Meet Tommy Harris | Owner – Prolific Sports

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tommy Harris and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tommy, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I grew up playing various sports, but baseball was my passion, and I have always loved the game. Following the conclusion of my playing career I had a great desire to teach youth athletes and push them to achieve their goals. I began coaching competitive softball right after my college baseball career ended and fell in love. It was always something I did on the side balanced between my work, and family. Over time, the desire became so strong to reach more youth, I opened a small indoor facility where I gave private instruction to baseball and softball players. With the support of the community we were able to grow rapidly out of our original 1,600 sqft facility and recently opened Prolific Sports, a 23k sqft multi-sport indoor sports facility. While we have an emphasis on baseball and softball, we provide turf space to various other sports such as soccer, rugby, and football.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
After graduating from the Colorado School of Mines I began my professional career in Civil Engineering before moving into the Oil and Gas Industry where I spent 16 years working in various rolls. I enjoyed what I was doing, but I always wanted to do what I loved, and that was working within youth sports, so I took the leap into working for myself, but more importantly providing a service to the community I love.

Whether it is personal growth, or overall business growth, it is never a straight line. There have been plenty of obstacles along the way, but it has been far more rewarding than problematic. The pride in what we are building as an organization is evident in the happy and confident faces of the youth we work with. Over the years we have added coaches to our staff that are not only outstanding humans, but great mentors to the children they work with. Youth sports is vastly more than important than winning, it is a building block for the rest of their lives. The successes, the failures, the work ethic to achieve their dreams sets them up for success down the road. Every athlete has a clock on how long they are able to play competitive sports and you don’t really know when you will be done playing the games you love until it is time. The lessons learned through youth sports helps develop the life skills needed to be great mothers, fathers, friends, and professionals in whatever field they venture into for their working lives.

I am a believer in doing things the “right way”, and spreading our successes to help those less fortunate in the community. Through our non-profit arm of the organization we aim to help local organizations keep kids in youth sports as the costs seem to be increasing exponentially. Along with donations to local food banks, donations of gently used athletic gear, we also aim to provide scholarship opportunities for athletes. It is our dream to build up the community around us as much as we can, so as we continue to grow, we hope to increase our donations/scholarships opportunties. The community around us is vital to our community outreach, and it has been very much appreciated!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
For people not from Colorado, being anywhere in the mountains is a must see. Colorado has breathtaking beauty and being in the mountains is a fantastic way to show people what Colorado outdoors is all about.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My wife has been incredibly supportive in allowing me to do what I love. As a father of four, it was difficult to balance what is most important, my family, with what was second most important to me, serving the youth sports community. It is has not been an easy undertaking, and is very time consuming often with long days and late nights. My wife was the final piece to the puzzle in pushing me to chase after my dreams, knowing that it was going to take me away from the family frequently. Her love and support has allowed me to venture into this world full-time and her support has been a driving force to continue along with our growth as a facility

Website: https://www.prolific-sports.com

Instagram: prolificsportscolorado

Image Credits
Missy Harris Photography