By pursuing his dream of owning his own business, Dan Bradley believes he can help young athletes live out their dreams as well.

Last month, Bradley opened Overtime Sports, a sports facility and agency that pairs children with collegiate and professional athletes for one-on-one training. His business, located in a renovated warehouse downtown, combines his passions for athletics and working with children.

“Real estate was good to me, but I figured that if there was ever a time to pursue my dreams, it’s now, while I’m still young,” said the 23-year-old Bradley. “I also felt that the timing was right because there seems to be a lot of support for young professionals in this community, especially for ones interested in starting a business downtown.”

A native of Fort Dodge, Bradley moved to Des Moines two years ago to sell real estate. He had a talent for selling houses, and he earned good money doing it. As much as he liked his career, his entrepreneurial spirit kept telling him to do something else. So he leased a 13,000-square-foot warehouse at 121 S.W. Second Ave. and spent a month renovating it into a multipurpose athletic complex with a full-size basketball court, batting cages and a multipurpose turf for soccer and other sports.

“Living in Des Moines, I’ve noticed that there are really not that many opportunities here for kids to build their athletic ability,” Bradley said. “There are programs out there that emphasize lifting weights and working out on machines to be ‘bigger, faster, stronger,’ but none concentrating on the essence of skill-building.”

Sports have always been a part of Bradley’s life. During high school, he started his own school of tennis. When he attended college at Parkland College in Champaign, Ill., Bethel College in St, Paul, Minn. and the University of Iowa, he lived with other student athletes and discovered that many of them were also passionate about sharing their skills with others.

After college, Bradley watched some of his friends who were former Division I athletes struggle with the transition from “big-time athletes” to members of the workforce.

“It seemed like they were torn between being involved with the sport they loved and having to make a living,” Bradley said. “Maybe they considered coaching, but they don’t have the time for that type of commitment when they’re starting a new job. Here, they can develop relationships with a few kids and work with them each week.”

When Bradley made some phone calls to friends and friends of friends to compile his roster of trainers, here’s a sample of whom he ended up with: baseball players Matt Macri of the Colorado Rockies, Casey Blake of the Cleveland Indians and Jeremy Hellickson of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays; former University of Iowa men’s basketball players Sean Sonderleiter, Rod Thompson and Jack Brownlee; and former Iowa State University football player Lane Danielson. Along with several others covering these sports, Bradley has trainers for softball, soccer and cheerleading, and he will soon hire at least one for golf.

“I have a list of all-stars,” Bradley said. “They’re all well-known, unbelievable athletes.”

Bradley said he was amazed at the warm response he received from athletes when he approached them about working for him part time, particularly the professional baseball players who are working with Overtime during their off-season.

“Every athlete I’ve been in contact with was looking for an opportunity like this,” he said. “You have these four professional athletes who make a ridiculous amount of money who want to come back here to work with us and give back to the community.”

Des Moines native Macri, an infielder with the Rockies, is working about 10 hours a week at Overtime right now. He likes the concept of one-on-one training because he remembers how exciting it was for him as a young athlete to have the opportunity to learn from Casey Blake. Marci was 10 years old when he met Indianola native Blake at a baseball camp at Simpson College.

“I still remember taking ground balls with him,” Macri said. “He was on his way to becoming a star, and it was a neat experience to work out with him. I loved to do it when I was that age, and I know there are kids out there today that feel the same way I did when I was that age.”

Macri said he loves teaching and has fun working out with the clients at Overtime. He also likes how the building has batting cages and nets for hitting, a mound to work on pitching and 8,000 square feet of turf that provides a suitable surface on which to hit ground balls during workouts.

Currently, about 12 children come to Overtime on an appointment-only basis for one-on-one training sessions. Bradley had expected teenagers to be the primary market for these services, but so far his clients are mostly younger, around 10 to 11 years of age, and one as young as 6.

Bradley sees an enormous opportunity in working with these younger children.

“We can work with them for the next eight years, and then our trainers who have played at big schools can teach them how to prepare for playing in college,” Bradley said. “To be able to say that you worked with Sean Sonderleiter for eight years of your life, I think a lot of coaches would be impressed by that and be willing to take a risk on a kid because of that.

“And the players already have contacts at the big schools around here, and can assist families with making contacts at these institutions even more than high school coaches could do.”

In addition to working with people who are able to pay Overtime’s $45-per-hour charge for personal training to “give their kids that extra edge in sports,” Bradley hopes to secure funding through grants to offer scholarships for inner-city children.

“We don’t want to make this so it’s just for the rich kids with money,” he said. “We want to get involved in the community and work with all kinds of talented athletes.”

Bradley is still putting some finishing touches on the building, including building a lounge with TVs and couches so parents can relax during their children’s sessions. But he hopes that people coming downtown to Overtime will also want to visit other businesses nearby.

“There’s so much energy downtown right now, with new stores and entertainment, and we’re looking forward to contributing to the redevelopment by offering another reason for people to come downtown,” Bradley said.

The only reason Bradley would leave downtown in the future is if the owner of the building he leases, Newbury Development Co., decides to sell or develop the site. If that should happen, he anticipates building a new complex somewhere in Greater Des Moines for Overtime.

In the immediate future, Bradley wants to franchise the business, launching it in other Midwestern cities. He also hopes to build a sports agency through the business to represent Iowa athletes.

Even though starting a business and trying to get word out to the public about it is a lot of work, Bradley likes the change of pace.

“This is definitely my passion, and it will be exciting to come to work every day,” he said.

To learn more about Overtime, call Bradley at 240-5225, or go online to www.myovertimesports.com