We were lucky to catch up with Tamie Felty recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tamie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We love heartwarming stories – do you have a heartwarming story from your career to share?
When I was 26 years old, I got the privilege of coaching a group of girls that I would work with for 4-5 years. These girls became family to one another and to me. Class by class, as they graduated and moved on to college, we stayed close. I would call each one at 7am on my way to teach high school English, and they would begrudgingly pick up because this was before sleep mode. They eventually stopped calling me Coach Felty and started calling me Mama Felty. This became even more accurate when one of my girls came out and was disowned by her parents. When she called me in dire straights, I didn’t even ask my wife before telling her that she needed to come and live with us while she got her life back on track. Within the week we had our 20 year old child moved into our guest bedroom and forever imprinted on our hearts. Honestly, she and her select basketball sisters were already in our hearts forever. Any and all of our kids who are ever in need will always have our love and support. They are all our kids. We are so proud that she now has her college degree and is happy, healthy, and successful. That’s all we can hope for all of our kids.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am an educator at heart and by trade. I spent 13 years as a public school teach then administrator. I taught English, PE, Art, Special Education, and was an Assistant Principal. I also coached middle school through high school basketball in public schools and for our non-profit organization, Magic Basketball Club. Two things brought me to education and coaching, well more accurately, two people. My 8th grade Language Arts teacher filled a role in my life far beyond that of an educator. She took on a motherly role after my grandma who raised me died when I was in the 8th grade. She kept track of me after I moved to high school, college, and beyond and never gave up on me no matter how many times I gave her a reason. My high school basketball coach took on a fatherly role by holding me accountable and providing unconditional love. Without these two educators, I wouldn’t have graduated high school or ever become an educator myself. They are what set me apart from others in my field. I don’t run our club or coach our kids to get the most wins. I do it because I want to be to others what my role models are to me. We are known for being a very organized and professional select basketball club, but more importantly we care about each and every single child we serve. We strive to make a positive impact on the world by slightly changing the life of each kid we get to serve through basketball.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I went to grad school to get my MEd. in Educational Leadership, because I wanted to follow in the footsteps of my mentor. I loved everything about being an administrator until I lost two students to suicide within a 4 month span of time. Then I found myself broken and unable to continue working within a system I felt failed so many kids. In reality, I felt I failed my kids. So I retired from public education and focused my energy on the realm I felt like I had more control over, our non-profit. I rewrote all our club policies to prioritize inclusivity and caring for one another. We changed our business model to serve all levels of athletes so that everyone had a place to belong and grow. I wrote new sportsmanship guidelines into our event rules and changed how we grouped teams for increased parity. Most importantly, I focused on being present for each of my kids and taking care of them to the best of my ability. It’s not unlike what I did as a public educator, but in a system that I have more control over. We strive to provide for kids what the public education system sometimes cannot, and we hope it makes a difference.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Word of mouth is the most powerful advertising we could ever imagine. Our marketing budget has been reduced to a fraction of what we planned, because our kids and parents are our best advocates. We do our best to take care of kids, and they tell their friends all about it. To that end, we try to be very organized and transparent. We know kids and families need consistency and dependability, so we work hard to provide it. We keep the focus simple: do what’s best for kids. We make that the guide for every decision we make, and parents and kids appreciate it.
Contact Info:
- Website: Magicbasketballclub.com
- Instagram: @magicbasketball_club
- Facebook: Atxmagicbasketball