Jon Laaser was a fixture on Saturdays as the play-by-play voice of the Virginia Tech Hokies. His signature breakaway touchdown call ‘Nothing but clean mountain air in front of him’ was beloved by loyal fans in the mountainous region of Blacksburg.
Laaser had what many consider a dream job; one that included a front row seat to high-caliber college football and basketball games. He built an audible brand, one that came with fans and prestige. When he resigned to devote himself to helping others, it surprised many. He and his wife Renee decided to launch a non-profit, Laaser’s Ladybug Society, centered on aiding mental health initiatives in schools.
Clean mountain air, which Laaser believes is also a synonym for a clean mental space, was the name Laaser chose for the first project, a t-shirt launch with the funds going to Mental Health America. The project was a success, selling all 500 shirts in 2 weeks. The work continued, and ideas grew. A second launch soon followed.
“We had gotten back into Richmond and had done a soft launch of the Lady Bugs, and we knew we wanted to be event based. We knew we wanted to use our combined experience and athletic planning and operations skills to host events. Still, we didn’t want just to do the traditional golf tournaments and some of the things that have been done repeatedly ad nauseam,” Laaser said.
Enter pickleball, a sport that the Laasers became familiar with through a friend who had found the sport very competitive and a great way to stay active.
“I have a friend here in Richmond originally from California but had pitched for the Flying Squirrels, the San Francisco Giants affiliate here, for some years. He said, ‘yeah, some days I’ve been playing pickleball, and it’s quite intense.’ And I knew of pickleball, but I’d never played and didn’t know anything about it. So we went out there a couple of times, just got our butts kicked, and I’m like, what is going on here?”
The result was twofold for Laaser. He loved playing pickleball and striving to grow as a player. Secondly, he decided a pickleball tournament would be a great first event for the Laaser Ladybug Society.
“I saw another tournament operator had a poster banner up, and it said, we’re hosting this tournament. I can’t remember which one it was. We will turn away hundreds of people because of the popularity and all these things. And I said to myself, well, how difficult could it be to host a pickleball tournament? Well, as you know, the answer to that is quite complex, but I’ve always just jumped into things, sometimes recklessly. We did that, but we were fortunate to work with pickleballtournaments.com, and we had an excellent coordinator for the first year, and I had a number of friends in the corporate world from First Dent in Richmond that came on as sponsors,” he said.
The event enabled Laaser and his wife to continue to make contacts and focus on specific goals for the charity and other projects.
“It blossomed, including hearing from some of our student athletes at Virginia Tech, which was heartwarming for us. I worked around these young people daily but never really had that type of interaction, relationship with them. So we developed a plan along with the doctor there at Virginia Tech that ran the sports psychology department, essentially the one that provided aid in his office for student athletes dealing with the pressures and stress of their lives and the negativity of social media fans, the pressures that they had on them,” Laaser said.
The Ladybug Society, through t-shirt sales, events, and other projects, has been able to fund its operation as well as help many local schools with such initiatives. While Laaser doesn’t consider the Ladybugs to be just a pickleball charity, it has become a key component of their work. Laaser also feels a great responsibility as to how his pickleball events are handled for the sport’s growth.
“I think I saw an opportunity within the game to help it evolve, to help it grow, but to help it become even more player friendly while also benefiting our society or our foundation. And that’s our direction towards it,” he said.
The second annual Ladybug Classic will be held in April. Coca-Cola Consolidated will be the title sponsor. Laaser also has a huge pickleball event in mind for June.
“I wanted to do an event that I felt would attract a much higher level of player and allow us to do tournament production of broadcast and things like that without being one of the tours. Again, we were fortunate to bring on Body Armor as a title sponsor for our event in June, where we will award $10,000 in prize money. And that’s, of course, generated a lot of interest,” he said.
Great players, fan interest, and well-thought-out events translate to more schools receiving help. Laaser finds fulfillment in a much different way than when he was in the spotlight.
“It’s fun to be the one that’s going to the courts and hanging banners, selling the water coolers, and making sure things are as effective and enjoyable for people,” he said.
He also has pickleball for himself when he needs a mental escape. He has elevated his game, and still being early in his 40s, his loftiest goal is to be a senior pickleball pro.
“I still play more recreationally than anything else at the moment. I’ve been so busy coordinating the tournaments and projects. But at the same time, my game’s improved to the point where my self-rating would be about a 4.2,” he said.
A year later, Laaser is happy with his decision to leave his position as the Voice of the Hokies and move forward with the Ladybug Society.
“Our ultimate vision is to create a model that we can show works over the course of a handful of years here in a variety of districts that could be something that can be replicated in other places,” he said.
Photo provided by Jon Laaser.
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