My Biz: Sports facility becomes family business

Youth sports keep many families with busy on weekends throughout the year.

For Jana and Michael Freeman (ages 35 and 42 respectively) it’s also now business as usual.

The Freemans recently took over as owners of Elevate Sports in Cedar Rapids, along with their siblings, Kevin and Allisyn Callanan.

The facility, formerly known as Game on 380, hosts a variety of sporting events, particularly for youth basketball and volleyball. Michael said the name change is just part of the transition. “We wanted to let people know that there was new ownership and that we plan to do things a little bit differently.”

The facility is busy most weekends with basketball and volleyball tournaments for youth sports, although there are a few adult leagues starting to make use of the space as well. They have also rented the space out to a roller derby team and hosted birthday parties and other events.

“Typically, during the work week, the daytimes are a little bit slower as far as facility rentals because people are very busy,” said Michael. “During the school year though, our facility from 4:00 at night till 9:30 at night, Monday through Friday is full with basketball teams and volleyball teams renting courts for practices and scrimmages and things like that.”

Weeknights and weekends are extremely busy, Jana agreed. She added that they are looking at ways to help boost usage of the space during the daytime hours as well. “We want to help enhance our offerings and get into different ventures as we grow this. We would love to get into pickle ball, especially during the winter daytime hours,” she said.

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Having a busy building has been very rewarding, Michael added. “I've really enjoyed going out there on weekends and even at nights and just seeing all the kids playing and using the facility. The gym is a place for kids to have fun. I think that's the best part of it. It's a place for them to go enjoy themselves on weekends, be with their friends, and watch events.

They're just having a good time with their friends and ultimately, that's what we want them to do.”

The building first opened in 2017 and sits on a property just off the new Tower Terrace exit on Interstate 380. Michael said he approached the owners last year to see if they were interested in selling. They were and the Freeman and Callanan families took ownership in October 2024. “We are sporting families and spend a lot of time in the sporting world, so it felt right to make this investment,” said Michael.

The location was one of the most attractive parts for the ownership group when considering the purchase. “We feel like it's a central part of Cedar Rapids, but also for people coming from Cedar Falls or Iowa City, it's super easy to get to from 380,” said Jana.

“We also love the sense of community that comes from youth sports,” she added. “Helping develop young men and women through the world of sports is important to us and so we wanted to keep it as a youth sports facility and grow it to be bigger than it was when we got into it. We are immersed in this world with our own kids and work and so it made sense to get into this and help grow the community as well.”

While all members of the ownership group work full-time jobs elsewhere, they jump in on weekends to help out with tournaments and events. Jana said they have also developed a great team of part-time employees. “We have a bunch of high school staff kids from Xavier, Linn-Mar, Kennedy, and Prairie that work a lot of our events. And we have college students from Mount Mercy as well that helps staff the facility. It’s really cool that we've been able to provide employment for a lot of high school and college kids. It's great real-world experience and I love like being able to see that all in motion.”

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“And I love that our own kids are growing up in this,” said Jana of their own school-age children. “I think it's been really good for them to see it's OK to do hard things and sometimes we need to get dirty and jump in and help out and it's all for the greater good.”

“It is a constantly revolving door,” added Jana. “We just had a great event last weekend, but next weekend we have something too. We are always thinking about what the next things is, and we are always prepping for the next event. That definitely keeps you on your toes. It’s a work in progress to keep the facility full and relevant. And keeping the building clean when you have that many people in in a week or even like on a weeknight means there is always work to be done.”

Of course, there has been some learning and adjusting to the new business, and of course a few surprises.

“Our roof started leaking one weekend during a basketball tournament,” said Michael. “Anytime you have a facility you are going to have challenges like this. It’s the nature of owning a building. But we’ve built a really good environment and are constantly working on it and keeping it clean so when there are challenges or surprises, we can roll with it. We can’t always control what happens, but we can do our best to figure it out.”

And that may be just the lesson that some of the young athletes using their building may learn as well.

“This has been a very exciting venture for us and Kevin and Allisyn,” said Michael. “We hope to build this for years to come.”

Know a business that should be considered for a “My Biz” feature? Let us know by emailing zack.kucharski@thegazette.com.