Alabama NewsCenter April/May

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FROM HOME PLATE TO HOME SALES, ELI IORG’S JOURNEY FROM PRO BASEBALL TO ALABAMA REALTOR Birmingham agent shares lessons from the diamond and how he applies them to Birmingham’s real estate market.

By Bryan Davis

Eli Iorg grew up around some of the biggest names in professional baseball.

The former Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros draftee spent most of his childhood hanging out at minor league baseball parks, where his father made a career as a coach for players like Carlos Delgado, Shawn Green and Alex Gonzalez.

“We followed him everywhere,” Iorg, now a residential real estate agent with Vestavia Hills’ Keller Williams office, said in an interview with the Alabama Center for Real Estate. “We went to Venezuela when he went to coach winter ball. It’s all I did.”

Iorg is a licensed Realtor with Keller Williams, a member of ACRE’s Corporate Cabinet. To find out more about the Corporate Cabinet, click here.

When Iorg completed his collegiate career, first at Samford in Birmingham and finally at the University of Tennessee, he was drafted by the Astros, where he competed for an outfield position with one of today’s superstars, Hunter Pence.

Sandwiched between his stints with Samford and Tennessee, Iorg went on a two-year mission trip to Argentina where he learned Spanish, a skill that would allow him to communicate with a diverse group of athletes during his time in the minor leagues. Today, Iorg brings his communications skills and a host of other lessons from the baseball diamond to the table as a Realtor in Birmingham.

“In baseball, you’re dealing with so many personalities,” AlabamaNewsCenter.com

Iorg said. “Heck, you’re dealing with people from different countries and different languages. ... Being around so many personalities, even from when I was growing up, you learn how to talk to people. You learn how to deal with people and how to communicate with people on different levels, because everyone has different ways of communicating.”

To visit Iorg’s Keller Williams website, click here.

Ties to Birmingham Iorg was born in Northern California, where his father was coaching at the time, but he later moved to Knoxville.

When Iorg was 11 years old, Michael Jordan was taking swings for the first time as a minor league ballplayer for the Birmingham Barons. When the NBA Hall of Famer came to Knoxville to play a series, Iorg was the bat boy for the superstar.

“It was pretty cool growing up,” Iorg said. “It was a lot of fun.”

Years later, Iorg’s commitment to his two-year mission trip in South America led many college teams to withdraw their scholarships. Iorg planned to play one year, embark on the mission, and return to baseball after that. Only two colleges left their scholarships on the table, and Birmingham’s Samford University was one of them.

Iorg would go on to play as a Volunteer in Knoxville and would eventually find himself competing for a Major League roster spot with the Astros organization.

Like thousands of baseball players competing for a Major League job, injuries began to pile up on Iorg. He underwent Tommy John surgery after injuring his elbow sliding back into first base, and he blew out one of his knees, an injury that took its toll on the speedy outfielder.

After ending his pro baseball career, Iorg wound up in Knoxville, where his wife, Nina, worked for HGTV and the former ballplayer ran a successful landscaping business. When Nina was offered a job at Southern Living in Birmingham, the couple decided to leave their life in Knoxville for central Alabama.

“When I came to Birmingham the first time, I loved it,” Iorg said. “When my wife told me that she had a job opportunity in Birmingham, it was like, I know Birmingham, I really like Birmingham and it felt like a second home since I already lived here once. As soon as we pulled into town, it felt like home.”

In November, Iorg and his wife gave birth to a daughter, Isla Elise.

From landscaping to real estate Through landscaping in Knoxville, Iorg said he learned the ins and outs about houses, but it wasn’t until he tried to sell his Tennessee home that he really developed a desire to enter the real estate profession.

Iorg said he used a local agent to sell his Tennessee property, but even though he was able to sell the home, something deep down told the athlete turned businessman that he didn’t get the most out of the asset.

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“I realized not only could I do better for myself, but I could help other people,” Iorg said about his decision to enter the real estate arena. “So many people have so much invested in their home. So much of their portfolio is their home, and to lose $10,000 because of negotiating or to lose $15,000 or $20,000 because of negotiating, even if you lose $5,000, sometimes that’s absolutely humongous for people, it’s huge.”

When Iorg got to Birmingham, he met with multiple agencies, but when he met with Keller Williams team leader Jennifer Reeder Toomer, he knew that office was the right fit.

“After I met with her, I felt like I had been led to this spiritually,” Iorg said.

Iorg received his real estate license late last year, and he has been working actively with Keller Williams since January.

Lessons from the diamond Baseball and real estate are similar ventures. Both come with failures and slumps, and both take hard work and persistence to achieve success.

In most cases, being successful just 30 percent of the time can turn you into a superstar.

