09/08/2026
🏆 A DREAM BECOMING REALITY — ELITE SPORTS CENTER GRAND OPENING! 🏆
On behalf of Ambassador Homes, we are incredibly proud to announce the Grand Opening of one of our sister companies, Elite Sports Center.
This one is very personal to us.
Darko and his business partner Mike Urena both grew up around competitive sports. Darko played soccer throughout high school and continued playing at the Division I junior-college level private school, while Mike played football in high school.
Sports were a major part of their younger years, and they both understand firsthand how important the right environment, coaching, competition, and training opportunities are to a young athlete.
Years later, while both of them were busy running their own full-time businesses, a small idea came up:
What if we could create the type of sports facility they wished they had growing up?
At first, Elite Sports Center was almost a side project — something Mike and Darko talked about and worked on while managing their other businesses and responsibilities.
But the little idea kept getting bigger.
They started seeing what Elite could become — not simply a place to rent a field, but a place where kids could train, compete, develop, build confidence and create memories.
And now that vision has grown into this new 24,000-square-foot Elite Sports Center, a 3,000-square-foot mezzanine where parents can relax and watch their kids train and compete, and an additional 10,000-square-foot training center in our existing building.
They both wanted to create a place where athletes could train, compete, develop and recover all under one roof and thats why we are also excited to have League Level Physical Therapy (Dr Zac Farson DPT, CSCS) as one of our tenant partners in our 10,000sf training center helping athletes improve performance, recover from injuries and get back in the game faster.
For Mike and Darko seeing this building come together is much more than completing another business project. It is watching a dream become reality.
⚽🏈 We believe this facility has the potential to change the way athletes train and compete throughout the Rockford, Loves Park and surrounding areas — and eventually well beyond our immediate community.
Our goal is to bring more training, leagues, tournaments, camps, games and opportunities right here to Northern Illinois so athletes and families don't always have to travel to Chicago, Milwaukee or other larger markets to find high-level facilities and competition.
And we are only getting started.
There have been plenty of long days, late nights, challenges and decisions along the way. When you are already running other businesses full time, taking on something of this magnitude isn't easy.
But when you believe in the vision, you find a way.
Mike and Darko are extremely proud of what their team has created, and are grateful to everyone who has helped them get here.
A big part of making that vision happen is our General Manager, Garrett, who is helping lead Elite Sports Center day to day and has been here since ground breaking. We’re excited for everyone to come out, meet Garrett, meet the team, and see what we’ve built
Now we want to invite our friends, families, customers, business partners, athletes, coaches and the entire community to come celebrate with us.
✂️ OFFICIAL RIBBON CUTTING
📅 September 29th
⏰ 4:00 PM
📍 6790 Forest Hills Road, Loves Park, IL
(Stop by little earlier and we can give you a personal tour of our facility)
🏈⚽ INAUGURAL GRAND OPENING ROUND ROBIN
📅 October 3rd
🏈 Flag Football: 12:00–3:00 PM
⚽ Soccer: 3:00–6:00 PM
From two former high-school athletes with a small side-project idea...
to a 34,000 sq. ft. facility built for the next generation of athletes.
We couldn't be more proud.
And this is just the beginning.
Competition. Community. Development.
— Darko Gligorevic & Mike Urena
Co-Owners | Elite Sports Center
