In 2012, Loyola enraptured the lacrosse world with a Cinderella run to the NCAA title. The Greyhounds’ run-and-gun brand entertained the masses at Gillette Stadium and made stars out of workhorses like Scott Ratliff, Josh Hawkins and Eric Lusby.
Who knows what might have happened had they not had their Motive Pure?
At the time, Motive Pure, a rehydration solution that replenishes vital electrolytes, was relatively new to the market. Jesse Hubbard, a Hall of Fame player who created the product after collapsing from dehydration following an MLL game for the New Jersey Pride, launched the company in 2011 after tinkering with portable concentrations of sodium, potassium and natural flavors.
Loyola was one of the early adopters. Then-Greyhounds assistant and current Richmond head coach Dan Chemotti, Hubbard’s teammate with the Pride, introduced Motive Pure to the team after Loyola faded late in a 2011 season-ending ECAC tournament loss to Fairfield in the dehydration-inducing altitude of Denver.
The next season, Loyola twice defeated Denver on the road. Head coach Charley Toomey started keeping a large cooler of Motive Pure mixture in his hotel room. On the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, Chemotti texted Hubbard in a state of panic.
“Hubby, we’re down to our last jug. Is there any way to get more?”
Hubbard, out of town at the time, asked team sales manager Jamie Watson if she could go to the Motive Pure warehouse in Baltimore to restock and then deliver the product to a Loyola family traveling up to Foxborough.
Crisis averted.
“They obviously had a great run, and they looked fresh, especially that Monday against Maryland,” Hubbard said. “They were flying around all over the place.”
Motive Pure’s customer base has expanded to include more than 50 college men’s and women’s lacrosse teams, the U.S. national lacrosse teams and high-profile clients in other lifestyle sports like paintball, sailing, horseracing and cycling. The company offers a subscription plan for individuals who are simply interested in everyday wellness. While e-commerce is a core part of its business, the product recently launched in brick-and-mortar stores like Safeway in the Mid-Atlantic region.
Motive Pure comes in a one-ounce, single-serve concentrate that each mix with 16-20 ounces of water, as well as larger 16-ounce and 32-ounce bottles that can be used at home or for teams to mix in sideline coolers. It’s not a sugar-loaded sports drink and it’s not a supplement, Hubbard emphasized. “Why have the electrolyte component stuck in the same bottle as sugar?” he said. “I just want water with some electrolytes. Motive Pure helps your body absorb water.”
Motive Pure was borne out of Hubbard’s search for “the simplest, lightest drink with the right amount of functional electrolytes and nothing more,” he said.
For the 2012 Greyhounds, it was the magic potion.