Who: Denny Petrella, owner of Cheers Sports
What: Team sports apparel dealer
When: Opened in 1995
Where: 20099 Ashbrook Place, Suite 110, in Ashburn
Phone: 703-723-3111
Web site: http://www.cheerssports.com

In 1989, Denny Petrella’s life changed completely.

His wife, Genvieve, was hurt in a serious car accident. So, he quit his job as a branch manager at a bank in Washington, D.C., to be her primary caregiver for five years. As she started to recover, Petrella, a former football and baseball player at Park View High School, began helping out his friend Greg Johnson at his team dealer shop, Sports Spot in Sterling.

Johnson owned Sports Spot with his father, who decided to close down after 25 years in 1995. So, Petrella and Johnson renamed the shop and relocated it to Ashburn. As a team, they saw the business grow exponentially. When the business started to grow, Petrella grew with it and eventually took over Cheers on his own.

In 1995, Cheers handled five league orders and made $225,000 in revenue annually. Today, Cheers provides equipment and uniforms for more than 20 leagues and brings in $2 million a year.

What is Cheers Sports?

Cheers is a league business that provides uniforms, equipment, spirit packs and apparel for all team sports leagues in Loudoun. When you drive down the road and you see a field full of kids, they’re wearing our clothes.

When did Cheers take off?

We doubled sales in the first year. Sales went up 100 percent every year for our first three years. After that, we saw a 20 to 25 percent growth in sales every year for several years. A lot of the key to our success has been the growth of Loudoun County. We’ve definitely followed that curve.

What contributed to Cheers’ success from the get-go?

Greg knew about the product line and he had contacts of vendors and a customer base when I came in. I knew how to run the books and I understood cash flow because of my banking job. It was a perfect mix. My brother, Joe, came on board in the beginning and we had a core group of three guys that were really dedicated to building the business right.

We started to get a nice niche and I haven’t been able to leave because I like it. I always tell my employees, when you don’t like coming to work, go find another job. In 15 years, I’ve never said, ‘I don’t want to go to work today.’

What’s your proudest accomplishment?

We never tried to grow too fast. We grew because we had a good product, a good reputation and we were trying to do it the right way.
I think we’ve done a great job at building some strong relationships with people in the community. I donate tens of thousands of dollars a year to local teams, schools and individuals. I didn’t want to be somebody who took and took and took and never gave back.

We started a charity golf tournament, Team Joe Charities, named after my son, Joe, who was born prematurely. We started it three years ago and have already raised $75,000, which will go toward a resource room at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children in the neonatal intensive care unit.

What’s your biggest regret?

Not trying to expand into Northern Virginia and be one of the biggest team dealers in the state. We could have just exploded and gone all over the place, but I didn’t want to do that, I wanted to be the Loudoun County guy. Not a day that goes by that I don’t see an old teammate or someone that I’ve known for 20 years.