sportstyle

56 • July/August 2025 sportstyle • sportstylemag.com Owners: e day-to-day operations are currently run by Shawn Hancheroff and his brother-in-law, Matt Wilcott. Hancheroff 's mother, Carol Hancheroff, and his two sisters, Ashley Renaud and Kyley Wilcott, are also involved. Shawn's uncle, Jim Poynter, has retired but still retains shares in the business. e business is still and has always been entirely owned within the family. As of right now, the shares are held by Shawn, his uncle, mother and Shawn's two sisters. History: "e business started in 1973 with my father, Harold Hancheroff, selling team sporting goods – mostly soball/ baseball and institutional sporting goods – out of my grandparents' garage, supported financially by my grandfather, Ross Poynter," says Shawn Hancheroff. "My mother, Carol Hancheroff, and my grandmother, Doreen Poynter, were also involved from the beginning and became more involved as the business grew. At the time, we were more of a team and institutional dealer selling mostly to schools and community leagues. Other members of the extended family became involved, such as my mother's siblings, Jim Poynter and Barb Mynott." Most Gratifying Aspects: "Although it can be trying at times, it is extremely gratifying to be working together as a family to grow and succeed as we have been doing for more than 50 years. We get to work together as a family every day, spending the day with customers and vendors talking about sports." Challenges: "One of the biggest challenges, especially as we have grown, is keeping that family feel and unity. Now, there are more family members involved in the business, but with our growth we now have a lot of other staff members who are not related and sometimes integrating them into the business where there is so much family can be challenging. "Another challenge we faced over the years is that we were not able to be profit- able in the Institutional/School business, which was a huge part of our business for the first 30 years of the company's existence. We made a decision as a family that we would move out of that business to concentrate on soball, baseball and football and we recently added lacrosse. ese sports are mostly club sports in our area as there is no high school soball or baseball and only about one-quarter of our high schools have football. All of these sports are primarily run by associations/ leagues outside of the schools. Walking away from the institutional business was a big gamble for our business at the time, but in the end, it proved to be the right decision and is one of the key reasons we are where we are at today." Looking Ahead: "For the future we are hoping to continue our growth and expansion; while we have some of the family that are getting older, a lot of our key staff are still pretty young. We currently have a couple of the next generation of the family working for us and I would like them to stay involved. We are also considering how to get a few of our long- term employees who are not relatives, but definitely are part of the family, more involved from both a management and ownership perspective." The Future of Family-Owned Team Businesses: "ose of us that have been successful over the years have been able to partner with our customers and vendors to offer better knowledge, knowhow and service than they can get elsewhere, but we have to continue to change and evolve to stay competitive with the larger corporate team dealers and retailers. e constant consolidation in this industry and the increase in direct sales by vendors are issues that concern me. We are trying to do everything we can to be great partners and offer value. I think that would be a prudent course of action for any family-owned and -operated team dealer going forward." LANGLEY, B.C., CANADA MVP ATHLETIC SUPPLIES A lot of the key staff at MVP Athletic is still young, which bodes well for the future of the team dealer. TEAM SPORTS

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