Good Neighbor Podcast Live

RPS Academies: Where Athletic Dreams and Academic Excellence Collide

• Garfield Bowen & Gabe Jaramillo • Episode 325

Share episode

Ever wondered what it takes to build world-class athletes? Tucked away at the former Club Med location in Port St. Lucie lies a hidden gem that's been shaping champions for 15 years. Meet Gabe Jaramillo, founder and CEO of RPS Academies – a high-performance sports institute where students from 32 countries pursue their athletic dreams while receiving top-tier education.

Gabe shares his remarkable journey from corporate life to founding an elite academy that sends athletes to prestigious competitions like Wimbledon. With a philosophy inherited from his Olympic swimming coach mother – "honesty, hard work, and perseverance" – and his father's mantra to "follow your passion," he's created an intensive training ground where students immerse themselves in a competitive culture of excellence from 7 AM until 9 PM daily.

What sets RPS Academies apart is its three-pillar approach: academics, intellect, and sports. Students specialize in tennis, golf, beach volleyball, or soccer while studying in a private school that will soon offer the Cambridge program. The results speak volumes – four current students competing at Wimbledon, state soccer championships, world-class beach volleyball players, professional golfers, and most impressively, a 100% college placement rate with scholarships for graduates. Despite these achievements and contributing significantly to the local economy with 72 employees, Gabe expresses surprise that many locals don't know they exist. Listen to discover this world-class training facility that's putting Port St. Lucie on the map and preparing young people not just for sports success, but for life.

Want to see champions in the making? Visit rpsacademies.com or call Gabe directly at 941-518-8606 to schedule a tour and witness firsthand how dreams are transformed into reality through discipline, education, and elite training.

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Garfield Bowen.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you looking for a high-performance academy to send your kids? Well, one may be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, gabe Haramillo, the founder and CEO of RPS Academies. Gabe, how are you doing today?

Speaker 3:

Garfield, I'm great. Thank you for having me on the show.

Speaker 2:

Listen, we're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your company.

Speaker 3:

We are RPS Academies. We've been in Port St Lucie for 15 years. Where we are is we are a high performance institute and we build in three pillars academics, intellect and sports. We offer elite programs in different sports, like we have tennis, golf, beach volleyball and soccer, and alongside we have a top-tier education. We have our own private school and next year it will be a Cambridge program. We're very excited about it. We offer both boarding and onboarding options. Today we have 150 students from all around the world.

Speaker 3:

Each of them arrived with a dream of becoming professional athletes. By their senior year, they faced two clear paths Either they play professional or they continue the journey to college. On average, our students spend three years with us and the daily routine is very hard. They go from seven o'clock in the morning to nine o'clock at night, fully immersed in a competitive culture of excellence, hard work and very difficult part, which is the discipline. This is how we make champions. In short, we have a beautiful business. We have a beautiful business Now. What we're trying to do and what every day we get up for, is to prepare these children to succeed in life.

Speaker 2:

I've been in Port St Lucie for a while and I'm sure a lot of listeners are saying to themselves where are you? West, east, north, south?

Speaker 3:

Do you remember where Club Med used to be? Club Med yes, we're right there.

Speaker 2:

Okay, okay, nice place, perfect location.

Speaker 3:

It is perfect location in every sense of the way.

Speaker 2:

It's the perfect location. And what kind of sports would you say? The student is excellent. What is it? Football, basketball, a little bit of everything.

Speaker 3:

No, right now we have tennis, we have golf, we have beach volleyball and soccer. But to give you an example, which was in tennis alone this year, we have four of our students competing in Wimbledon, you know. Just to give you an idea of how big we are. You know, we in the sports, we do extremely, extremely well and that's the sad part that nobody knows that we're here. In soccer, we won state championships, you know. In volleyball, we are some of the best beach volleyball players in the world. Golf, we have professional players. We do really well in sports and, like I said, people come from right now we're 32 countries. There are people from 32 countries that are with us at the academy today.

Speaker 2:

So tell me, Gabe, how did you get into this?

Speaker 3:

business? That's a great question. Everything starts with a dream, and mine was to be the best tennis coach in the world. I grew up in colombia and my mother was an olympic swimming coach, and she expected from us honesty, hard work and perseverance. And she taught us from the very start to believe in ourselves, to fight hard and to never, ever give up. And growing up, my father had one mantra that he repeated like a drum beat Do what you love, follow your passion. So one day I did.

