Factory Sports, Inc. Has A Location

…where players are made

part 3 of 10

In 2014 I had a job offer to run a sports facility in Missouri. My in-laws were not fond of that idea and offered a warehouse that was currently vacant and right in Lewes, Delaware – 10 minutes from our house. I went in and said, 

“This is too small!”

Of course, at the time there was a second floor running most of the length of the building. My father-in-law, like most builders, has this ability to “see through walls”. He said, “You can remove this wall, switch the stairs around, build an office up there…yeah. This can work.”

So I did some measurements and made the judgment: if I can shoot a corner three without hitting the ceiling…we are good to go. And it was a good fit. 

 

Next, we needed to decide what kind of floor for this place. My plan was to use the concrete slab and paint lines on it and move some portable baskets inside. That was the starting place. After making many adjustments my original design and budget had been multiplied by a factor of 6. 

I drew up the plan on an excel spreadsheet so that the measurements would work out. Each box was 10’ x 10’. I laid out the fullsize basketball court, planned for batting cages in the back area, and included a lobby with bathrooms and some storage. 

The Floor. I left the idea of the concrete slab and began having it tested for a poured rubber floor. This was used in local middle school gyms and seemed to work well. The slab proved to be a good candidate for a poured floor. Decision time!

Now up until this point we really hadn’t fully committed to anything. We could turn back without much loss. Or we could go all in. But once we made this decision there wouldn’t be any turning back. So we prayed…a lot. 

“Lord show us if this is of Your doing or if we are just pursuing our own interests. May the way obvious to us.” 

So we committed to 30 days of prayer and waiting. But we also determined to work while we wait. 

So next I began looking for bleachers. I was searching the web when I came across portable bleachers that were used in huge arenas. You know, the seating that is ground level behind the baskets. That’s not what I wanted…BUT…I also saw a used Grade A maple floor for sale. I had never seen this before and really didn’t know what I was looking at. So I found the phone number on the site and gave him a call. The man who answered the phone was as fun to talk to. We came to refer to him as “Jersey Mike” and he is now a friend of mine who I turn to for all my questions about flooring. He explained that he was responsible for many floors in the North Jersey/Philadelphia area including the 76ers, Madison Square Garden, Villanova and more. He told me the floor I was now looking at was from the IZOD Center at the Meadowlands. 

That sounded familiar but I couldn’t place it until he told me, “It is the New Jersey Nets floor from when they played the Lakers in the Finals.” Now I knew. Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, Kenyon Martin and Kerry Kittles. I was all in at this point. But I had to move fast. The Philadelphia Police Athletic League was also interested in the floor along with Camden, NJ legend DaJuan Wagner. I didn’t want to get into a bidding war so I had to beat them to the punch. The Philly PAL had a lot of people that needed to sign off on the decision whereas I simply needed to agree with my wife. The cost? The same as the rubber floor! 

“Well what would you rather have hard wood or rubber?” 

That was a no-brainer for me. If I can get this hard wood floor I want that. So our prayers became, if we can win this “race” to getting the hardwood floor we will see that as the Lord providing for us beyond what we could accomplish ourselves. Jersey Mike called back and said, “You are a small family company and we are small family company. We can see how this floor can really help you and your community and we want to offer it to you!” The day the floor came to town was like Christmas.

 

Putting it together…was not easy! We had to remove a row of floor on each side of half court in order for the court to fit our building. There was a lot of planning to accomplish this. We laid the floor and fit it into our building.

   

Our laying of floor was done so well it impressed Jersey Mike and his brothers. So well in fact, that he tried to hire us to put in other floors of his. To which I promptly replied “No Way!” You see, each of this panels weighs 185lbs. Our forearms were on fire. And while I am certainly indebted to all of those friends of mine that helped out…that is a one time ask. No one will volunteer to do it again. 

When we finally figured it out and got the New Jersey Nets floor placed down. I immediately called the Cape Henlopen Boys Basketball team and invited them over for the inaugural game. Everyone wanted to launch from NBA threes on the floor that the legends all played on. Because in another week we had to remove the Nets logos per our contract. 

The sanding of the floor, the creating of our center court logo, the painting of the logo on the floor…all have stories of their own. But just know this. Jersey Mike got it done!

We even had some left over flooring and used it create our front desk.

Equipment, Painting, HVAC and everything else. So now that we were all in I was super excited to do some more shopping. First trip was to Dick’s Sporting Goods to buy…all of their basketballs. So many shopping carts of basketballs. 

Current Factory Sports Director of Operations, Nicole Tingle and her husband, spent countless hours painting as did my good friend and former assistant coach, Theresa McCloy. We built walls, built an office, put together a railing, installed stairs, put 3×3 foot holes through the concrete and into the ground. Richard Reed and I spent seemingly every weekend sun up to sun down building this custom cabinetry shop into Factory Sports Lewes. It was exhausting and rewarding.

We bought batting cages and an Iron Mike pitching machine equipped with up to 600 baseballs and able to receive tokens. After little use, this was one of the first things to go – which was extremely upsetting for my baseball playing son, Malachi. We bought and installed a volleyball system, learned about and bought pickleball nets, bought PE equipment. We spent months buying, building and preparing for people to use this space in a way to grow their game and grow relationship. 

Lastly and most expensively, we installed HVAC to the building. And we are glad we did.

After the final touches we opened fourth of July week with a free open house for people to see what we were up to and if what we were offering was for them. One timid middle school girl with red hair and goggles showed up on day one and didn’t leave until she graduated from Kutztown University as a college basketball scholarship athlete and PSAC champion. Her name is Abbey Hearn. 

That is to say, our prayers were answered and Jersey Mike was right. We were able to open a facility and impact players in the community from day one. As coaches we never try to take credit for the success of our players. We know we play a part but we also know that if they don’t put in the necessary work and discipline, what we do is meaningless. We believe that everyone needs a coach and sometimes the role of the coach is to take a player from point A to point B but with some players you are able to help them go from point A to point Z. That is a very rewarding experience.