Today we’d like to introduce you to Rich Melzer.
Hi Rich, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in South Minneapolis and come from a very diverse background both economically and culturally. I was raised by a single parent, Teresa Melzer who was a very direct, thoughtful and a loving guide for me as a young person. Certainly, my biggest influencer growing up who taught me about accountability, dedication, loyalty, and love. It was just her and I for the most part. As a white woman with a black child, things were difficult for her at times, given her family dynamics and her parents and siblings not having a great deal of diversity in their family growing up prior. She never let me see or feel these nuances but being older now, I understand what she had to go through to nurture me and protect me and I appreciate her and value her immensely for that.
As a young adult, I found myself surrounded by all things. I was always an athlete growing up and my mother did a great job of keeping me active in sports and participating across the board. I was also, however, surrounded by my fair share of violence and crime growing up. My Father who I loved very much wasn’t around a great deal growing up but in turn also loved me very much and despite not seeing him a great deal, we had a close relationship. He was a rolling stone and lived a bit of the fast life as a career hustler and a gambler. Growing up in Memphis Tennessee during the ’60s and ’70s there wasn’t much opportunity for men of color like him in the south which is how him and my mother met after moving to Minnesota to explore new opportunities in the North. With these cultural intricacies and unique family dynamics in place, I had to live and grow inside of unique and often challenging complexities regularly as a young person, which I believe has proven useful for me as an adult as I’m now able to understand and empathize with people from all walks of life. Both as a person and as a professional in business and service.
At one point, I, unfortunately, found myself expelled from high school here in the Twin Cities. Challenged with which direction to go, I was fortunate enough to have family that recently moved to Wisconsin to start a business. It was with them and my cousins that I received a second chance to finish high school, continue playing sports and pick myself up from going in a direction that likely had a grim outcome ahead. I had people around me that cared and felt obligated and trusting to give me another opportunity to make something out of myself. I don’t think anyone expected much of me given the cards I was dealt early on in life, but fortunately, my Aunt Susan and my Uncle Ron, and other coaches and mentors saw something in me and rallied around me for support.
This next opportunity to finish high school in River Falls, WI. led to me also going to college in River Falls where I began to believe in myself and thrive as a student-athlete. I was always one of the better players in my age group as an adolescent and I think being removed from school where all my friends and I were known for playing high-level basketball really affected my confidence. When I got to River Falls, some of my peers and best friends were already getting full scholarships to Duke, North Carolina, Boston College, etc. While I was naturally happy and excited for them, it also lit a fire under me to take my craft seriously as I was once amongst these friends of mine who were now some of the best collegiate and amateur basketball players in the country while I was still playing catch-up after being out of school for a year. I had wanted to get back to where I belonged, and I understood now after getting another opportunity to compete and get back into school that I had work to do.
College
I ended up going to college, playing four seasons with the River Falls Falcons from 2000-2004. I helped the Falcons win their first conference championship in 54 years and led the teame/league/NCAA in scoring and rebounding in 2003 and 2004. After my senior season, I was named the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Player of the Year and I was named to the organization’s first All-American team. My 2,363-point career is second all-time in both the WIAC and at UWRF. As a Junior, in one game, I scored 54 points against UW-La Crosse while NBA scouts were in attendance. I was the first WIAC player to break 50 points in 50 seasons and it tied for the fourth-highest point total in league history. As a Junior, I also received All-American honors while winning the Conference Player of the Year award. As a Senior, I was both the National All-American Player of the Year and Conference Player of the Year. Something my kids and I are probably most proud of is that I was named to the WIAC’s All-Decade Team and to Wisconsin Basketball’s All-Century Team, which also hosts my former Spurs teammate Michael Finley.
Professional Basketball
After all that, I left school early in 2004 to attend the Portsmouth Invitational and NBA pre-draft combines which quickly sparked an 11-year pro-basketball career. Going undrafted to the Washington Wizards, I failed to make the cut my first year in the NBA but quickly turned things around, winning back-to-back championships in the NBA Developmental League in 2005 and 2006. After stints between these seasons in New Zealand and the Dominican Republic where I earned MVP honors in both countries, it was these successes that caught the eye of future hall of fame coach Greg Popovich which led to me securing a 2-year contract with the San Antonio Spurs in 2006. After a short time with the Spurs, I was sent to Asvel, a French team where Tony Parker created a name for himself before becoming a San Antonio Spur. I was to spend a season playing there, to continue developing and competing in top-level Euro League. Following the 2007 season, I seemed destined to remain in Europe and spent the next several seasons playing professionally in France, Israel, Germany and Australia and eventually landed my 3rd NBA Developmental League Championship with the Houston Rockets affiliate team in Rio Grande Valley Texas (2010), where I was coached by Chris Finch who is now the head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves
Professional Career
After retiring from basketball in 2014, I launched The Balance Foundation-a children’s charity that through relationships with local pro-sports organizations created opportunities for at-risk youth to attend games and engage in positive community events. I also worked with Lifetime Fitness, then became a senior leader with the YMCA of the North and am now the CEO of YouthLink, an organization with nearly half of a century worth of experience serving young people experiencing homelessness. I loved coaching throughout my journey and have coached youth basketball for the Lakeville High School Association as well.
