They’re runners, bikers, swimmers, soccer players, a baseball player, a field hockey great, a basketball player…oh wait, that’s just Mom and Dad. The three kids can do all of the above, in addition to basement hockey, keeping up with a 100-plus-pound dog, and being masters at challenging their parents to take them all to different practices, games, and clinics. Here’s how it works.
David “Davey” Desloge coaches baseball and soccer at John Burroughs School in addition to teaching physical education, running a football camp in the summer, and launching his own youth clinic during the school year that both of his sons participate in. Ali coaches their daughter in field hockey in her role at Aim Field Hockey in Kirkwood. The kids’ babysitters are mostly athletes, too.
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Davey comes from one of those families with a lineage of athletes. His dad played soccer and football at John Burroughs School, after which he played for Brown University’s soccer team before going on to own the St. Louis Stars soccer team in the ’60s and ’70s. One of Davey’s sisters was captain of the cheerleaders at Burroughs; the other is a trainer.
What Davey and Ali want more than anything is for their three children to have the opportunity to play all sports, not just what’s in season. When the oldest, Tucker, was 5, Davey and Ali and their friends started a youth sports club called the St. Louis River Dogs, where young boys and girls can play baseball, soccer, basketball, and flag football year-round.
“It’s playing like I used to play in the park when I was a kid,” Davey says.
They saw a need for a place that offered more than one sport per season for kids, where they could play competitively but not have to specialize.
“We’ve chosen this lifestyle because we love it and we’re passionate about it,” Davey says. “We truly believe there are so many life lessons you can learn on the field: sportsmanship, conflict resolution, teamwork. Things that will serve these kids incredibly well no matter where their lives take them.”
It wouldn’t be surprising if the Desloge kids are among the next big athletes to graduate from John Burroughs School, like alums Scott Van Slyke, who plays for the L.A. Dodgers, or college football superstar Ezekiel Elliott, who set a new Sugar Bowl record for rushing yards. They just have to wait until they are old enough to apply to Burroughs.
