Relentless Field Hockey Club
Previously as a player and now as a coach, field hockey has long been one of my greatest passions. I teamed up with a former teammate to turn this shared passion into a startup field hockey club.
Brand:
Relentless Field Hockey Club
Role:
Co-founder & creative director
Category
Entrepreneurship, brand innovation
After completing our Division 1 playing careers, my co-founder and I sought a way to stay connected to the sport while also contributing to its growth in the U.S.
In 2021, we launched a Relentless Field Hockey Training, a private-training organization, to provide high-quality training to local athletes in Richmond, Virginia.
Over the course of the following two years, we grew a community of athletes ranging from elementary school students to college students through training opportunities.
In 2023, we transitioned the training organization into a full-fledged field hockey club, including local and travel youth teams. In 6 months, we've grown to 70+ athletes and 8 coaches.
We are driven to foster a team-first club environment for high-level, competitive field hockey players in the Richmond area.
We believe in developing the whole player - technically sharp and tactically savvy with a relentless love for the game.
Our athletes will be equipped with knowledge, skills, and experiences that will set them up to succeed both on and off the field.
First and foremost, I'm a coach. I lead our U16 and U19 teams, where I love to develop athlete's tactical understanding of the game.
I also manage our brand and creative direction. This involves developing our visual identity and tone, which is applied across our marketing communications, apparel, social media, and web design.
Lastly, I oversee all club operations. This includes scheduling, logistics, accounting, business development, and more.
I. COACH
COACHING
One of my primary roles at Relentless is that of coach, where I'm responsible for teaching and leading young athletes about the game of field hockey and more.
We strive to develop technically sharp, tactically savvy athletes. With each of our athletes, we look to first create a strong foundation of technical skills. Then, we apply those skills in game situations to develop game IQ and tactical awareness.
Connecting with athletes through field hockey is one of my biggest joys. I'm super passionate about developing not only who these athletes are on the field, but more importantly, who they are off the field. This has pushed me to be super intentional in how we create a culture that people want to be a part of.
In this same regard, I think that coaching has allowed me to develop my interpersonal communication skills, as I've learned how important it is to develop trust and lead with empathy in all conversations.
II. CREATIVE DIRECTOR
When we launched our business in 2021, it a top priority of ours to create branding stood out among the rest. Like many youth sports organizations, the field hockey landscape is dense with logos, color stories, and apparel that lacks depth and personality.
As players fresh out of our college careers, we wanted to create a brand that represented the energy of the next generation of field hockey players. We wanted it to captivate attention, demonstrate professionalism, and communicate our relentless love of the game.
So, in my apartment living room one afternoon, we landed on the name "Relentless" and the colors of red, black, and white. While our logos have evolved over time, our brand name and color story have remained consistent and core to our brand since then.
We recently refreshed our logo suite, which can be seen above. While a name like "Relentless" makes a powerful statement, it admittedly lacks in the "mascot" category. This quickly became evident after introducing travel teams to our organization.
I realized we needed an icon or symbol that could represent what it means to be "Relentless" - passionate, fierce, and tenacious. After conducting research and a market analysis, we landed on fire, which has now been incorporated into our logos, color story, and team naming conventions.
Another one of our key priorities at launch was to start better representing field hockey through digital media.
Field hockey in the United States lags behind the rest of the world in terms of popularity and participation and we believe a lack of media representation contributes to this significantly.
Transforming our training sessions into impromptu film sets, we capture and highlight the thrilling, competitive moments that happen on the field, along with the ridiculous, relatable ones off the field. Not only does this enable us to grow our field hockey community here in RVA, but connect with players across the globe.
I lead creative direction on all digital marketing, including our website design, social media, and email campaigns. I oversee a graphic designer who delivers content to us.
III. OPERATION DIRECTOR
OPERATIONS
Lastly, I manage all operations on the business side of Relentless. I lead all of our scheduling, accounting, logistics, communications, staffing, and more.
Through this, I've learned a ton about business development and long-term planning. I spend time forecasting our business needs, strategizing growth plans, and considering how we can continue to give our organization a competitive edge.
I've also learned a ton about how to manage people and delegate tasks. We have an organization comprised of almost 70 athletes and 8 coaches. None of this would be possible without my amazing coaching staff and I've learned how crucial it is to trust and empower all members of an organization.