Bret Van De Pol had a comfortable job working regular hours for one of the area’s most prestigious employers, but he traded it in earlier this year for the chance to become his own boss and invest in a business he knew could benefit the community.

Van De Pol’s Ankeny business, Sports University, is one of about 125 new businesses to open in the growing northern suburb this year, according to Julie Cooper, the executive director of the Ankeny Area Chamber of Commerce. Although the city appears to be thriving because of its growing base of big-box and national franchises, Cooper said the business success stories she finds most gratifying involve local people like Van De Pol achieving their lifelong dreams of owning their own businesses.

“We are very proud to have them (Sports University) as one of our new chamber members during 2004,” Cooper said. “It’s a great thing because they have spent most of their lives here and they decided to put their investment in the community. When we had the ribbon-cutting, grandma and grandpa were there to share the moment with them, and it was a very special ceremony.”

Cooper said small businesses like Sports University make up about 70 percent of the chamber’s nearly 600 members. Bret Van De Pol and wife, Tracy, opened their unique indoor sports facility in July. The 32,000-square-foot gymnasium permits members to play seven sports year-round: basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, indoor soccer, football and golf. Bret said the business evolved from a simple concept.

“Ankeny is growing and Central Iowa is growing, and we saw a need for more recreation opportunities for the increasing number of young families here,” he said. “One of my favorite pastimes is to sit and watch my kids play sports, and I knew that other people must feel the same way.”

Prior to opening their own business, the Van De Pols had spent years in corporate America. Bret had worked 15 years at Principal Financial Group Inc., most recently in management. Tracy had been in Meredith Corp. for seven years before choosing to operate her own financial and consulting business. Even though Bret knew leaving their careers to launch their own business would mean major changes, it was a chance they felt they had to take.

“My wife and I figured that if we didn’t do it, someone else would sooner or later,” he said. “A lot of other people have kids playing sports and could see the same need, but we took a chance and got the funding we needed.”

Opening Sports University has made life busier for these parents of three school-age kids. Until this spring, Bret worked a standard 40-hour week and had his weekends off. Now, he works seven days a week, putting in about 95s, he said. Tracy has also added hours to her workweek by taking on full-time bookkeeping chores at Sports University while continuing to serve a couple of her clients from her previous business. Life is busy for them, but they are happy with their decision, Bret Van De Pol said.

“Basically, I wanted to own my own business and do something that I love to do,” he said. “My wife and I actually work together now, and we don’t have to answer to any bosses, just each other. Plus, our kids are here most of the time when they’re not in school, so we get to watch them improve in their abilities while we’re here.”

The Van De Pols had a few warm-weather months after opening July 10 to make the transition to running a business before the busy fall and winter basketball schedule began.

“We had time to open the doors, finish things up and get our business in line before it got really busy in October,” he said. “Now, Saturdays bring around 3,000 to 4,000 athletes and family members through our doors. We would have been pounded if we hadn’t had those few months to prepare.”

On weekends, athletes and families travel 50 miles or more to visit Sports University, a clear sign to the Van De Pols that their business fills a need.

“I coached all my kids in sports, and I saw a lot of people leaving Ankeny to go to West Des Moines and other parts of the city for instruction,” Bret said. “Ankeny is a very sports-oriented community that does very well each year in sports, and we felt that athletes shouldn’t have to leave town to get instruction.”

He also knew from personal experience that there was not enough gym space available in the community. As a board member for the Ankeny Basketball Association, Bret was responsible for booking local gymnasiums for the league’s youth teams to use for practice, weekly games and tournaments. He found that it had become a chore to find open time slots on the gyms’ schedules that were convenient for the league’s coaches and players.

“With our league, we were only able to get into the gyms in the afternoons, and we had to be out of there for concerts or other activities, Van De Pol said. “We thought, wouldn’t it be nice to have all the games in one facility instead of keeping parents guessing which of three facilities their child’s games would be on a given Saturday.”

Van De Pol knew that if he was going to make a go of it, he needed an adequaqte building, so he waited until the right one became available, “an open shell” of a building that had formerly housed a carpet warehouse. Many updates to the former carpet warehouse were made, including new lighting, heating, cooling and sprinkler systems. One of the most visible investments is a new hardwood floor, big enough for one full-size and two junior-high-size basketball courts.

In addition to basketball courts, which double as volleyball courts, Sports University has two permanent and two retractable batting cages, a 70-by-100-foot indoor soccer/football field with field turf and a golf practice area for driving and putting. Van De Pol says up to five sports can be played in the building simultaneously, and starting in January, Sports University will provide more recreation opportunities for its members.

“We are going to start offering yoga and pilates classes and more daytime activities for preschool-age children,” he said. “We want to make sure we are serving everyone in the family.”

Sports University also offers massage therapy, sports camps and instruction and Speed City, an athlete conditioning program. For more information, visit www.sportsuniversity.us or call 965-0900.

KEEPING TALLY OF CITY’S BUSINESS GROWTH IS A TASK

With Ankeny’s explosive growth, as evidenced by the dozens of new businesses that have opened within a few blocks of each other on Southeast Delaware Avenue, city leaders say it’s challenging to keep up-to-date statistics on new businesses.   Ankeny Economic Development Coordinator Mike Coyne, who says the number of new businesses in the northern suburb “sets a new record each year,” says tracking the business start-ups that involve new construction work is manageable, but those located in existing unaltered buildings are harder to count.

“We don’t have a business license process, per se, and my department would only work with them if they have built a new space or are doing significant remodeling of a site,” Coyne said. “There are a number of new businesses that might be service-oriented or home-based that we aren’t aware of.”

The membership roster of the Ankeny Area Chamber of Commerce provides a more complete picture of where the new business numbers stand. Julie Cooper, the chamber’s executive director, estimates that the number of business that joined the chamber this year averages out to be roughly the number of start-ups, since some of the chamber’s new members are not new to the community.

“Right now, we’ve grown in chamber membership by about 125, which is a record,” Cooper said. “Last year, we probably had closer to 100.”

As of Nov. 1, more than 50 acres of land had opened up in the city in 2004 for commercial and industrial development, Coyne said. Also, the city had issued 25 permits for new commercial buildings and 58 for commercial additions and alterations. Coyne also estimated that more than 350,000 square feet of commercial and industrial space has opened up this year.

Coyne said the city’s growing population attracts not only major retailers but also independently owned ones, which “round out the community.”

“You have the Super Targets and the Wal-Mart Supercenters, but I’m always fascinated by the new auto repair shops, the hair stylists and interior designers,” he said. “We take those for granted, but there needs to be a certain population base to make that happen. There are all kinds of business opportunities that continue to grow for the person who needs to work at home or wants to work independently.”