True Lacrosse’s mantra is that no one trains more — a philosophy it plans to hinge its growth on after securing a strategic partnership with TZP Group to accelerate growth and launch True Sports Group, a new parent company.
“We like to say we are a training organization that meets a travel team experience,” True Sports/True Lacrosse CEO Daniel Forsyth told Buying Sandlot.
“Our path is through our training model and the emphasis on player development. In the club sports world right now, a lot of it has gone to compete, play and win. We want to make sure we are developing complete athletes.”
True Sports’ strategy:
Lacrosse (700+ teams in 23 states) remains primary focus
Volleyball platform expansion (currently one club)
Grow in youth sports events space with events and hospitality divisions
True Lacrosse began working with Champion Volleyball — a 25-team club based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina — several years ago to prove its player development model (athletes get 100 skill training hours annually) could be multi-sport.
True Sports will now look to partner with more volleyball clubs — and Forsyth said the company is open to exploring other sports, although that is not an active goal.
“We’d like to stay in [lacrosse and volleyball], but we are willing to expand into other sports as we see opportunity and as our player development model continues to prove out,” he said.
True Sports also operates Championship Events (formerly US Lax Events) and Premier Hospitality.
“We want to be able to leverage our events to service the industry overall, but also service our clubs,” Forsyth said. “We feel like we bring a lot of value with these teams to support future events along with great relationships with external groups.”
The bulk of True Lacrosse’s clubs are located in the Northeast and Midwest, but it also has footprints in the West and pockets of the South. Forsyth said all regions will be a focus.
TZP also has stakes in Soccer Post and Wave Sports + Entertainment, which has involvement with Dude Perfect and the Kelce brothers’ New Heights podcast.
We’re (relatively) new — help us build up our social media accounts by following along: