The Driveway to open second location in Wausau

Rich Palzewic

Staff

July 8, 2024

WAUSAU – In recent years, Ryan Borowicz – once a three-sport athlete at Ashwaubenon High School – said he has shifted from playing to helping area youth achieve their own goals, specifically with basketball.

Borowicz – who played basketball at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay from 1994-99 – opened The Driveway, a basketball skills academy in Hobart, Wisconsin, in 2016 to help guide and support the next generation of athletes.

The player-turned-coach recently announced another location will soon appear in North Central Wisconsin. 

“The plan is to open another facility in Wausau this fall,” he said.

Busy with managing the Hobart location, Borowicz said it was important for him to find “the right person to lead the Wausau location.”

“Eventually, I’ll do less (in Hobart), but right now, I’m always (there),” he said.

Borowicz said he hired Sam Meerstein (a former Green Bay NEW Lutheran basketball standout) to run the Wausau facility.

“Sam worked for me for five summers, so I’ve known him for a long time – he knows how to do things and the culture we want (at The Driveway),” he said. “I feel comfortable with him – he’s going to move to Wausau and lead things. I’ll be out there as often as possible, but athletes will see Sam more than they see me.”

The new location (152638 Cloverland Lane), Borowicz said, is convenient for athletes and is in a high-traffic area.

“It’s right off Rib Mountain Drive,” he said. “It’s like Oneida Street in Green Bay… it’s the main drag in Wausau and close to U.S. Highway 51.”

The facility, Borowicz said, is less than a minute off the highway in any direction – “it’s the perfect location”.

The thing that sold him on the location, he said, is it’s accessible to everyone in the Wausau area.

“If you’re coming from Stevens Point or any other area, it’s as good a location you can find in that area,” he said.

The convenient drop-off point for parents is also a bonus, Borowicz said. 

“From a parents’ standpoint, you can drop your kid off for an hour or two to shoot or do a training class and then do some errands, go shopping or have dinner – Rib Mountain Drive has a lot of retail shops.”

Borowicz said because a few athletes from the Wausau area already come to the Hobart location three or four times a week, the outpouring of support has been “nothing but positive.” 

“The Wausau kids come in for training sessions with our staff,” he said. “They won’t drive that far to shoot baskets, but they’ll drive that far for a one-hour session. We’ve also had a number of them for summer camps – we’ve got good feedback (about the new Wausau location) from the Wausau kids who come to Hobart.” 

Because the Wausau opening is still at least a few months away, Borowicz said they haven’t done much marketing on social media quite yet.

“We’re continuing to contact local (Wausau) coaches,” he said. “There is excitement from people. I’ve heard comments like, ‘we needed this in the Wausau area.’ Many people are excited because they’ll be able to drive down the road to a dedicated basketball facility with a good reputation and track record instead of driving to Green Bay.” 

A vision 

Borowicz said since opening the Hobart location in 2016, he’s always had a vision to do more – support more kids in more areas.

“When I opened, it was survival – hopefully, it works,” he said. “After a year, I knew it would work, so then it became ‘how can we grow?’”

When looking at areas for expansion, Borowicz said he looked at various places.

“I came close at a few different places (over the years), but with Wausau… there is enough population and people from surrounding small areas – we felt it was a big enough market to sustain a smaller facility,” he said. 

Borowicz said he chose to move into an existing building in Wausau instead of building a new facility – at least for now.

“We won’t be running leagues and tournaments,” he said. “The difference is, however, we’ll have eight shooting cages.”

Shooting cages, Borowicz said, are devices where an athlete shoots at a hoop, and then the ball is filtered into a netting and eventually kicked back to the shooter.

The Hobart location, he said, saw significant growth when the shooting cages were installed.

“In 2019, we cut a hole in the wall and added shooting cages – now I see some kids four or five times a week,” he said. “The more we can offer, the more I can build relationships.”

Borowicz said he expects the same response to the shooting cages at the Wausau location, which is why he plans to install eight.

As the Wausau location nears its estimated fall opening, Borowicz said he already has a plan for the future.

“I hope to be in this location in Wausau, hopefully, for three years,” he said. “If it goes well, then we’ll consider moving into something bigger or building a facility. We’re keeping it simple (for now).”

With that said, Wausau isn’t the only expanding Borowicz has in mind.

“My goal is to have five facilities around the state in the next 10 years,” he said. “It has turned into more than I expected. Initially, when I opened the Hobart location, I kept it small on purpose – I didn’t even plan to have any employees. Over time, I found I needed an administrative assistant, coaches and others to make it work – my kids were also getting to that age of being involved in activities.”

When looking at other locations, Borowicz said the thought process is strategic in nature.

“For example, Milwaukee is a great area for this, but there are already multiple facilities in that market,” he said. “I’d rather go into a community where the need is there. I’ll look for hungry kids who want to get better and then find someone reliable to run the facility.”

Looking ahead, Borowicz said he hopes the Wausau location has the same success the Hobart one has had.

“I’m fortunate I get to do something I love,” he said. “I’ve built a lot of relationships over time. The kids we worked with in 2016 are now out of college. (I hope we can have the same impact in Wausau).”

What The Driveway offers

Borowicz said The Driveway isn’t simply a gym for kids to shoot hoops or mingle with friends.

“It’s much more than that,” he said. “We also offer open gyms, one-on-one training, shooting cages, camps, clinics, playing leagues and more.”

When he opened The Driveway in 2016, Borowicz said, “I was much like a trendsetter.”

“I was unique in 2016,” he said. “Now, there are three similar facilities within a 20-mile radius of here.”

Though he encourages athletes to play multiple sports in high school, Borowicz said he recognizes that “times have changed.”

“When I was young, there was never anything like this,” he said. “If you’re a sophomore or junior in high school, and you think ‘this is my thing and the chance to get my education paid for,’ I completely understand that.”

Borowicz said the name behind his facility is simple – reminiscent of his playing days.

“The current generation of parents, Generation X, grew up playing basketball in their driveway,” he said. “They didn’t look at playing basketball as something their parents were making them do. They didn’t have fancy uniforms, and they didn’t play in a tournament halfway across the state every weekend.”

It was just about basketball, Borowicz said – and so is The Driveway.