Snake River Star Jumpers, located in Ontario, Oregon, takes a unique approach to training their students. While their programs are recreational, they teach their students the art of power tumbling and floor-based gymnastics as if they were on a competitive team. Owner and head coach, Nick “Cannonball” Carter has this mindset due to a long journey within athletics that led him to start the business in October 2020.
Learn more about Snake River Star Jumpers here >
The journey to owning a power tumbling club
Nick Carter didn’t always have a dream of owning and operating a youth sports business. While he spent most of his youth participating in gymnastics, cheerleading, and wrestling, he didn’t plan on that being a part of his career someday. Nick has always had an entrepreneurial spirit, so he was willing to work on just about anything that could make him money. However, a trio of jobs he took as a young adult opened up a passion for coaching and inspired him to spread the knowledge of power tumbling he gained throughout his childhood.
Nick worked as a daycare provider at a gymnastics facility in high school. While there, a spot opened as a boys’ gymnastics coach, and he willingly stepped in. In college, he moved to a local gym and coached under a former Olympian from Jamaica. While working at this gym, he learned how to coach competitive athletes. Eventually, he moved to Utah and worked at a high-level power tumbling gym. It was a specialized competitive facility where everything was fast paced. The gym owner gave him the freedom to be himself and coach these athletes competitively, and while there, it occurred to him that he wanted to open his own facility.
Fast-forward to October of 2020. Nick had a “9-5” day job, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic he had more free time outside of work. He started his first official classes with three students teaching 1 class per week. He was doing something right, because only eight months later, by the Summer of 2021, Nick had 25 students per week. He took the Summer off from coaching to work fighting wildfires, but he spent his off-time planning for the fall.
Once the Summer of 2021 was over, he coached for another nine months and continued to grow his membership base. When Summer of 2022 came around, he went to fight wildfires again. That’s when a unique opportunity presented itself. Towards the end of that Summer, he was asked to be on a reality TV show, The Blox, featuring entrepreneurs and small business owners who showcase their ideas and plans to the experts.
For someone without a traditional business background, participating in this show (and placing 14th out of 60 participants) was invaluable for Nick. He spent his days learning from his peers and small business experts to help him continue building Snake River Star Jumpers.
Snake River Star Jumpers today
Now, three years after starting with three students and 1 class per week, Nick is up to over 100 active students teaching 15 classes per week. Snake River Star Jumpers gets kids from around the area who are interested in being coached in the arts of power tumbling, but he also teaches them how to become confident and capable young adults through the transformative power of gymnastics.
Nick hopes to keep building the business to reach more students, and his next goal is to secure a facility. And he’s well on his way. The way Snake River Star Jumpers has continued to grow its programs and reputation for coaching students competitively, he should hit that goal within the next two years.
How SportsEngine Motion is helping Snake River Star Jumpers
Believe it or not, Nick Carter can thank the reality TV show, The Blox for finding SportsEngine Motion in September 2022. One of Nick’s major lessons during his time on The Blox was that he couldn’t expect to run a business using a pen, paper, and his phone. He needed technology to help boost the growth of his business.
Nick saw an ad for SportsEngine Motion on his Facebook feed and decided to check it out. He spoke to a sales representative who showed him the simple class setup and communication tools and decided to give it a try.
“SportsEngine Motion is the best thing I could have ever found for my power tumbling club. I 100% recommend this service to any owner/operator of a dance studio or gymnastics club.”
Nick has been one of SportsEngine Motion’s biggest fans ever since joining. He was initially a bit nervous about moving his business online, but he was assigned a dedicated onboarding representative who walked him through the entire setup process to get him up and running.
“I would’ve hated making the move, but since I had such great support from SportsEngine it was really easy. I have multiple customers that say they’re so happy we’re online now.”
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As his business has grown, Nick has found himself saving more and more time because of SportsEngine Motion.
“The registration system and keeping everyone’s information in one place and organized has saved me so much time. I can easily find everyone’s contact information.”
Nick “Cannonball” Carter has spent his life pushing himself to accomplish his goals, so of course he has big dreams for Snake River Star Jumpers. He’ll continue using SportsEngine Motion to help run his business and spread his passion for power tumbling.