Our Story — An Athlete's Life

An Athlete's Life was founded by Brian Sibenaller, a strength and conditioning coach from Atlanta, GA with over 15 years of experience in the athletics and fitness industry. As Brian worked with a variety of athletes through the years, he came to realize a unified sense of purpose behind what he saw his athletes doing. He then chose to document his findings and experiences into a story; a message - in the form of a beautifully hand-crafted poem.

The poem, Forever an Athlete, is a selfless tribute to all athletes that he had the pleasure of working with over the years. What started as simple but endless thoughts in his head of what it takes to be an athlete, soon became a creative outlet for Brian to express his respect and admiration in writing as his thoughts found their way to paper.

Forever an Athlete began with my career as a strength and conditioning coach...

...but An Athletes Life began with family. After years of writing the poem and adding things from time to time, I finally got to a point where I felt the poem was finished. I had no idea what I wanted to do with it, I just wanted to get these thoughts out of my mind. So I did what I felt was right to do with it…..nothing!

Then about a year later, in December of 2009, I decided to give a copy of Forever an Athlete to one of the greatest athletes I have ever known, my brother. He played football for 14 years and had just finished up his college football career, and I wanted to do something special for him. I knew right away I was going to give him his own copy of Forever an Athlete. Without knowing it, what I created was the first poster of the An Athletes Life brand. (See the personalized option page to see the poster that I gave to him).

As with giving any gift, I was excited to give this to him and nervous at the same time. At this point in time only a handful of people had read the poem, and only a few of those individuals knew I wrote it, and everyone loved it. But I never expected my brother’s response.

As I am watching him stare at the poster and all of the photos I picked from his career, he started to smile and I could tell that he was reminiscing about his career, his teammates, and all that he accomplished; and to try and embarrass him a little bit, I think I saw some tears well up in his eyes, just saying. But as he started to read the poem, he started to nod his head as to agree with the words, but also had a look of shock on his face, like he couldn’t believe what he was reading. None of this is what shocked me with his response, it’s what he said next that shocked me the most. He said, “You need to do something with this, it’s amazing.” I thought nothing of it, he was just being nice as a brother and being appreciative; which was great, that is what I hoped for. He continued though; he said, “No, I am serious. You need to do something with this. There are more athletes out there that deserve to have this. It makes me think of my teammates, and other athletes I know. Hell, even guys I played against and lined up across from me. They all deserve to have this as much as I do. You have to do something with this!” I know it is hard to believe I remember that word for word, but I do.

In that moment two things happened. One, I realized what I had written was greater than myself and any one person or athlete. Second, An Athletes Life was born and a crazy journey was about to begin.

I have a lot of thoughts and dreams for An Athletes Life as both a business and a community, and know that its success will be built on the backs of all of the athletes of the world. My goal and priority is to use that success to put it back into the athletic community in positive ways, and I hope you will join me and be a part of it.

Thank you for listening to this story, I know it is a bit long, and thank you for visiting and welcome to An Athletes Life.

By use of Brian's poem, An Athletes Life is building a community of followers, athletes and fans alike, to show and pay respect to the life of an athlete and all that it entails. From early morning workouts, to two-a-days, to keeping grades up, to traveling, to the camaraderie amongst athletes, to the brutality of competition, and so on.

In addition to being a motivational platform and expressive outlet for athletes, we also have a unique line of products for athletes that will speak to their individual stories. An Athletes Life offers personalized and stock sport themed posters with the poem, Forever an Athlete. Whether you are interested in getting a poster as a gift for someone, or as motivation for yourself, your athlete, or your team, we are thankful and grateful to be a part of your story and hope you see the value and encouragement in our products the way we do.