History
Gregg Tavani has a vision, and that is to spread his knowledge and passion of the game of soccer to young adults around the world. However, to better understand Greggs passion and vision, it is not enough to simply understand who Gregg Tavani is; one must understand the whole Tavani family history.
The Tavani Story
When Filiberto Tavani grew up in Naples, Italy in the 1940s the only sport was soccer. As a kid he played with soccer balls made up of old cloth material on the cobblestone streets of Naples, but it was not until his mother gave him his very own soccer ball that he fell in love with the sport.
While Filiberto would coach soccer, his middle son Gregg would always follow him around wanting to kick the ball. Gregg was four years old when he began playing with the soccer ball. Around this time the family moved to Dunwoody, Georgia where youth soccer leagues were prevalent. Thus, Filiberto did not have to work as hard to keep Gregg exposed to soccer. When Gregg turned six Filiberto began to coach him, and just like his father, Gregg shared that same passion for soccer.
Gregg had a love for soccer from day one; he did not love anything else. He would sleep with the ball, and he would constantly practice with his father. They would do hours of soccer drills everyday learning how to juggle the ball with both feet, and by the age of nine Gregg was considered the best juggler in Georgia, a distinction that was acknowledged when he was given the opportunity to juggle with the greatest soccer player of all time, Pele. Gregg could do over 100 headers (bouncing the ball on ones head) without stopping; he could do over 1,000 juggles (bouncing the ball in the air using ones feet and thighs without letting the ball touch the ground) without stopping (3,002 was his personal record); he could even do a couple of Magic 7s (soccer drill that consists of starting the ball on the 1) left foot, 2) bouncing it to the right foot, 3) bouncing it to the left thigh, 4) bouncing it to the right thigh, 5) bouncing it to the left shoulder, 6) bouncing it to the right shoulder, 7) bouncing it to the head and then working your way back down again). Gregg had very fine soccer skills, and as he matured he went on to become a very highly decorated high school and college player at Dunwoody High School and Flagler College.
Following in Greggs footsteps was Filibertos youngest son, Michael. Michael always looked up to Gregg; they were very close. Whatever Gregg did, Michael, who was four years younger, wanted to copy. Like Gregg, Michael began kicking the soccer ball at around four years old, and also like his older brother, he was coached by his father. As Michael would mature, he too would go on to have a highly decorated high school career at Dunwoody.
Upon completion of college, Gregg decided to coach high school soccer, club soccer, and even participate as an assistant coach at a variety of soccer camps. All he wanted to do was be around soccer.
In 1998, Gregg was given his first high school coaching job at Redan High School, in the Atlanta, Georgia area. Redan was not a soccer powerhouse at the time. The last time they had gone to the state playoffs was in the early 90s, but this was a good experience for Gregg because it gave him exposure to dealing with parents, booster clubs, delegating playing time, and other obstacles that high school coaches face outside of their knowledge of soccer. Gregg spent three years at Redan, and in his final season he took the team to the state playoffs. After three successful years of coaching soccer at Redan, Gregg was offered the head coaching job at Duluth High School in 2001. Duluth was not only located in the best high school division in Georgia, but the county is one of the best soccer regions in America, Gwinnet County.
Throughout all of Gregg and Michaels accomplishments on the soccer field, Elaine and Filiberto Tavani have been there. For ten years the Tavani family celebrated Thanksgiving in Charleston, South Carolina where a large regional soccer tournament took place. Elaine and Filiberto were the presidents of the Dunwoody High School Soccer Booster Club for seven years while Gregg and Michael played, and they have been loyal supporters of Greggs teams for the past seven years. Soccer has been a strong bond in the Tavani family, and now they are trying to figure out a way to share that bond with other soccer enthusiasts outside of their family.
The Creator
In 2001 Gregg was about to begin his fourth season coaching high school soccer and his first season with Duluth High School. Gregg loved to teach, and he loved soccer. His summers, which he had off because he was not teaching, were spent either training for a soccer certificate or coaching at soccer clinics and camps. This is what Gregg wanted todo the rest of his life. He wanted to be involved in soccer in anyway possible, and he realized that if he was going to be coaching soccer anyway, why not start his own soccer foundation? Gregg eventually took that vision and decided that he wanted to establish his own breeding ground for soccer players for Duluth High School. He wanted to hold camps where kids from all around the southeast would come every summer; he wanted to develop his own soccer philosophy, and he wanted to eventually spread that soccer philosophy into the minds of young soccer players all around the world. That is how the vision of Tavani Soccer was born.
Naturally, once Gregg developed his vision he shared it with those who were closest to him and to those who have provided him the greatest support throughout the years, his family. This is where his passion for soccer was born. Not only did Greggs family support him, they had no choice but to support him. Soccer was Greggs life, and if they wanted to support Gregg, they had to support his vision of Tavani Soccer.
