Washington Commanders linebacker Jon Bostic, who played at Florida from 2009-12, during pregame warmups last season in Arlington, Texas. (Photo: Jerome Miron /USA TODAY Sports)
Former Gators Linebacker Bostic Tackles Future as Head of Group Building a Reimagined Athletic Training Center
Friday, March 10, 2023 | Football, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Jon Bostic has always focused on the future. The former Gators linebacker, a 10-year NFL veteran preparing for an 11th season, was that way from the start of his professional career.
When he received his $1.2 million signing bonus as a rookie with the Chicago Bears, Bostic didn't do what many rookies do with money to spend. He didn't go out and buy a Maserati or purchase a million-dollar home with a flashy pool. He didn't rent a hotel suite on South Beach and party for three days.
Bostic bought a rental property.
"I'm an educator," said Jacqueline Bostic, Jon's mother. "He grew up around that. He enjoyed fixing up the properties and renting them out."
Bostic didn't stop at one property. He now owns 22 near his home in Wellington and rents them out to single mothers with children.
Bostic's combination of sound financial literacy and drive to serve the community has led him to a new endeavor. The project is one he envisions making a significant difference for so many in the Palm Beach County area, where Bostic was once a top football recruit before signing with the Gators in 2009.
"This project, I've been working on for about two and a half years,'' Bostic said. "The whole plan of this facility has been about nine and a half. I've been jotting down notes since I pretty much got into the league."
An architectural rendering for the Wellington Sports Academy in South Florida that his headed by a group led by former Gators linebacker Jon Bostic. (Photo: Renderings provided courtesy of Bostic).
Bostic and his baseball teammate growing up, former Toronto Blue Jays second baseman Devon Travis, founded Wellington Athletics LLC in 2021. The group also includes Patrick O'Donnell, who punts for the Green Bay Packers. Bostic, Travis and O'Donnell were all standout athletes at Palm Beach Central High.
In July 2022, Wellington Athletics LLC gained approval from the Wellington Village Council to move ahead with a public-private partnership to build a state-of-the-art $38 million athletic training center on the site of what is now Wellington Community Park, a once-popular destination that has fallen into disrepair since Bostic was a kid. Wellington is a village located a short distance west of West Palm Beach.
A partner with Clearwater-based Sports Facilities Companies, Jim Arnold's firm is slated as the management company that oversees the facility for Bostic's group.
"We have a number of venues to size and scale on this,'' Arnold said. "We are very bullish on this project. This is the first of its kind in Palm Beach County and is the top dog regarding facility offerings and quality up and down the East Coast."
The facility will include a performance gym (Bostic Sports Performance), a membership-based community weight room, indoor basketball and volleyball courts, a multi-purpose turf field for football, soccer and lacrosse, a cheerleading gym, a physical therapy/orthopedics office, a chiropractic office, a recovery center with hot tubs, cold tubs, saunas and steam rooms, turf baseball and softball fields, eight batting cages, and an E-sports gaming lounge. The logo for the Bostic Sports Performance training center.
You can grab a bite, too, at the full-service café, or drop your workout clothes off at the on-site laundry service.
"It's kind of a blend,'' Bostic said. "Putting all those things together has created the one-stop-shop we athletes have been looking for. It's going to change the landscape of sports in South Florida. We'll have academy teams. They will come in there and be treated like collegiate and professional athletes."
Bostic has earned more than $15 million in his NFL career, according to Spotrac.com, a website that details the contracts of professional athletes. He realizes his story contrasts with many former college and NFL teammates. He grew up in a two-parent home – his father, John Bostic, played three seasons for the Detroit Lions in the 1980s – and entered the NFL well aware that he would not be a football player forever.
"My dad and mom taught me well,'' he said. "That's one of the main things that once this story is told, there's got to be more guys when they walk away from the game, they've got to have something to show for it. If stories like this aren't told, guys aren't going to know what to do with their money. They will get all this money and just go spend it, buy Lamborghinis and this and that.
"That's where it's got to change."
Bostic has spent the last four seasons with the Washington Commanders and points out that of the 25 linebackers selected in the 2013 NFL Draft, he was the only one still playing at the end of last season.
Bostic's vision of a modern, one-stop training center to serve a wide array of community members took flight as his NFL career progressed. In the offseason and without the services offered by NFL teams during the season, Bostic would drive all over town. He would work out at a gym. Drive to see a chiropractor. Drive somewhere else for physical therapy. He also realized that many families with kids involved in sports faced similar circumstances.
He visited different training facilities around the country – including Florida's new Heavener Football Training Center – and started to formulate a plan with the help of Travis, the older brother of Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis. Josh Evans, his former UF teammate, has also been involved.
A rendering for the indoor basketball courts at the Wellington Sports Academy.
Once again, Bostic thought of the future and how a facility would help young local athletes – boys and girls – reach their full potential.
"Give these kids the resources we could only dream of when we were kids," Bostic said. "We didn't know about this stuff when we were kids. We want to have everything like it was when we were in college. It allows everything to flow and be faster.
"As much as athletes have designed this, really, it's been mothers in the area who have designed this, and they don't even know. That's one of the cool things. I looked and said, 'hey, how can I save mothers more time and create more family time at home with them, their husbands, and their kids?' What if I just took everything and put it all in one place?"
Bostic is in talks with a group of former UF softball players to train and coach young players at the facility. He wants girls to have as much an opportunity to succeed as boys. Jon Bostic in action during his Gators career. (Photo: JayMetz/UAA Communications)
As part of the agreement, the village of Wellington will finance $33 million of the total cost through 30-year bonds, according to the Palm Beach Post, and Bostic's Wellington Athletics LLC will start paying after three years. The village will retain ownership of the building in a deal that gives Bostic's company exclusive leasing rights for 30 years.
"When we grew up, it was just about participation, going to the park and playing a game,'' Mike Millay, whose Orlando-based firm Clancy Sports studied the proposal, said at a recent project hearing. "Now, we are in the age of excellence. This can work."
Bostic can't wait to see it come to fruition. The groundbreaking's target date is July, and the goal is to open sometime in 2024.
"When I walk away from the game, I can do something I want to do versus something I have to do," Bostic said. "This is a facility that is going to outlive both of us. I want to help the next generation. I want to give back to this next generation, and this is a way I can be involved in those kids' lives."
