Boynton's new field of dreams: Sports agent spearheads makeover of East Boynton Little League park

John Pacenti
·6 min read

BOYNTON BEACH — During the pandemic, sports agent Phil Terrano ventured back to the East Boynton Beach Little League fields where he once played as a boy and coached as an adult.

“The grass was overgrown. Nobody was mowing and nobody was taking care of the landscaping. It was very disheartening to see,” Terrano said. “It was brutal, and I mean brutal.”

Terrano now has big plans for these fields — a state-of-the-art training facility — not just for professionals, but also for Little Leaguers and even children with disabilities.

In November, the Boynton Beach City Commission approved Terrano’s fields of dreams. When completed, there will be an indoor training building, another geared to people with disabilities, and even an artificial turf T-ball field, as well as renovated concession and bathrooms.

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It all will be found on nearly 13 acres off Woolbright Road and east of Interstate 95.

“It’s going to provide Boynton Beach as the epicenter for youth and youth sports,” said Boynton Beach City Manager Daniel Dugger.

These performance-based facilities are all the rage of the moment. Cressey Sports Performance in Palm Beach Gardens also caters to professionals and amateur clientele for a paid membership. Terrano says the new-and-improved Boynton Beach fields will also bring professional coaching to underprivileged kids.

Sports agent and Palm Beach County resident Phil Terrano poses for a portrait sitting on bleachers at the East Boynton Little League Complex on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, in Boynton Beach, FL. Terrano, who grew up playing little league baseball at the complex, wants to build a baseball training complex adjacent to the Little League fields that would benefit athletes of all levels.

Terrano has partnered with Mike Barwis, a trainer who has worked with athletes at all stages including local tennis pro Coco Grauff, Philadelphia Eagles’ Ndamukong Suh, former NFL player Richard Sherman and other high-profile and Olympic athletes. He has his own Discovery Channel show, "American Muscle."

The exciting new chapter for the Boynton Beach fields is the latest in a long and storied history that has seen soaring victories and devastating defeats since the city acquired the land in the 1950s.

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It is also a story of Terrano, a local — albeit more successful — Jerry McGuire who decided without formal training to become a sports agent and succeeded to the point where he can again give back to the fields he loved.

“My sister was unfortunately killed in a car accident when I was a young kid, and I was 11 years old at the time, and you know, the league really embraced me,” Terrano said. “Baseball was my escape from real life sometimes.”

Sports agent and Palm Beach County resident Phil Terrano poses for a portrait holding a baseball bat underneath the arched sign of the East Boynton Little League Complex on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, in Boynton Beach, FL. Terrano, who grew up playing little league baseball at the complex, wants to build a baseball training complex adjacent to the Little League fields that would benefit athletes of all levels.

These fields were home to the 2003 East Boynton Beach national champions, who lost to a team from Japan in the 57th Little League World Series. No South Florida team has duplicated the feat.

Even after such success, Terrano said he and others staved off attempts to expand the cemetery next door into the fields. At the time, current Little League President Jack McVey, along with the East Boynton League baseball community, promised to take care of the fields themselves in exchange for letting them survive, he said.

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Then Hurricane Wilma devastated the fields in 2005. Terrano said it was the blood, sweat and tears of the community that enabled it to rebuild. ABC’s "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" even showed up to help.

In recent years, Little League baseball in Boynton Beach has seen a decline in interest, competing with travel baseball and numerous other youth sports, Terrano said.

Terrano grew up in Boynton Beach and played on the fields from age 10 into young adulthood. He coached teams and served on the Boynton Beach Little’s League board of directors. Eventually, Terrano migrated to New York City, working in the beverage industry and as a DJ in the clubs.

“I was lost,” Terrano recalls during an interview at the pavilion looking onto the fields. “I didn't know what I wanted to do.”

He moved back to South Florida at age 28 when his mother took ill, started coaching again and officially joined the league’s board. He decided he wanted to be a baseball scout but didn’t have the right connections. Eventually, he landed on becoming a sports agent.

“I didn't have any degrees. I didn't have any money behind me to open a business of that kind. All I had was a passion for the sport,” Terrano said. “But what I did was work my butt off to get where I am today.”

Cars are seen driving on Woolbright Road by the entrance signage at the East Boynton Little League Complex on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, in Boynton Beach, FL. Sports agent and Palm Beach County resident Phil Terrano, who grew up playing little league baseball at the complex, wants to build a baseball training complex adjacent to the Little League fields that would benefit athletes of all levels.

At 44, he is CEO of Primetime Sports Group LLC and has enlisted investors to spend up to $4 million to revamp the East Boynton Little League Field. All of it will be private investment. Today, Terrano has 18 clients. He has represented Major Leaguers like Ruben Tejada, Donovan Solano and Jabari Blash. Many of his clients are signed to baseball contracts in Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

The Little League makeover will feature a lot more than a new field

His idea of bringing a cutting-edge training facility to Boynton Beach germinated during the pandemic, but it has taken three years to get to this point. He worked with a City Commission that turned over more than once until he found a champion in the new city manager.

Like Terrano, Dugger had a passion that was rooted in childhood when his family couldn’t afford to put him in youth sports.

“As a child, it makes you feel bad, because it’s unfortunate you don’t have the means to do that,” Dugger said. “This is actually going to provide those kids with the same opportunities every other child does to actually go out and play sports, have their parents come out and be able to support them.”

With a field that is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and Barwis’ expertise, those with birth defects or spinal cord injuries will be able to take part in a new specially designed field. Barwis "specializes in neurophysiology where he helps kids and adults walk again. He pushes them to where they can actually rehabilitate some of those neurological injuries,” Dugger said.

After the commission approved the lease to Terrano, it will hear from him and the Barwis team on the exact plans for the renovation at the Feb. 21 meeting. Terrano hopes to have at least the indoor training facility building up by next fall but said he is hopeful all the pieces will fall into place by the summer of 2024.

“I always said, ‘Well, if I ever make it, and if I ever do well, I want to go back to the fields that started it all for me, as a player, as a coach, as a board member and as an adult — the place that really helped me find my way,'” Terrano said.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: East Boynton Little League park getting a makeover, training facility