Once Gregg was able to get his core team into place, Tavani Soccer begin to develop. The first thing this close bunch did was develop an understanding for the small steps it was going to take to develop a soccer philosophy that is spread in Tavani Soccer camps around the world. The first step was to just get his own camp started in Duluth. The core team of Tavani Soccer identified early what each of their strengths were and how they could apply those strengths to the vision.
Greggs strengths were that he was fairly well-known throughout soccer circles in Atlanta, and he was a very talented and capable coach. However, Gregg learned through coaching high school soccer his first three years that dealing with administrative tasks were his least favorite part of the job. This was an area that was perfect for Filiberto.
Filiberto was recently retired, and he was a very organized professional. He had the time and the skills necessary to take care of all the administrative work that would be necessary to start a soccer camp. Those responsibilities included being listed as a primary contact person for inquiries, finding a location for the camp, calling parents to answer any questions they may have concerning the camp, and keeping track of all the applications.
Finally, Michael was also able to contribute his strengths in the marketing of Tavani Soccer. The Tavani's knew they just could not decide to have a camp and then expect people to show up. They had to market their product and let people in the community know about them, and this was a role perfect for Michael.
Each member of the Tavani Soccer team knew their parts and they stayed within those parameters. It was now time to go forward with the vision and have a camp. The team eventually decided to have one camp the first summer. Gregg was able to initially get the word out about his camp since he was well tapped in the local soccer pipeline, and Michael created the Tavani Soccer logo, phrase, made T-shirts, hats, brochures, applications, and advertisements. In the meantime, Filiberto was able to locate a park to host the camp, and he began tracking the applications.
The first year they were hoping to get twenty kids. The Tavani Soccer team felt if they did not get twenty kids it would have been an embarrassment. After a lot of hard work of trying to get the word out about the camp, the Tavanis were able to obtain fifty kids that first summer in 2003. This was definitely a confidence booster for the Tavani Soccer team and after their first soccer camp they immediately began to think about how they can grow the organization to take another step closer to Greggs vision.
The first step toward establishing soccer relationships was made with the first camp. Tavani Soccer was able to have a successful first camp that would begin the cycle of word of mouth advertising. The first thing Michael did was create a user friendly website for Tavani Soccer. The website would highlight Greggs accomplishments, provide articles that were written on Tavani Soccer, and provide camp information where potential customers could go and register for Greggs camp.
The next thing Michael did was try to get the word out about Tavani Soccer and their new website. Given that Gregg coached Duluth High School as well youth leagues in the area, Michael had a good forum to get their product in front of the organizations target market. He decided to have a specialized banner made that is about 30 feet long that he would hang at all of Greggs soccer events.
Finally, Michael got in touch with as many local soccer publications as he could to get them to do articles on Gregg and Tavani Soccer. Of course Gregg did his part to get local publicity by winning soccer games. His first season at Duluth Gregg took a young Duluth squad to the state semi-finals and a #3 state ranking. His second season, Gregg took the team a step further when they went to the state finals, a #2 state ranking, and a top 20 national ranking. In his third season his team was ranked #1 in the state for most of the season, and even though they did not win the state title, they still made the playoffs for the third consecutive year. As Gregg continued to win he received more publicity, and in each interview that was made possible by the combination of Michael contacting the local press and Gregg winning soccer games, he was sure to get the word out about Tavani Soccer.
Filiberto also did his part as an accelerator for Tavani Soccer. Realizing that Tavani Soccer was going to succeed by providing a quality product and having good raport with the community, Filiberto made sure he was easily accessible. He installed a separate Tavani Soccer phone and fax line into his home so that he could quickly and easily respond to any customer, or potential customer, questions or concerns. He would also maintain his efforts of doing the necessary logistical work to set up the Tavani Soccer camp and maintain the finances.
All the tools were in place for Tavani Soccer to grow; the organization had a successful first year camp and could now begin to rely on word of mouth advertising. They were investing in advertising to continue to inform the public about their product, and they had a new website up and running. Gregg continued to win soccer games at the high school level which continued to give him and the organization more credibility and press, and Filiberto was handling the necessary administration details and keeping the customers happy. Now Tavani Soccer had to decide on their strategy as to how fast they wanted to grow their organization.
Gregg, and the rest of his core team, decided it would be best to try to do two camps in the second summer, to do both of the camps at the same location that they did it the first summer, and that they were going to try to attract seventy-five campers to each camp. As with the first camp, Tavani Soccer exceeded their goals. Both camps were again big success, and they attracted a total of 212 campers, an astounding 400% increase from the first summer.
