Sports Complex Owner Mike Stoever Sr.
Check out the full episode here:
Becoming a sports complex owner was not a direct path for Mike!
Growing up Mike wasn’t a great student, he even talks about graduating in the
bottom 1% of his class. He really found himself when he decided that college
wasn’t for him. So at age 17 he found out that the Navy would be a good
opportunity for him to take a career path and figure out the rest later.
It was the fear of failure that drove him to make his time in the Navy a
success. He didn’t want to look like a failure to his friends and family back at
home, so it was really important to him to do the best he could.
Later in life, he needed extra money to support his family so he took a part
time job working at a local skating rink. With in a few years, he was a business
partner at the rink and running his own roller hockey programs in the mid-90’s.
Soon, it became apparent that the roller hockey programs were going to need
their own building. So, the owner gave Mike the opportunity to lease a building
that he was willing to build next to the current skating rink.
The Choice Sports complex was born, and Mike started hustling to fill the
building to capacity. Today, many years later, the sports complex is thriving
with many different sports available under the ownership of Mike.
Mike hopes to pass the sports complex down to one or both of his children at
some point. Both of his children have expressed interest in running the sports
complex well into the future.
I play roller hockey at this sports complex, so I was very happy when Mike
decided to be a guest on my show. I think there is a lot of great lessons in
this interview to be learned.
Buy Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run
Episode 32
Transcription
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this is the dreamers podcast where
dreamers shared their stories to inspire
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you
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now join host Joe Pardo as he interviews
a dreamer who’s living their dreams
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yeah
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welcome to the dreamers podcast I’m your
host Joe Pardo and today I’m
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interviewing Michael stover senior who
is living history through running a
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sports facility
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welcome to the show Mike thank you Joe
great to be here it’s great to be here
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it right in the sports facility
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yeah let’s get started by giving some
background about yourself
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I was born and raised in Philadelphia
went through schooling over there until
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middle school then we move through
jersey spent for my middle school years
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always to the present living in south
jersey after high school when the US
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Navy spent six years in the Navy cut out
of service family job you will be going
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to college part-time at night not really
knowing which direction in life I wanted
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to go or where life was going to take me
and kind of stumbled upon this this job
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and I mean now it kinda dumb walk really
be honest with you and I’ve been in this
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business for over 20 years now
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well first of all thank you for your
service i appreciate but honestly people
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that know me know some of my best
stories and and I’ve been won the spin a
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tale or two usually start with this
catchphrase when I was in the needy and
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it goes from there so I i really really
