born to play

The idea for Cali Sports was first hatched in the Fall of 2019. I was between jobs and my wife said - why don't you start your own business? What do you love? That's easy, I said. Games!

Growing up in sunny California, the playground was our sanctuary and the games were endless. In elementary school it was sunrise to sunset kickball, wall ball, four square, knockout, off the ground tag, tackle football, etc. You name it, I wanted to play it. Sports were a way of life.

Throughout the years the repertoire only grew. In college I fell in love with racquetball, the pongs (ping & beer), tennis, swimming, biking, pick-up basketball, cornhole, ultimate frisbee, and maybe the best of all...disc golf.

By 28 I was living in San Francisco aka Peter Pan Land. Never grow up! Most of my free time was spent either in Golden Gate Park, Dolores Park, Yoga to the People, disc golfing or riding my bike. In the park I'd see more and more people hitting a little yellow ball off a mini trampoline and diving all over the place while screaming with delight. I had to try it and oh man it was love at first spike.

Speaking of love - I met my wife Marije at a wedding in Mexico in January of 2017. By March of 2018 I had officially moved to Utrecht. Since I’ve been in The Netherlands, one cultural norm was very obvious to me - Dutch people are active. They get out and do things (voetbal, fietsen, hockey, schaatsen korfbal, tennis, squash, roeien, padel, etc), rain or shine. If it's on the agenda then it's game on. Hup Holland Hup!

Despite all of this activeness, I didn’t see anyone playing my games. That's when the lightbulb went off. Bring what you grew up with to the Dutchies. Make people step out of their comfort zone, move around, be social and have FUN playing American games and sports.

Hello Cali Sports. 

Play the game!