“Baseball is a game of failure,” Iorg said. “If a guy fails seven out of 10 times, he’s a Hall of Famer. You have to learn how to deal with failure there.

You learn persistence and what makes you persistent and what it takes to be successful.”

Iorg said it takes hard work to be successful.

“I always outworked everybody that was around,” he said. “I always tried to make sure nobody could work harder than me. You bring that to the real estate world.”

Iorg said his teammates, especially fellow outfielders like Pence, were just as much his competition as the opposing team. The same can be said for his fellow agents.

“In the real estate world and the baseball world, it’s all the same. It’s how you set yourself apart,” Iorg said.

Being a former hitter taught him a number of lessons about not being intimidated during an at-bat nor during the negotiating process, he said.

“When you’re thinking about a guy who throws 95 (miles per hour), and he’s getting ready to hit you on purpose, and you know it’s coming and he drills you in the middle of the back, a bully agent really doesn’t scare you anymore,” Iorg said.

He also has a plan for when the inevitable slump comes around.

“The harder things are, the harder you have to work,” Iorg said. “If you’re in a bad slump, you can’t just show up for the game and expect you’re going to do well. You’ve got to hit before the game, you’ve got to hit after the game, you’ve got to watch video, you’ve got to return to the basics. Everything is constantly changing, and that’s how it is in the real estate market. If you’re not up to date with all of the stuff you need to be up to date on, you’re going to become stagnant and you’re not going to be successful.”

Iorg said that one day he may return to the baseball diamond and follow in his father’s footsteps, but for now, he’s content selling homes and raising his family in Birmingham.

BIRMINGHAM-SOUTHERN TRACK AND FOOTBALL STAR IS OFF AND RUNNING At nationals, Jamal Watkins wowed crowds and his military mom back from Kuwait.

By Solomon Crenshaw Jr.

Jamal Watkins said having his mother present on March 12 when he competed in the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships was like receiving a late birthday present.

The Birmingham-Southern College sophomore made it a present to remember with a runner-up showing in the 60-meter final at Grinnell (Iowa) College. His second-place time of 6.76 was just 0.03 seconds behind national champion Alex Koenen of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Watkins ran a 6.72 in preliminaries, which broke the Grinnell College facility record of 6.75, set in 2012.

Army Sgt. 1st Class Margaretta Watkins had been stationed in Kuwait for nine months.

She had not seen her oldest son perform athletically since he transferred from Dodge City (Kansas) Community College, where he played football.

“It was almost like a birthday present for me even though my birthday is in January,” Jamal Watkins said. “It was a birthday present for her to get back days before nationals so she was able to come up and watch me compete.”

The feeling was mutual. (continued)

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“It was more like an early birthday present for me,” Margaretta Watkins said.

“My birthday was March 20th so just to receive that prior to my 45th birthday. …

It was more a birthday present for me.”

The senior noncommissioned officer at Fort Riley, Kansas, had long told her older son that he should compete in track. She had seen his running ability on the football field.

“At that time, he was young and he didn’t want to do track,” she recalled. “I was very excited that he had taken an interest. And not just an interest but that he had excelled in it.

“I knew he had the speed on him at an early age, maybe 10, playing football,” the mother continued. “But I did not know he had matured so well in his running style. I was amazed at how well Jamal has developed.”

Jamal Watkins had been looking for Division I or Division II options for continuing his athletic career when BSC sprinter Cedric Campbell challenged him to consider the Panthers. The two were close friends at Georgia’s Dutchtown High School; he even moved in with Campbell when his mother was in Kuwait.

indoor season even started.”

Cox proved to be a prophet as Watkins’ times dropped from his first meet to his second, and then to his third.

“He’s like a sponge. Everything I’ve told him to do technique-wise, start-wise, mentally and physically, he’s done it well,” the coach said. “For that, he was rewarded at nationals.”

Watkins said there could be a benefit to falling short of the championship, giving him some success, with motivation to improve.

“It sucks but it was close,” he said of the photo finish. “I’m blessed to have outdoor to go through it all again and this time come back with the gold to BSC.”

ELECTRATHON GIVES ALABAMA, GEORGIA STUDENTS A JOLT TOWARDS ENGINEERING Electric vehicle competition brought more than 400 students from 35 schools.

By Gilbert Nicholson

“He just said, ‘I bet you won’t apply,’” Watkins recalled. “It doesn’t take much to motivate me.”

The move to Birmingham was productive for the sophomore as he led Birmingham-Southern football in receiving with 40 catches for 567 yards and six touchdowns in the 2015 season. But track coach Ken Cox saw greater potential.

“I said he would shine even more in track and field,” he said, “and that was before the

James Kocsis is thinking about becoming a mechanical engineer.

