Meet Amazing Athletes’ New Owner

On May 1, the previous Amazing Athletes franchise owner, Jennifer Keller (Coach Jenn), passed the torch to Taylor Dick. Dick pursued this field of work because she has always worked with kids, and her kids have been involved with the program. When Jennifer was selling the franchise so she could focus on her career as a schoolteacher, Dick didn’t want to see the program leave. She says, “It’s a really great program that sells itself.”

Amazing Athletes is an educational sports program for kids with over 250 franchises. Dick’s franchise covers the North Inland Territory that includes Ramona, Escondido, Valley Center, Bonsall, Fallbrook, Temecula and Murietta. “It’s a big area in our territory,” says Dick. The program services ages 18 months to 12 years. They have Amazing Athletes Tots for ages 18 months to 2 ½ years old, Preschool for ages 2 ½ to 5, and Amazing Athletes P.E. for ages 6 to 12.

Amazing Athletes introduces children to the fundamentals of ten different sports. Two sports are taught weekly—one active sport and one patient sport. The active sports include basketball, soccer, and baseball. The patient sports include tennis, lacrosse, hockey, track and field. The patient sports are more technical and include the use of another item, such as a hockey stick or a racquet. The curriculum also includes muscle identification and introduction to nutrition. The kids learn about fruits and vegetables and how they help their bodies. They also work on counting numbers, shapes, and colors.

Dick offers her programs through SDCEA Recreation at Ramona Oaks Park with an 8-week program through the summer. She also offers a program at this location throughout the school year from September to May. The classes are all offered outdoors unless the weather does not permit, in which case they have flexible options for moving the activities indoors at locations with open space.

Dick added that her program is used in most of the preschools in Ramona. The focus is on enrichment throughout the school day, so parents don’t have to take their kids to after-school sports activities. She is also in communication with Ramona Unified School District to have Amazing Athletes offered as an after-school program for the district. She is excited and says it would be great for kids to have this as an after-school program.

According to Dick, the program is rewarding for her because she gets to see the kids' growth. It introduces sports that most kids at an early age don’t have the opportunity to pursue. Most 3 ½ year-olds may not otherwise have a chance to play tennis, but with Amazing Athletes, they get to swing the racket at a young age, which could spark an interest in the sport and lead them to go on to be a professional tennis player.

For more information about the program, please visit www.AmazingAthletes.com/northlandca or call Taylor Dick at 619-339-7025.

Photo of coaches courtesy of Taylor Dick, third from left.