Today we’d like to introduce you to Gene Dougherty.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I have been coaching for over 30 years. I started coaching when I was 18 and my little brother’s football coach asked me to help to keep my brother from quitting. I immediately knew I had found my calling. I have coached Football, Baseball, Softball, Basketball, Soccer and Hockey. I coached varsity football and soccer at Loris HS and currently coach varsity soccer at Carolina Forest HS. I have always been a student of sports and athletes. I would read anything that helped me understand what made great athletes. I moved to Myrtle Beach from Philadelphia in 2005 and immediately started coaching football at In Myrtle Beach at Pepper Geddings. I coached baseball, softball and basketball for the rec center. It was there that I met Tim Renfrow who was head football coach at Socastee High School at the time. I was finishing my teaching degree so he hired me to coach both baseball and football at Forestbrook Middle School. After earning my degree from Coastal Carolina I was hired to teach and coach at Loris High School. In 2018 I began teaching and coaching soccer at Carolina Forest Hight School. I also coached club soccer for Coast F.A and Beach United.
Helping athletes improve physically and mentally is what drives me as a coach. I love the development process. As a varsity coach, I got frustrated when we would get athletes that lacked basic understanding of fundamentals. So many athletes don’t know how their body works. They don’t understand technique, nutrition, or the importance of rest. I decided to get a personal trainer’s license to help my athletes improve physically.
As a soccer coach, I began giving private lessons. This enabled me to help athletes better in a one-on-one environment. That is when the idea of Blue Chip Athletic Performance Enhancement was born. I wanted to create a place where every athlete could get individual instruction in their preferred sport. Where they could learn how their body works and how they can take care of it. I wanted to help each athlete prepare for their next level of competition whether that meant Middle School to High School or High School to the college level.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It has been a journey. I spent many years working with athletes outdoors wherever we could find space and when the weather permitted. I also spent a lot of time searching for just the right location. I wanted to open the facility someplace that I knew athletes would be drawn to, someplace people knew. The X Gym was a place I had worked out before. I played indoor soccer there and took my kids there. When a space became available in the same building I knew that was where I wanted to be. I didn’t have a great deal of capital to work with, so all of the work had to be done by me along with friends and family. My children Finn, Marvin and Tyler helped me tear down walls, scrape up carpet, paint, and lay down the turf. Friends chipped in cleaning up all of the construction waste and putting together nets and equipment. My wife took care of everything at home, giving me the time to devote to building my dream facility.
We were working on a small budget. We didn’t have a lot of room for error. We had to make some sacrifices to get things up and running.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At Blue Chip Athletic Performance Enhancement, we provide experienced coaches specializing in sport-specific performance enhancement. If you need to run faster, jump higher, or throw harder we can help you.
I am a teacher at heart. I currently teach History at the Cyber Academy of South Carolina. Before that I taught in Horry County for 13 years. Whether its US History or Soccer, I the process of teaching. Learning anything requires building a strong foundation. You can’t build knowledge if you don’t understand the basics. Sports are no different than History in that respect. There are no shortcuts. When a student comes into my class they are going to leave with an understanding of the process of learning. Anyone can teach content but teaching a student how to learn is my greatest gift to my students. I want my students to ask questions, the more you ask the more you understand. Learning happens when we accept what we don’t know and seek the answers.
What does success mean to you?
I feel successful every time I walk into the Blue Chip Performance Center and see young athletes working hard to improve their skills. For most of my career I was craving competition. As an athlete we are driven by competition and that doesn’t change when we move on to coaching. As I have gotten older I feel achievement and enjoyment watching the process of an athlete developing. I have gotten to the point in my career where I get that same enjoyment watching my former athletes transition to the coaching side of sports and using the tools and knowledge that I have shared with them.
I feel successful watching my children succeed in their chosen endeavors. I feel successful when a former student or athletes sends me a message on Instagram because they encountered something in their lives that reminded them of something I said to them. I have never been driven by money… If I was I would not have become a teacher. I am successful because I love what I do. I chose this life, its mine.
To me, success is having the ability to wake up every morning and be excited about the day to come. I have the freedom to do the things I love, to travel, to continue to educate myself and most importantly to sit on the sofa at night with my wife and watch TV knowing that our children are safe and happy.
Pricing:
- All General Drop-in Classes are $25
- Grow Strong Classes for Children under 8 are $20
- We also offer session packages and memberships.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.bluechipstrong.com
- Instagram: @bluechipstrong
- Facebook: @bluechipstrong
- Twitter: @bluechipstrong
