Master's in Sports Industry Management
Steve Sclafani

Through his personal experience navigating the recruiting process in search of the right college fit, both athletically and academically, the concept of a service that would advise and educate student-athletes on the college recruiting process was born. At just 23 years of age, Steve Sclafani turned his vision into a reality, launching the Baseball Factory in 1994 in Columbia, MD. Steve’s ability to create new opportunities for athletes nationwide revolutionized the player development process and transformed the college recruiting landscape. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (93’), Steve played second base for the Quakers. Alongside fellow Penn teammate Rob Naddelman (95’), current Factory Athletics President, Steve has helped to springboard over 100,000 players to the right college fit, assist in obtaining over $1 billion in scholarships, and develop over 5,000 players selected in the MLB draft. Under Sclafani’s leadership the company has grown to over 60 full-time and 2,000 part-time employees, attracting such prestigious partners and sponsors as Under Armour, Easton, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Little League Baseball, USA Softball and many more. Today, Factory Athletics holds over 1,000 events a year with three nationally respected brands: Baseball Factory, Softball Factory and Volleyball Factory. More recently alongside Dr. James Driskell, Steve has lead the way in a ground breaking research effort to show not only how stress and pressure affect performance, but ways athletes can train to overcome these stressors. As a result of their research, Dr. Driskell and Sclafani created the Game Time Pressure Training & Simulation Program to help athletes overcome game time stress in order to find success in their sport. The findings of their research were published in the Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, "Reducing the Effects of Game Day Pressures Through Stress Exposure Training.” Throughout his career Steve has received numerous honors for his leadership and business success, including the Baltimore Business Journal’s 40 Under 40, honoring the 40 top executives under 40 years of age making a name for their business. Steve also earned a 2012 SmartCEO/Clifton Gunderson Future 50 award, which recognizes the greater Baltimore area’s 50 fastest-growing companies based on employee and revenue growth over the past three years. In addition, Sclafani along with President Rob Naddelman, have been featured nationally in Business Week and CNNFN as well as locally in the Baltimore Sun and Washington Post. Steve has also been a featured speaker at the Ivy Sports Symposium at Harvard University as well as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Sports Industry Management Program.

University of Pennsylvania - B.A.