We were lucky to catch up with Darius Perry recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Darius, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

The idea of Ball 2 Life LLC came to me through different experiences that have formed and shaped who I am today. My personal battle with Crohn’s disease, my experience working as a coach at The Little Gym, and my passion for health and fitness are anchors in what our mission is today.
In short, basketball was my first and only love. I had dreams of playing college basketball, but due to a couple of bad flare ups in high school, my health started to affect my ability to not only play but be present in school. My love for the game and the lessons I learned along the way remained but I was forced to now learn to live, learn and work with this condition. Being active, playing basketball or working out at the gym helped me not only feel like me but physically feel better. This all led me to work for “The Little Gym”.
Quickly it became clear to me that this structured fitness program for youth was improving their social and physical development. I was playing a role in helping these kids, get over fears, express themselves, and have fun while participating. During my later years at the little gym I was in school studying Physical therapy, became a PT tech and grew deeper fascination and knowledge in human anatomy and physiology.
Looking at the fact less children are active in sports, health and fitness has been a growing issue for youth and competitive youth sports development has gotten a bad reputation; It became clear to me that I had the passion, the experience and the vision to use sport as a tool in kids lives.
Rather than put the emphasis on the sport itself, we use the drills, activities, group/partner games to grow, encourage and develop youth. With this approach, we can develop positive experiences for youth, we can encourage them to give effort and learn to develop skill, youth have an opportunity to learn and be taught about their bodies and learn basic functional movement patterns that will cross a variety of athletics.
What excites me most about the purpose of our work is the positive impact can extend past the basketball court, soccer field or classroom. We train our coaches to not only train the mind but train the body, to encourage youth to think for themselves and grow deeper passions for sports and fitness.
My hope is Ball 2 Life plays a role in youth playing more organized or recreational sports, developing or continue lifelong healthy active habits and grow worth ethic skills for all things on and off the court.

Darius, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a 32 year old entrepreneur and fitness enthusiast. I have used my personal skills and experience to start a business and make a living. My early love for basketball and a healthy active lifestyle was a large part of my identity. At age 16, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease and quickly started experiencing life in a completely different way. Not only crippled by excruciating intestinal pain, Crohn’s led to rheumatoid arthritis and attacked multiple joints. I went through 7 years on a roller coaster, trying to figure out the right foods, doctor’s , natural remedies and staying mentally strong as I fought this auto immune condition. During this time the only thing that made me feel like me was trying to stay active when able. Basketball and physical fitness had never meant so much, and I realized how much I took it for granted. I vowed to myself to rebuild my health and to never take it for granted again. This led to a journey of learning more about the human body, nutrition, structured exercise and a love for healthy living. It was a holistic experience and transformed who I was and my outlook on everything I did.
It was undeniable that I felt better, thought better and moved better, and because of this, I could live my best life. I now had passion, fire and enthusiasm about how fitness could be used as a tool for us all to become our best selves.
From this conviction, Ball 2 Life LLC was born. The vision that youth needed to start early, prioritizing sport and fitness to establish a foundation for a healthy active lifestyle.
What makes Ball 2 Life different is how we use our platform to train, educated and empower youth for life. Our curriculum uses cross training and an array of sports equipment to give youth the tools to be physically capable and confident. Themes, drills, and activities are designed to build work ethic, grow social skills, and teach sportsmanship.
Ball 2 Life Programs is a brand that promotes sports and fitness as a integral part of youth development.
To further share my passion with my community, I am a group fitness instructor, personal trainer and nutrition coach at Lifetime Fitness and Columbia Country club in the Montgomery County, MD are.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I can share a story about the time in which I was contemplating starting my business or continuing the path I was on. I was at a community college pursuing a PTA degree, part time at Pivot therapy, coaching a youth basketball team and a tech at apple. Although I genuinely loved Physical therapy, I wasn’t thrilled about the work I was putting in school for the starting $40,000 salary position a few years down the line. It was during this time that I went into deep thought about what I wanted to do and where my interest were. It became clear to me that my personal skills, experience and interest all pointed to me starting my own youth sports program. So in faith, over a couple of months I created my vision for Ball 2 Life, I LLC’d the company and designed some curriculum. Things came full circle one day in the small PT office. One patient who I chatted with often happened to hear about my new business. It just so happened this individual was employed by the county recreation and was in need of my services. This was confirmation for me and I haven’t looked back since. That interaction has led to 5 1/2 years of contracting with the local government, expanding our coaching staff from 1 to 6 and additional grants, contracts and opportunity to service youth in our community.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

We keep in touch with our community through newsletters. Our brand is about using every opportunity to create better lives and opportunities for our youth. Within our newsletter, we connect with our parents by offering tips in categories like screen time, how to keep your kids active, and how to build home learning plans. We prioritize building community through our work so we also keep parents informed about upcoming programming, acknowledged coaches and their efforts in the community and plan community events to bring people together. Ball 2 Life is dedicated to the development of youth, both on and off the court. We foster strong relationships with parents, connect meaningfully with young people, and collaborate with community partners to support their growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ball2lifeprograms.com
• Instagram: @ball2lifeprograms @deep__fit