By Celeste McLaughlin
A vibrant pair of former collegiate and professional athletes has been coaching kids in New Tampa for well over a decade.
Tony Bland, a former NFL wide receiver who played four seasons with the Minnesota Vikings, and his wife, Nyree, a former nationally ranked collegiate and professional tennis star, own and run PROtential Sports, which provides sports for kids through summer camps, after-school programs and athletic leagues. But, what is perhaps most impressive about these athletic standouts aren’t their sports skills, but the life skills they are passing on to the kids who participate in their many programs.
“We started in 2003 with a football camp, as a way to give back to the community,” says Nyree, “with pro players including (former Tampa Bay Bucs) Brad Johnson and Michael Pittman (who both won a Super Bowl with the team in 2003). After that, parents started asking us what we were going to do next. So, we started our after-school camp and summer camp followed that.”
This year will mark the eleventh year of summer camps for PROtential Sports, which are available to kids ages 5-14. PROtential Sports now has 11 locations, including five in New Tampa and Wesley Chapel — at Arbor Greene, Cory Lake Isles (for CLI residents only), Grand Hampton, Heritage Isles, Seven Oaks and a drop off/pick up location at Club Tampa Palms North.
“We’re really structured,” says Nyree. “We coach sports. We were athletes growing up and we were coached. We were taught respect and to follow the lead of our coaches, and all kinds of life lessons.”
She adds that she and her husband, and their staff of more than 20 coaches, are now passing those life lessons on to the kids whose parents entrust them to their care.
“We have a lot of fun and put emphasis on cheering for each other, and we’re always focused on teamwork,” she explains, adding that the lessons that PROtential Sports coaches teach kids about character are “the antidote” to what many see as the problems with kids today. “It seems like there’s a lot of entitlement – like they’re entitled to get a trophy – but, life’s not like that.”
Instead, at PROtential Sports, kids are taught to work hard, to listen and be respectful. Parents who are looking to encourage good character and an active lifestyle in their children will surely find their goals aligned with those of PROtential Sports.
District manager Julie Garretson supervises the coaching staff and helps run the programs. Julie was a multi-sport athlete growing up in Lakeland and went to school at USF to become a physical education coach. While in school, she worked in retail management. When she decided to leave retail, Julie began working for PROtential Sports as a coach, and has now turned her once part-time job into a career.
“Everyone on our staff is involved in athletics,” Julie says. “We’re taking what we learned as young athletes ourselves and passing those lessons on to the kids. And we’re teaching life lessons, not just sports. We reward kids when they’re cheering for each other or doing a good job. That’s what life (should be) about.”
She explains that all of PROtential Sports’ activities include both sports lessons and life lessons.
“Our coaches give inspirational talks,” Julie says. “And, all of our coaches will stop what they’re doing if they see something – such as great sportsmanship or even terrible sportsmanship – and use that as a teaching moment.”
“We expose the kids to every sport,” Nyree says. “The kids don’t pick and choose. At summer camp, we play five sports a day. We start with drill-based activities, and then we have fun.”
Swimming also is a part of PROtential’s summer camps every day, since each camp location is at a community clubhouse with its own spacious pool.
Field trips also are offered every day. Parents can choose which field trips their child(ren) will attend, and they pay an additional charge to cover the cost of the trips. The kids who don’t go on field trips continue their sports training and fun at their camp location, while others leave at noon to go to places such as Legoland (in Lakeland) and Busch Gardens in Tampa, and experience all kinds of other fun, such as bowling and even water skiing/wakeboarding.
More Than Just Camps
While summer camp is a big part of what PROtential Sports does, it’s just one of the many facets of sports and life training for New Tampa-area kids Nyree, Tony, Julie and their entire staff provide.
“A lot of kids are with us year-round,” Nyree explains. “They do summer camp, after-school camp and sports leagues.”
PROtential’s after-school programs currently are available to students at 25 local elementary schools. They are picked up at their schools by PROtential Sports staff and transported to one of the program locations. Parents can choose whether or not their kids’ after-school program should include homework time. The kids are separated into groups of those who do homework and those who have extra sports time.
“The (community) clubs like having us because the kids aren’t running around crazy, and it’s a nice, convenient perk for residents to have a great program for their kids in their own neighborhoods,” Julie says. “It’s definitely preferred to kids getting off the school bus with nothing to do (in their separate subdivisions).”
PROtential Sports is planning to add a middle school sports league (for grades 6-8) next fall, which will be month-long programs where kids are picked up at their middle school every day, Mon.-Fri., for one month at a time — to play a specific sport.
“We expect to offer a month of football, tennis, volleyball, lacrosse and more,” Nyree says. “This is especially designed for kids who want to play competitive, supervised sports, but don’t make their school teams. We can introduce them to something new, and they compete against each other.”
Sports leagues offered by PROtential Sports are year-round, with each sport offered twice a year, including football, basketball, baseball, swimming, golf, tennis and soccer. These leagues are one way the company lives up to the “pro” in its name. The kids practice and play each day after school and then travel to other clubs and play each other (also during the week). For example, the kids at the Grand Hampton location could play against Arbor Greene kids.
“Our flag football league is sponsored by the NFL,” says Nyree. “That means the NFL supplies the jerseys, flags and other equipment. We also offer basketball sponsored by the Orlando Magic. The Magic provides free tickets for our players, and we recently took 125 kids and family members to a Magic game.”
She explains that the leagues play and practice on Saturday mornings, so there are no weeknight practices. The teams are coached by PROtential Sports staff, not volunteers. While parents are welcome to volunteer to help if they want, the practices and games are run by the staff. “Parents hold us to a higher standard than leagues run by volunteers,” says Nyree. “We’re expected to be fair, not play favorites, and be sure that all of the kids are learning.”
Dr. Nelly Chambers, of Cory Lake Isles, has three kids who have attended summer camp and after-school programs with PROtential Sports at both Heritage Isles and Arbor Greene. They started with PROtential before the remodeled clubhouse opened in Cory Lake Isles a couple of years ago. Her kids are now 13, 12 and 10, and says that only her youngest is still attending the after-school program at Heritage Isles.
“It’s much more than just sitting inside doing homework and computers and playing on phones,” Dr. Chambers says. “I want my kids to be active in sports. My kids have very different personalities and the program has worked for all of them. My son has learned that everyone loses sometimes, how to be part of a team and how to accept criticism. One of my daughters is not an athlete, but got a lot of exposure to different sports.”
She says that at the PROtential summer camp, her kids swam every morning, so they got to be very comfortable in the water and they especially loved the field trips, such as to play golf and to go horseback riding.
“The program is great for a working mom because you know your kids are having fun, they’re safe and making friends,” she says. “I’ve never had to worry about my kids, and that’s huge.”
PROtential Sports has been so successful that it continues to grow. “We actually have had clubs reaching out to us and asking us to expand to their locations,” Nyree says. “That’s how we established our Arbor Greene location.” Another new club recently opened in Westchase.
Nyree explains that PROtential Sports is hoping to continue to grow throughout the state of Florida with franchises. “We currently have one franchise in Riverview. We are hoping to expand our brand for people who love sports.”
She says that anyone who is interested should call Julie to start the franchise process. After some background info is gathered from the applicant, they then have a “Discovery Day,” in which Tony takes the potential franchisee to the camps so they can get a visual of how they are run. The potential buyer and Tony spend a full day together, also discussing the legal and financial aspects. After that, if the prospect wants to, they move forward with the purchase of a franchise. PROtential Sports then helps them set up their location(s) and they are fully trained by Tony, Julie and Nyree.
More information about franchise opportunities, summer camps, after-school programs and sports leagues is available at PROtentialSports.com or by calling 843-9460. See the ad on page 47 for a coupon code exclusively available to New Tampa Neighborhood News readers.
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