Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Sperlinga.
Michael, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
It all started with a vision to create a better youth baseball program that empowers child development, shapes future athletes, and brings baseball to young children across the country. To focus on the physical development, proper training and fundamentals of the sport, and teach important life skills that children would take with them beyond the baseball diamond.
Michael Sperlinga, a former competitive baseball player and successful finance executive, brings 26 years of leadership and business expertise to Little Sluggers. He is a successful entrepreneur and has grown multiple businesses during his career. Mike shares his love for baseball with his wife, Shannon, and their children.
Shannon Sperlinga is a visionary for Little Sluggers. As a mother of three young baseball-loving boys, Shannon understands first-hand the importance of organized physical activity and the impact that sports can have on children’s physical, social and emotional development. Her experience with the early introduction of her boys to baseball has motivated her to bring organized programming to more communities.
Little Sluggers aims to fight childhood obesity and encourage physical fitness at a young age while providing the tools and proper training for children who’d like to pursue the sport competitively. The program goes beyond teaching baseball fundamentals by strategically incorporating exercises that teach important life skills like cooperation, how to handle adversity, goal setting, and social skills.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
With any startup, there are going to be challenging! And yes we’ve faced many challenges on the way. For example, we had to go out and manufacture our uniforms for the younger athletes because no one is thinking of baseball for two to four years old. We’ve scaled from 0 to over 50+ people working on our team in a short period of time so we’re doing our best to build digital organizational tools to support our current growth and future expansion. So, yes every week brings us a new challenge but we take that attitude that with every challenge comes an opportunity. We’ve 100% been better after every challenge we’ve overcome.
Please tell us about your business.
We believe in the power of baseball to positively impact children and support their physical and personal development. Beyond establishing a foundation for proper baseball techniques, our program is designed to help children build self-confidence, embrace teamwork, develop sportsmanship and learn the importance of physical activity, all while having fun! Our action-packed program keeps kids moving through our skills stations to learn and develop with our upbeat coaching staff.
We are the first step in a child’s journey through the sport of baseball and it’s our goal to teach fundamental baseball skills in a fun, non-competitive environment. We teach the proper baseball techniques for throwing, catching, hitting, fielding and baserunning. We teach the skills that will last a lifetime creating a foundation for success with baseball at the next level.
Little Sluggers aims to fight childhood obesity and encourage physical fitness at a young age while providing the tools and proper training for children who’d like to pursue the sport competitively. The program goes beyond teaching baseball fundamentals by strategically incorporating exercises that teach important life skills like cooperation, how to handle adversity, goal setting, and social skills.
We’re most proud of the results we see with our young athletes. Watching them grow and develop and love the sport of baseball is so inspiring. We have one child in San Diego that has a motor skill disability and we’ve watched him grow from having limited use of one side of his body to becoming high functioning. He’s out there doing the drills and performing just like the other kids now – it’s stories like this that keep us working tirelessly to bring this program to children across the country.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
That’s really hard to say! We feel like we learn something new every week and we start each week looking at how we can be a little better. We’re passionate about bringing baseball to children two to six years old across the country. We think our program is going to help children and families in so many different ways, we’re really focused on doing a great job for them. So, maybe in five years we can look back and have some thoughts but right now we’re a laser focus on our mission and making each week great, one week at a time.
Pricing:
- $259 for six sessions
- $39 uniform fee which includes a jersey, hat, baseball pants, and a Little Sluggers baseball
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.
littlesluggers.com/ - Phone: (858) 209-3050
- Email: info@littlesluggers.com
- Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/ littlesluggersbaseball/ - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/ littlesluggersbaseball/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/
LittleSluggers - Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/
biz/little-sluggers-san-diego- 3
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