We recently connected with Seidah Durante and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Seidah, thanks for joining us today. One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?
Thanks for the opportunity to share my story! Some may say this basketball business started with a BIG problem…COVID. My husband, Ronnell and I invested in launching a new team in the semi-professional basketball league, the Women’s American Basketball Association (WABA) in February 2020. Little did we, or the world, know that the pandemic would completely ground us that year, so we didn’t get to play our first game until July 2021. Our team, the Jacksonville Force, was absolutely AMAZING that first season, and we were having the best time…until BIG problem #2 hit us. October 18, 2021 our son, Gyree passed suddenly from a seizure at the age of 23. This happened just 3 days before we and the team were getting ready to travel to Georgia for the WABA’s all-star and championship weekend. Gyree was a huge part of forming and operating the team, and so, with heavy hearts but with his spirit guiding us, we drove to Augusta and played our best basketball. October 23, 2021 the Jacksonville Force was crowned the 2021 WABA Champions!
Moving on to the 2022 season, the team’s spirit was just not the same without Gyree, and the lingering economic effects of the pandemic shifted the dynamic of our relationship with the league. So, in August 2022 we parted ways with the WABA and decided to blaze our own trail. We had tournaments and travel lined up across the country…until BIG BIG problem #3 hit us HARD. Our KING, Coach and mastermind behind the Force, my husband of 21 years fell ill suddenly and passed away in March 2023. After 3 years of ups, downs, extreme highs, and unbelievable lows, it seems like we’ve come to expect the unexpected. We are pressing forward with the wings of Gyree and Ronnell at our backs.
Seidah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Well, I’m a simple person navigating a complicated world. I lived in the same house, on the same block, in the same town for 23 years…23…I’ll come back to the number. I was born and raised in suburban Philadelphia, precisely, Norristown, Pennsylvania 19401, as the youngest of 7 “Hill” kids, and rightfully spoiled by my parents and older siblings. I was the “good” girl, straight-A student, never in trouble because I was always with my mommy. Then a month after entering adulthood, trouble by the name of Ronnell Durante found me…LOL.
March 15, 1995 Ronnell walked back into my life, and for the next 28 years would be my earthly soulmate. See, we had met as kids, toward the summer of 1988, and then attended the same school that upcoming year, me in 6th grade and him in 8th grade (shout out to Stewart Middle School). Norristown being a grand 3.5 square miles, Ronnell and I shared family connections, had similar circles of friends, and were part of the same 8th & Cherry “gang.” Everyone knew each other, so when he vanished after his 8th grade graduation, everyone noticed, but none was the wiser. For the next six years I basically went to school, field hockey or basketball practices and games, home, and wherever my mom went…repeat. [Oh, and occasionally, my aunt, uncle, and cousins stole me for a sleepover or beach vacation.] I conquered every academic course, catapulting to the top as an honor student, and ranking 4th in my graduating class at Norristown Area High School “the High.” My mind had moved way past any thoughts of Ronnell during those six years…until that day…March 15, 1995…he re-appeared and shifted the trajectory of my life.
“Where the heck have you been?!” I recall asking him. “Oh, I moved to Lancaster for high school and then went to college a bit up in Northern PA,” he casually replied. Lancaster…?! That’s only 66 miles from Norristown! Could you imagine in this day of social media frenzy losing track of someone for years who was only an hour away?? Nevertheless, after the initial shock wore off, I smiled from ear to ear that he was right in front of me. While still prioritizing my education, I now found myself mostly going to the High, afterschool club meetings, home, and wherever Ronnell went. Ninety percent of the time, that was to a basketball court, where I was starting to believe he lived LOL. I studied books, while he studied the game. When fat packages from the three colleges to which I had applied (Princeton, Rutgers, and the University of Pennsylvania) all arrived stamped CONGRATS, he was right there celebrating with me. Still a homebody and mommy’s girl, and unsure of my career path but sure it involved math and business, I knew that the Ivy just 20 miles away in Philly was my #1 choice. As I was starting my postsecondary education at Penn, he was re-starting his at Penn State’s Abington Campus, just a few SEPTA bus and trolley stops away.
