Turning Passion into Profession

Wilmington locals ANDREA MASSEY and her husband, CEDRIC BAKER BONEY started CB Fitness and Athletic Training in 2015. The pair, who met as students at New Hanover High School, share a passion for fitness.

The idea to start the business stemmed from Boney’s love for basketball and football. Opening a business was a natural progression and logical next step, Massey says.

“It’s just … grown exponentially from there,” she says. “He was primarily just doing training with adults and then working with kids on skills training. It developed into subsidiaries like The Youth League that we have out in Wrightsville Beach.”

CB Fitness and Athletic Training provides sports and fitness training for all ages to the Wilmington area and its surrounding counties. As a fully-mobile business its sports and fitness trainings take place in gyms, local fields, and clients’ homes.

The business’ other programs include The Youth League, an outdoor program that provides camps, clinics, and leagues for young athletes interested in flag football and basketball; and Juice Crew, a travel basketball and football program geared towards kids.

“That … sprang from other work that Cedric was going with Wrightsville Beach with clinics and bootcamps,” she says.

Massey operates behind the scenes as the chief operating officer and handles public relations, communications, finances, and marketing. She holds a sociology degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She also works full-time as an administrative associate at UNCW.

The key to making a business with your spouse work, she says, is having a shared interest.

“We share that passion for sports, for academics, and just for kids and their growth and development,” Massey says. “We’ve been able to …  really move forward and make a little bit of a splash. It’s been pretty good.”

A highlight of the work at CB Fitness and Athletic Training for Massey is seeing that enthusiasm for sports and working with kids make a difference both for the couple and for Wilmington families.

“For me, it’s really great to see my husband in his element, being able to do things that he does,” she says. “It’s a pretty great match up for us just because we both love sports.”

Much of Massey’s personal interest in fitness stems from addressing her own health, she says, and having the chance to bring the joys of fitness to others with her husband is the cherry on top.

“You have a vision, you have a dream, and then you just kinda take one step at a time and then all of a sudden, it’s like boom, we have a business,” Massey says. “It’s going, it’s thriving. Of course there’s up and downs to that, but it’s been really great.”

To view more of photographer Daria Amato’s work, go to dariaphoto.com

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