As of late, I’ve also secured work as an actor with Verizon, Gatorade and Jack Links Beef as part of 3 nationally televised commercial spots. Through my journeys in basketball and traveling I’ve accumulated 20+ years of experience in commercials, television, acting and promotional marketing campaigns. I never planned for this, but somehow by the grace of God and some luck fell into a wide range of global acting and modeling experiences and today as a result, I now get to make guest appearances on local news stations and radio shows and share some of my story.
I have an affinity and love for people from all backgrounds. I believe the greatest strength that I bring to any community is my ability to build relationships and communicate not only generally but cross-culturally while always finding commonalities with each individual to create meaningful bonds that last.
In my free time, I enjoy relaxation, entertaining and teaching my sons the little I know about life, sports, and cooking.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I always look for my next opportunity not to fail but to learn and maybe even take a bit of a loss. These are the areas I believe we grow. Transitioning from a metropolitan inner-city school to a school in rural Wisconsin at 18 years old was terrifying. Particularly as a young black man being lifted into a community with ultimately no diversity whatsoever. I believe that played a critical role for me in my development for several reasons. It taught me how to be durable, it gave me agility as a person, and forced me to learn how to build rapport quickly with people I really didn’t relate to or have much in common with. On one hand, it was challenging yes, but on the other it’s one of the things I’m forever most grateful for as I learned so much about others and myself that I could’ve never learned by living in my lil corner of the world my entire life.
Naturally, I believe that experience also prepared me for a life of travel as I became a professional athlete. I was already cultured in dealing with adversity, change and having to pivot and adjust quickly, thanks to my experience in River Falls. When the opportunity to travel the world came, it just deepened my experiences and understanding of learning to identify and love others regardless of anything you can think of.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
The organization I lead serves young people experiencing homelessness. People should know that in Minnesota alone, there are between 6,000 and 7,000 homeless young people on the streets every night. While we specialize in providing resources and outlets and most importantly, long-term sustainable housing we are best known now for doing it thoughtfully, lovingly, compassionately, and tirelessly. People think of youth homelessness and automatically think, challenging work, tough situations, hard time and mostly all bad things. When in fact, we’ve found ways to ensure that no matter what young person is experiencing at the time when they come to YouthLink every engagement and experience they have with us is positive, healthy, nurturing, and supportive. Yes, youth homelessness is a terrible thing for a number of very valid reasons and circumstances. However, once you come to us, we lighten the burden. We help figure out long-term realistic goals that can get young people into comfortable affordable housing and we do it using healthy language, healthy practices, and tons of love. Love!!!! That’s the language we try to pepper into our daily deliverables and responsibilities more than I think we get credit for. I think it’s the language that needs to be inserted into most, if not all working organizations more now than ever. With the covid-pandemic, social injustice at every turn and everything humans must face today, we need to insert loving philosophies into our daily routines.
How do you think about happiness?
I absolutely love seeing people overcome obstacles. I enjoy seeing people near and far successfully conquer great challenges no matter the case. I believe it’s what gives us, not only as people but particularly as leaders in business a real depth and integrity as individuals who lead. People who understand what it means not to give up, not to quit and not to cut corners or cheat. I absolutely value a good challenge and those who overcome them even more so. Maybe it’s my competitive spirit talking or maybe it’s not but either way, there’s nothing more gratifying for me than seeing people close to me or even myself accomplish something we weren’t supposed to. Again, I am not statistically or even realistically supposed to be here with the cards I was dealt as a child. Not with my upbringing, my family life, my DNA, nothing… I am not supposed to be here at this age, with this many beautiful children, while I’m actively in their lives, working a job I enjoy and having a future that’s fun and enjoyable. But thanks to a ton of help, some drive and not conceding to a couple big losses I am still here today. And so are so many others out there just like me and we found a way. We just found a way and didn’t let anything deter us from accomplishing our goals. And I’d bet my house that none of us do it alone. We had people close to us cheering us on, believing in us, and rallying around the idea of sticking with it and not giving up. That’s one thought that brings me great happiness.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.youthlinkmn.org/
- Instagram: youthlink
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YouthLinkMN/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MNYouthLink