Speaker 3:

I quit the corporate job life, packed my bags, moved back to the States to chase my dream. But here's the twist the same father who taught me passion over position didn't speak to me for two years, perhaps because, you know, he was a general manager of Goodyear in Colombia. He had a very prestigious position, but I really think that deep inside he never had the courage to really follow his dream. And you know, to follow your dream it takes courage. Becoming a world-class coach requires basically the same sacrifices that an elite athlete has to follow. And now my mission is to make this academy the best in the world. I am a coach, that's who I am, and I love what I do.

Speaker 2:

Now we know marketing is the heart of every business, and I know you say you attract people from all around the world. Who's your target audience and how do you attract them?

Speaker 3:

Well, there are millions of young people around the world with the same dream to become superstars. But also we know that parents, for the parents, the most important thing for them, their priority, is their education. So for us, it's a perfect balance because we offer both. In reality, 99.999% of these students end up going to college. The advantage that we have is that in these 15 years, we have sent 100% of our students to college with scholarships. So we attract families from all over the world because we have the results.

Speaker 3:

We have a strong social media presence and we have a very good. Loyal agents have been with us for a long time, sending students for a long, long time. We also travel a lot. We travel to tournaments. You know, in the united states we travel to tournaments around the world and we go to recruit the students. We go give clinics, teaching people basically our our product, uh. And then the key for us is that parents are willing to invest whatever they can in their children. They know that the best investment they're going to make is in their children. So for us, in a way, it's an easy sale.

Speaker 2:

Have you ever thought about doing your own podcast?

Speaker 3:

No, you know what, now that I'm talking to you? Before we started, I thought about that. I thought it would be great for us.

Speaker 2:

Listen when you're not busy running your business. What do you like to do for fun?

Speaker 3:

This is my life. Really, this is my passion. You know I love what I do, but outside the academy, I love to write. I've written four books. One of them is called how to Make Champions. It has been translated to Spanish and Mandarin, and writing gives me another way to share the lessons that I have learned through all these years of coaching and, to be honest with you, I love coaching but I also love writing.

Speaker 2:

Okay, we're actually coming to the end, but I want you to leave our listeners with one thing. If there's just one thing they should remember about RPS Academies, what would that be?

Speaker 3:

Well, I would love for people in Port in person lose to know who we are. We contribute a lot to the local economy. You know we have we employ 72 people. We have parents that come from all over the world and a lot of them buy houses around the academy. Uh, when we go out in the weekends, you know the parents that walk on the weekends. We contribute a lot to every shop. You know every business. In terms of sports, we put in port san lucio on the map too, because we have some of the best juniors in the world, you know, working and coming out of here. So I would love for people to know that we're here. We have 15 years and people in port st lucie don't know that we're here. And now where I wanted to invite people, if they're close to to the academy, if they're close to where klomer used to be, which is now some piper bay resort, I would love to invite him to come, you know, and spend some time with us. Okay, that leads to the.

Speaker 2:

the final question how can our listeners learn more about rps? Question how can our listeners learn more about RPS?

Speaker 3:

Academies. They can visit our website. It's rpsacademiescom, but the best way to watch it we have Facebook, youtube. I would love for them to come. If they come to our place, I would love to give them a tour, show them what we have, show them the school, show them the facilities. We have soccer fields. We have we building. We have 22 courts. We're building 25 more tennis courts. We were going to build two stadium courts. I mean, we're in the process of growing, so I would love for people to come and see what we do and what we have for those um mothers or fathers is like just like to push the buttons on the phone.

Speaker 2:

Is there a, a number you'd like to share?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I'll tell you what. I'll even give you my personal number so people can call me. I'd be more than happy to talk to them, it's 941-518-8606.

Speaker 2:

Well, Gabe, it's been a pleasure speaking with you. We wish you and your business the very best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

I feel that I appreciate this opportunity.

Speaker 1:

I would love for you to come and visit us also. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast Port St Lucie. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPortStLuciecom. That's GNPPortStLuciecom, or call 772-362-3840.