks have given all of us a chance to reflect – both from a business and personal standpoint. From a business side, its been exciting to reimagine what the FBU brand can look like moving forward and working to implement the vision our team has for the future – the possibilities truly seem endless. From a personal standpoint, this current moment in time has been extremely impactful to me. It has given me the chance to truly reflect on the importance of my family and friends. Simply, it reminded me how important it is to put family above everything. Having the chance to truly be present with my family has been refreshing. Being around and being present are two different things. Being in the same room with your family, but being distracted with emails, calls and texts is not being present. And that is what I have been grateful to have during this time. The opportunity to be present. Spending time with immediate family, having dinner with my kids at night, throwing a football in the backyard with them without any distractions. And, spending time with my immediate family has brought to light what I have known for quite some time…and that is knowing in my heart that we at FBU are a family. And what we do is for families. This time has given me the opportunity to reimagine the FBU business model with our entire team. For many years we’ve wanted to truly dive into our processes and protocols, with the hope being to implement better ways of doing things but have just never had the time….or so we thought. We have been unfortunately blessed with this new-found time and I can say without any doubt…the future is bright for the FBU brand. Rest assured that what you will see in the coming months and years will be a much more dynamic brand while still maintaining the integrity of our athletes, coaches, parents, the most important part, our FBU Families. They say, “life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it”. We have never felt this feeling more than we do at this time.
Please be safe, keep practicing, and see you on a field very soon!
President & CEO,
Steve Quinn