Our “love and basketball” story was one for the ages. When we didn’t think it could get any better, our biggest blessing…a 7 lb 6 oz baby boy we named Gyree said “hello” to this world on March 25, 1998. I was 21 years young and Ronnell was 23…yup, that magic number. It’s the chapter of his favorite bible verse–Psalm 23, the jersey number of his sports idol Michael Jordan, and the inspiration behind his own jersey number 5 (2+3). And so, our years of adulting shifted into overdrive. We had garnered the badges of parents before either of us had earned our undergraduate degrees. Now, to feed and clothe ourselves, and this whole other human being…? Lawd!! After some deliberation, he decided to push pause on school to focus on fatherhood, while I climbed hills and the Appalachian mountains to stay on target and obtain my Bachelor’s Degree from Penn’s Wharton School of Business, with a concentration in Accounting and minor in Psychology.
There were no breaks for us…I went straight to work full-time as a staff associate at a public accounting firm in Philly, while Ronnell worked part-time and random jobs at nights and on weekends. During weekdays he stayed home with Gy…and by “stayed” I mean he carried and pushed him all around town to visit family and to bless every basketball court LOL. Life was moving at an obscene pace. I was grinding, climbing the leadership ladder, and finally passed the certified public accountant (CPA) exam, all while he was holding down the home front and still chasing his hoop dreams. We had moved into our own place, finally got married on Christmas Eve 2001, then welcomed blessing #2 in a matter of years. Our chubby-cheeked beauty Geniyah was born a few days after Gyree turned 5 (2+3). Shortly after that, Ronnell started playing for a few semi-pro teams and then began coaching 7th through 12th grade boys. I now found myself flying all around the country during weekdays to audit and oversee billions of dollars of federal grant funds, and then driving what seemed like billions of miles to various basketball games and tournaments on the weekends.
As our basketball family grew exponentially, our biological family and “G-unit” grew by one. Just over a month after we traded in our snow days for hurricane days, blessing #3, our Gabby-girl arrived in mid-summer Miami heat weighing almost 10 pounds and sporting mommy’s dimples. If you had asked me a decade prior if I’d ever see the inside of a labor and delivery room as a patient, I would have emphatically said “NO!” I thought we already had our “perfect family” daddy-mommy-boy-girl, but she was meant to be the topper for our family of 5 (2 guys + 3 gals). Our “5-Kind-Family” was far from perfect, but we were perfect for us. We were there for each other through all the victories, like Gyree’s MVP playoff run as quarterback of West Broward high school’s football team. We were there for all the setbacks, like when our state champion gymnast Geniyah suffered a foot injury that pushed her into early retirement. And yet…our biggest triumphs and challenges were still to come. Our “baby-lady” Geniyah’s foot healed and she tried her hand at basketball, doing very well; Gyree became a star quarterback in college and would make national news amidst the Kaepernick protests; Hubby would go on to own and coach at the pro level in the American Basketball Association (ABA); and me…well, I was just enjoying being a more-present wife and mother, as I transitioned to working from home full-time in Florida.
I believe that if life was all sunshine and rainbows, we’d missed the beauty and lessons in the rain. We got rained on, quite a bit. Gyree suddenly started having grand mal seizures and had to hang up his helmet, I got rear-ended in two separate collisions that left me in bad physical shape, and then COVID hit. The pandemic struck just as Hubby and I had invested in joining the Women’s ABA, sister league to the ABA, and established the Jacksonville Force. Due to social distancing stipulations, we didn’t play our first official game until 2021. We went 11-1 during the regular season in our first year…leading the league in scoring and in defense. We won 3 straight playoff games to take home the 2021 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP. This was just 5 (2+3) short days after getting the worst phone call of our lives…Gyree’s last seizure was his last seizure…”he didn’t make it.” Epilepsy claimed our first-born child, our only son, on Monday, October 18, 2021, just 6 months after he walked across the University of Central Florida’s stage grinning from masked-covered ear-to-ear to collect his Bachelor’s Degree in Entertainment Management. He was 23…
