In this episode of Untapped Stories, we sit down with Greg Kenneally - co-founder and President of ECD Lacrosse, one of the most recognized brands in the sport - to talk about building something from nothing, why athletes make great entrepreneurs, and what it really looks like to bet on yourself before anyone else believes in the idea.

Greg's story doesn't start in a boardroom. It starts in a college bedroom in 2011, where he was stringing and dyeing lacrosse heads for teammates — the best "stick doctor" on the team — and quietly wondering if the passion could become something more. With $6,000, a gap in the market, and the kind of relentless work ethic that only athletes tend to have, he and his twin brother Mike turned that bedroom operation into a 21,000-square-foot facility outside Baltimore and one of the most trusted names in lacrosse equipment.

The lesson Greg carries from all of it:

Building early isn't a distraction. It's an advantage.

In a culture that tells young athletes to focus on the sport and worry about everything else later, Greg is living proof that the entrepreneurial instinct — the hustle, the problem-solving, the willingness to start before you're ready — is something worth developing in parallel, not in sequence. He started ECD while still playing college lacrosse, and that timing wasn't a liability. It was the foundation.

From there, the conversation opens up into something athletes and parents rarely hear said out loud:

The skills that make a great athlete are the same skills that make a great entrepreneur.

Discipline, coachability, the ability to handle failure and get back up, performing under pressure, functioning within a team — these aren't just sports virtues. They're business fundamentals. Greg reflects on how his years as a lacrosse player shaped the way he built ECD, made decisions under uncertainty, and pushed through the early days when the company was running out of a single room and no one outside the lacrosse community knew the name.

He also gets into the nuts and bolts of what it actually looks like to build something from the ground up — the early risks, the pivots, the moment ECD bet on a line of lacrosse shafts and told retailers they'd take them back if they didn't sell. They sold. And the brand never looked back.

Throughout the episode, Greg covers the core parallels between athletic and entrepreneurial development:

- Why starting early — in business and in sports — builds compounding advantages

- How athletic discipline, resilience, and coachability translate directly to entrepreneurship

- What ECD Lacrosse looked like from bedroom to 21,000-square-foot operation

- The mindset it takes to bet on yourself before you have proof it'll work

- Why lacrosse players and athletes in general are wired for business success

- How the "hard work pays off" mentality becomes a company culture, not just a slogan

One of the biggest takeaways is that the competitive edge athletes develop on the field doesn't disappear when the sport ends — it transfers. The question is whether you put it to work.

This episode is a must-listen for lacrosse players and parents, young athletes thinking about life beyond sports, and anyone who believes that the habits built through competition are the same ones that build businesses.

🎙️ Untapped Stories is presented by https://athletesuntapped.com/ — the nation's leading platform for private sports coaching. We connect athletes and families with elite coaches who help players build strong fundamentals, confidence, leadership, and lifelong habits through sports.

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