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.

👉 Follow https://www.instagram.com/athletesuntapped/ for more conversations with elite coaches and athletes, and explore private lacrosse coaching to elevate your game and development.

In this episode of Untapped Stories, we sit down with Izi Murray — NCAA Division I soccer player turned college recruiting coach, founder of Push The Goal, and one of the most refreshingly honest voices in youth soccer development — to talk about what it actually takes to play college soccer, why your performance is not your worth, and how kids can get better without burning out before they ever get there.

After being turned away by club after club as an 11-year-old who started later than most, Izi knows exactly what it feels like to be overlooked — and exactly what it takes to get seen anyway. She went on to play semi-professionally and earn her spot at NCAA Division I MTSU, and has since guided over 300 athletes through the recruiting process with a 90% success rate. Her message isn't about doing more. It's about doing the right things — for the right reasons — at the right time.

And it starts with one belief that runs through everything she does:

Your performance is not your worth.

In a youth sports culture that ties a child's identity to their last game, last result, or last coach's evaluation, Izi pushes back hard. Kids who grow up believing their value as a human being rises and falls with their soccer performance don't just burn out — they lose the game long before they've had a real chance to play it. The athletes who make it furthest are the ones who love the game for its own sake, not for what it can prove about them.

From there, the conversation opens up into something a lot of soccer families need to hear:

You don't have to sacrifice your entire childhood to play college soccer.

The pressure to specialize early, commit to elite club programs year-round, and dedicate every weekend from age nine onward to the recruiting pipeline is real — and largely overblown. Izi breaks down what college coaches actually want to see, what the recruiting timeline really looks like, and why the path to a college roster spot doesn't require a kid to give up everything else that makes childhood worth having. Strategy beats sacrifice every time.

She also gets practical in a way most coaches don't — sharing real workouts and training habits kids can build at home, on their own, without expensive gear or elite club access. The fundamentals that separate recruited players from overlooked ones are more accessible than the industry wants families to believe.

Throughout the episode, Izi covers the core principles behind her holistic approach to soccer development and recruiting:

- Why tying your identity to performance is the fastest way to fall out of love with the game

- How to pursue college soccer without over-specializing or burning out early

- Simple, effective at-home workouts that build real soccer skill

- What college coaches are actually looking for — and what they're not

- The recruiting timeline most families don't know exists until it's almost too late

- How to develop the whole athlete — mentally, physically, and emotionally

Izi's own story — overlooked at 11, D1 by her early twenties — is proof that the recruiting process has more room for late starters, underestimated athletes, and unconventional paths than most families are ever told.

This episode is a must-listen for soccer players and parents wondering whether college soccer is realistic, families feeling the pressure of the club soccer machine, and coaches who believe holistic development builds better athletes than early specialization ever could.

🎙️ Untapped Stories is presented by Athletes Untapped — 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.

👉 Follow Athletes Untapped for more conversations with elite coaches and athletes, and explore private soccer coaching to elevate your game and development.

In this episode of Untapped Stories, we sit down with Vanessa Kroll Bennett and Cara Natterson - authors, co-founders of https://lessawkward.com/, and two of the most trusted voices on raising tweens and teens — to talk about sports parenting, what we're getting wrong on the sidelines, and why girls are walking away from sports far too soon.

After working with thousands of parents, educators, and young people — and between them raising kids of their own — Vanessa and Cara have developed a perspective on youth sports that every sports parent needs to hear:

Your job on the sideline is smaller than you think. And that's actually a good thing.

Cheering, encouraging, and showing up matter enormously. But coaching from the stands, narrating every mistake, and turning the car ride home into a film session? That's where things go sideways fast. Vanessa knows this firsthand — her own son told her to zip it during a game. Not as a metaphor. Literally. And she'll be the first to tell you: he had a point.

Cara and Vanessa explain that one of the most powerful things a sports parent can do is create a clear boundary between the field and home — a space where kids can decompress, feel supported unconditionally, and come to you on their own terms rather than being debriefed the moment they get in the car. The research backs it up, and so does lived experience: kids perform better and stay in sports longer when they feel safe rather than evaluated.

From there, the conversation shifts to something both Vanessa and Cara feel urgently about:

Girls are leaving sports too early, and we need to stop it.

The dropout rate for girls in youth sports — particularly as they enter adolescence — is a quiet crisis with enormous long-term consequences. Girls who stay in sports longer develop more confidence, more resilience, more leadership skills, and a stronger sense of identity heading into the teenage years. But somewhere along the way, the experience stops feeling like theirs — and they leave.

Vanessa, who founded Dynamo Girl specifically to build girls' self-esteem through sports, brings a deeply personal lens to this conversation. The answer isn't pushing harder — it's listening better, creating more welcoming environments, and making sure girls feel like sports belong to them, not just to the scoreboard.

The episode also gets into one of the more entertaining debates in sports parenting right now:

Should moms let their kids play football?

Cara and Vanessa don't shy away from it. It's a real question, it deserves a real conversation, and the way families navigate it says a lot about how we weigh risk, autonomy, and a kid's right to choose their own athletic journey.

Throughout the episode, they highlight the core principles that define thoughtful, effective sports parenting:

- Staying quiet on the sideline — even when it's hard

- Creating a "no debrief zone" after games and practices

- Understanding why girls drop out of sports and what parents can do about it

- Letting kids own their athletic identity rather than borrowing yours

- Navigating the real conversations around contact sports and risk

- Building the kind of relationship where kids actually want to talk to you about sports

This episode is a must-listen for any parent navigating youth sports, anyone trying to raise confident, resilient girls, and anyone who's ever had to resist the urge to shout something from the stands — or gotten told to zip it when they didn't.

🎙️ 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.

👉 Follow https://www.instagram.com/athletesuntapped/ for more conversations with elite coaches and athletes, and explore private coaching to elevate your game and development.