V3 Sports has been serving the North Minneapolis community since 2007, and they have been a highly regarded NAZ partner since the 2023-2024 school year. V3 recently opened the doors of their new facility on Plymouth Avenue. Their mission is to elevate the community through wellness, fitness, and education.
At the helm of this rapidly growing ship is Malik Rucker, executive director at V3 Sports since December of last year. But Malik’s history with the organization reaches further back than that, and his Northside connections go back even further! Sitting down with Malik, looking through the glass wall behind him, down at the glimmering waters of the 25-yard pool in V3’s sparkling new space, he spoke of family-focused beginnings.
“My great-grandmother’s parents were Northsiders,” Malik said as he settled into his chair. When asked what sort of feelings that community longevity evoked, he spoke quickly and confidently. “I feel a great deal of pride. I feel empowered.”
Calling up memories of his family and his own youth, he remembered early days on various sporting fields–his youngest memories of athletics in North Minneapolis. Malik spoke fondly of the many opportunities and resources he was able to tap into as a young Northsider, but those memories were tainted with an air of challenge.
“I was able to grow up utilizing all the great resources North Minneapolis has,” Malik said, “[but] we always had to go outside our community to play.”
What Malik continued to refer to as “home-field advantage” was never part of his childhood; practices and games were often held outside his own community. Or they were in a place ill-fitting for such activities: a coach’s backyard, another school’s gymnasium, or a community center basement. While athletic opportunities were available, they were often difficult to access. Inconvenience quickly turned to adversity, something Malik took as a welcome challenge.
“All of that experience allowed me to navigate life in a way that brought me to the University of Iowa [with a] full-ride football scholarship–because of the resources, the people that poured into me, and the spaces in North MInneapolis.”
In the years Malik spent away at college, younger siblings he’d left behind grew up in an instant, and he returned to North Minneapolis five years later he found kids he’d shared a childhood with on the verge of adulthood themselves.
“I knew I wanted to be close to family,” Malik explained, emphasizing the importance he put on returning to the Northside. “Going away for those five years really opened my eyes to all the time and experiences I was missing with the people I care a lot about. Missing all that time gave me an appreciation for the younger people in my family, and that drove me to stay even more.”
But returning to North Minneapolis, Malik stumbled into one of the same issues from his childhood. A college athlete in prime condition, he struggled to find a place in his community to continue being physically active. He recognized the struggle in himself and the perpetuated struggle in his community.
Malik’s work with V3 Sports began in March 2020.
“My job to start was to empower community … involving community in design, architecture, the picking of materials. We had a lot of youth actually pick out the furniture on the pool deck, they built out the plaza, and they designed the Boys and Girls Club space. And that’s one of the ways we were able to empower community where they were actually able to use their voice and implement it in a real way. NAZ was crucial in that, partnering with us.”
The partnership between Northside Achievement Zone (NAZ) and V3 Sports is one of service. Malik referenced opportunities in which V3 was in search of Northside families eager to be more involved in their community, and NAZ was their connector. The partnership offers an important opportunity for youth and families from the Northside to explore different ways to focus on healthy lifestyles and youth leadership.
“NAZ serves families. We serve families,” he said. “The connection between Northside families is where our synergy really aligns.”
And through community relationships like the one between V3 and NAZ, Malik began empowering the community around him–the community he grew up in. He and the V3 team have worked hard, campaigning for phase one of their building project–a complex focused on fitness, educational programming, and community gatherings. And for Malik, it’s all about his community having home-field advantage for the first time.
“You have a place and space where you feel ownership and pride; that’s beneficial to scholars and families. You know where you can access a space that allows you to holistically be well. We’ve got a lot of community members that just want opportunity and to be in a space that appreciates them. When I think of NAZ scholars, I think of home-field advantage and being able to have access to the physical infrastructure that we need in North MInneapolis.”
From close-knit family connections to big city dreams, V3 Sports is aiming to be king of it all. Malik imagines the new build to be the home of events of great renown, pumping economic and social resources back into the Northside.
“We want to be a national brand on the Northside … rooted in community.”
And that’s not where V3’s dreams end. No, the future is bright for V3 Sports and the Northside because Malik and his team are on a mission.
“[V3 will] do what we set out to do: be a space that is rooted in holistic wellness,” he said. “That’s the goal–be a place to be a space for the families.”
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V3 Sports is actively raising capital the second phase of their build. Phase Two, a regional destination and economic driver for North Minneapolis, will include a 50 meter pool, four to six multi-purpose courts, event and community spaces, and a 330 meter indoor walking/running track.
Northside Achievement Zone Partner Spotlights are an opportunity to focus on NAZ’s more than 30 partners who shine brightly in North Minneapolis, serving scholars and their families.