Updated: April 20, 2005, 4:47 PM ET

Panthers kick off their child center with student 'draft'

Associated Press

National Football League News Wire

HARRISBURG, N.C. -- Searching Charlotte for a child care center for his young daughter, Carolina Panther Mike Rucker couldn't find a place that had everything he and his wife were looking for.

Around the same time, teammate Mike Minter was looking for a business venture. Sitting in a pitch meeting, discussing the benefits of investing in a learning center, Minter suddenly stopped trying to sell the idea to the rest of the group.

"I got really excited about it and said `This is something I can do myself, why am I trying to get someone else to do it?' " he recalled.

Minter sat down with Rucker and two other teammates -- running back Stephen Davis and former Panther Muhsin Muhammad (now with the Chicago Bears) -- and two local developers to sell them on opening an early childhood learning center of their own.

It was one of the easiest sales of his life.

"If you can't find what you are looking for, go make it yourself," Rucker said.

The result is the Ruckus House, set to open its doors June 1.

This Saturday, while the NFL draft plays on TVs at the suburban Charlotte facility, the group will hold a draft party of its own -- introducing the center's newly hired teaching staff one by one, to an audience of prospective families.

There will be food, games, entertainment, autographs and tours of the facility.

And every time a child signs up to attend the center, the child will be saluted like an actual draft pick -- with balloons, confetti and a giant celebration.

It's an unusual business venture for a group of NFL players, but to Minter and Rucker, the project is more than just a day care -- a word they refuse to use, preferring to call Ruckus House a learning center.

"This isn't baby-sitting. This is singing and reading and playing and learning," Rucker said.

"This is about helping one child at a time," Minter said. "You help one child, then you've helped one family, then you've helped one neighborhood, then you've helped one city, one state and maybe someday the entire country."

The players have set their curriculum and carefully planned every detail of the place, with its distinctive crooked windows, an exterior designed to look like a ranch home and primary-colored flooring. They've built a basketball court inside and two playgrounds outside.

The school will offer part- and full-time programs for infants to 5-year-olds. An after-school program will serve children up to 12 years old.

There will be opportunities to learn a second language and hands-on summer programs. On tap for this summer is "Around the World in 80 Days," where kids will learn about a different country every day, including sampling native foods.

They want to franchise the template and open eight more Ruckus Houses across the Carolinas, and have already drawn plans and selected land for five of those sites.

Eventually, the group says, they want to see Ruckus Houses in every NFL city, with Minter assisting other team's players in opening their own centers.

"The idea is to get a player to come here and intern with us for the summer," Minter said. "Then he can learn about the business side of this and what it is all about, and go home to his own city and start one."

Minter and Rucker have both already enrolled their children in Ruckus House, and they expect the early enrollment of 50 children to swell to capacity (200) on Saturday.

They boast of competitive rates (depending on age, the cost breaks down to roughly $30 a day) and a child-teacher ratio that exceeds state minimums. Teachers must have a four-year post-secondary degree and go through a three-step interviewing process. If they make it past the first two phases, they meet Minter and Rucker, who make the final decision on each applicant.

The players know that having their names attached to the project gives it a boost -- and they aren't shy about using their fame.

"We have good reputations and people know what we stand for and know that the community means a lot to us," Minter said. "It's not like we are in the papers getting arrested or doing bad stuff. People can send their kids here knowing that this is legitimate and means a lot to us."

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On the Web

Ruckus House: www.ruckushouse.com



This story is from ESPN.com's automated news wire. Wire index