Pressing forward was not the easiest, but with the strength of the Lord and our angel son/brother watching over us, we started heading in the right direction. Hubby and I took a much-needed getaway to Hawai’i to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary, Geniyah resumed her Freshman year of undergraduate studies at Florida A&M University, and Ms. Gabby was doing all things not basketball LOL (ballet, swimming, singing, and martial arts). As we crossed over into the first new year with just four of the 5-Kind-Family, I was babysitting the government’s money during the day, cranking out tax returns at night, and still wearing my hat as the other half of the Jacksonville Force. We dove into planning for the 2022 WABA season, and got off to a ridiculously strong 3-0 start, winning by an average margin of nearly 60 points per game!! And then our stint with the WABA abruptly ended. I’ll let you know when the book is out on that story…
Naturally, the ladies and our fans were shocked, upset, nervous, and disappointed as our inevitable run to repeat as WABA champs was squashed. But guess who was calm, cool, and collected…? Ronnell Durante aka “Coach”. He said, “I’m not shook…we have BIG plans, we’re better and beyond this situation and we’re going to be all right.” Shortly thereafter, we entered the ladies into a men’s tournament, and they won…convincingly. The vision was starting to come into focus…they were starting to believe what Coach had been saying all along. BUT THEN…all of a sudden Coach began acting out of character. He was becoming unusually irritable, forgetful, extremely fatigued, and losing motor skills. I took him to several different specialists and ERs for countless tests. Everything was coming back normal, and all the doctors were shrugging their shoulders, but his condition was worsening by the day. Finally, after weeks of waiting, his spinal tap results confirmed that he had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). CJD is a rapidly progressive and untreatable neurodegenerative prion disorder that affects 1 in 1 million people annually. So that was it…nothing we could do but pray for God’s peace and comfort and inform his loved ones. After 3 weeks of unsavory overnight stays in the hospital, we were sent home Christmas Day, just a day after “celebrating” our 21st wedding anniversary. Distressed doctors looked at me with pity, apologized that they didn’t have any medical treatment, and told me that he’d be made comfortable at home on hospice care, with an expectation to live for one more month.
He took his last breath on Wednesday, March 15, 2023, exactly 28 years after re-appearing into my life. A part of me left with him, but the biggest part of me that is so infused and intertwined with his soul is still here. With God’s blessings, my loved ones, and the power of Ronnell’s wings at my back, I am committed to carrying on his legacy. Aside from family, basketball was his world, and I will devote the time and energy that I have remaining on this side of Heaven to make sure the family he was born into and the family that he built continue to feel his love. As the matriarch of the 5-Kind-Family I will see to it that our 2 angels are honored by we 3 ladies. Every Monday is Gy-Gy Day #LongLiveGy, and every Wednesday is Nell Day #LongLiveCoach.
The next chapter for Seidah Durante, or “Mama Sy,” as all my basketball babies affectionately call me is already written. My latter will be greater! And those big plans Coach talked about for the Jacksonville Force…they are already in motion. They will manifest…
How’d you meet your business partner?
My business partner was my husband, Ronnell Durante. He was Mr. Basketball. He played all over the country, and coached for 20 years. We were born in the same small town near Philadelphia, PA and met when I was 11 years old and he was 13. After seeing each other in school or around the neighborhood almost daily for a year, Ronnell disappeared. For six years I didn’t see him. Then one day I was getting my hair done at Big B’s salon by Ms. Tina, who had been my stylist for a few years. While minding my business sitting under the dryer, I noticed this hairy pair of legs standing in front of me. I lifted the dryer hood, and saw this smirking, familiar face. “RONNELL?!” I exclaimed. Turns out that Ms. Tina was his stepsister and he had re-surfaced back into town after spending his high school and some college years in other parts of PA. He had seen my name in the appointment book the day prior, and made sure he was there while I was there. That was March 15, 1995. We were together from that day until he passed away on March 15, 2023, exactly 28 (23+5) years.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
I am the only surviving founder of the professional women’s basketball team, the Jacksonville Force. My son Gyree passed away in October 2021, followed by my husband Ronnell in March 2023. Both of my guys had a love for the game of basketball that they wanted to share with the world. Ronnell coached boys and men for most of his life, but had a passion for coaching and uplifting the game for females. So in 2020, when we decided to develop a women’s team and join a professional women’s league, we challenged and brought the best out of the ladies. Game after game, we won by huge margins. In our first year, we won the league championship. The more we won, the more we garnered attention from fans and sponsors, and built our reputation as a force to be reckoned with. We are here to stay, because we are #BuiltDifferent.
Contact Info:
- Website: jacksonvilleforce.com