Certainly that runs through his mind as the 11th-grader from Dothan’s Northview High School makes a hairpin turn at the famed Barber Motorsports Park in an electric car he helped build.

Kocsis was one of more than 400 students from 35 Alabama and Georgia high schools in the April 4 Electrathon car construction and race program. The students built small electric cars from scratch and raced them, not so much to see who would win, but which cars could endure the longest during two one-hour-long races.

“It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also a great team exercise that helps you work together and solve problems,” said Kocsis, 17, as he watched volunteers unload his team’s car from a trailer. The car conked out not far from the finish line, as did several during the first heat. “I’m considering mechanical engineering and this is a great learning experience for it.”

Market Specialist Robin White said Alabama

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THE MAKER: NATALIE CHANIN, CHANIN ALABAMA, FLORENCE

ALABAMA CHANIN DRESSES THE WORLD . . . ONE HAND-MADE GARMENT AT A TIME

BY KARIM SHAMSI-BASHA

Not all of us will make a T-shirt by hand to attend a party.

Natalie Chanin did a couple of decades ago, and has Natalie Chanin. Courtesy of Rinne Allen continued to make them.

I walked into the Alabama Chanin headquarters in Florence, and I lost sense of time and place. It could have been New York, Paris, or Milan. Here on a two-lane road, past pastures and general stores, is one of the most celebrated fashion design and manufacturing facilities in the world. In the back of the spacious showroom, a café greets visitors with the chef, her son Zach. The place also offers ceramics, pillows and throws, and pottery – all made in Alabama.

When I met the famous Natalie Chanin, I noticed she had this deep comfort and confidence. She had lovely white hair pulled back and soft, pretty features combined with an inviting demeanor. Perhaps that explains the soft cotton she makes her fabrics from – organic and grown with artisanal sensibility. She began with the T-shirt story.

She was invited to a party when she lived in New York City.

Chanin made a homemade T-shirt to wear to the party. She still remembers sewing it slowly with needle and thread. The reaction at the party was phenomenal. She particularly remembers being happy and thrilled with her friends’ comments.

Power sponsors Electrathon each year to expose students to real-life engineering and skilled trades. At least 25 company employees helped facilitate the event.

“We want to identify their strengths, interests and goals and align them with a four-year college or technical or trade school program that is the best fit for them,” White said. “As we try to bring more industry to our state, like the car manufacturers we have and the new Airbus plant in Mobile, we want to have an available workforce in these skills so these industries will choose to come to Alabama.”

Industry is already playing a key role in Electrathon; such as Kocsis’ participation. The Michelin tire plant in Dothan dispatched two electrical engineers and one mechanical engineer to help built two electric cars at the Dothan Technology Center, which teaches pre-engineering and technical/trade skills at Dothan High School and Northview.

Michelin mechanical engineer Adam Brisolara helped the Northview students customize a car, which arrived in standard kits for all competing high schools. Brisolara taught them how to use the software program to design the car. He worked in the pit at Electrathon with five Northview students.

“It was exciting because people really seemed to respond to the shirt. What deeply affected me was that process of making it, which made me really happy. I woke up the next morning, and I made another T-shirt and another and another. That’s what brought me on this 20-year journey. That is Alabama Chanin,” Chanin said.

“In the beginning, it was that sense of making something with my hands that was so powerful, even after being a designer and stylist and a costume designer,” Chanin said.

“As I get older, I love that we have some talented young people who have grown up in this business. I feel a sense of responsibility to them and the employees who work here. It feels like an important thing to sustain in our community, THE PRODUCT: Hand- and machine-sewn which has a deep history in textiles. My garments and goods. grandmother worked in textile mills for Alabama Chanin a long time,” Chanin said. www.alabamachanin.com Next time I go to a party, I may at- 256-760-1090 tempt to make a T-shirt by hand. Or I could just buy one from Alabama Chanin.

I think I will defer to the second option.

Alabama Makers explores the artisans, crafts people, carpenters, cooks, bakers, blacksmiths, designers and others making original and extraordinary items in our state. If you know an Alabama Maker, let us know at alnewscenter@outlook.com.

“Michelin is really big in volunteering for anything related to STEM (science, technology, engineering and math),” Brisolara said. “If we can get these kids involved and interested in technical and engineering fields, hopefully they will become engineers at Michelin one day.”

Myra Hicks, who teaches pre-engineering at the Dothan Technology Center, said Electrathon does more than help students determine a career path.

“They get life skills from this,” she said, while watching Kocsis and Dustin Casper driving on the track. “They have to work with other people and they have to have commitment. They get skills working with tools. Electrathon gives them skills they can take anywhere.”

High school Electrathon winners were (first place) Hewitt-Trussville High; (second) LeCroy Career Technical Center (Chilton County); and Alabaster’s Thompson High.

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