With Maassen’s help, Hughes has turned The Front Row Film into a stunning success story, one that will certainly leave some peo- ple shaking their heads and wondering, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ It’s a business based on a much-needed service for high school and club sports teams, where Hughes and Maassen take about 20 studio-worthy pictures of the athletes to be used for personal and parental use, and use by the teams and schools for a variety of reasons, like team posters and programs.
How did we get here? Hughes, 38, is a 2006 graduate of Helias, where he was a standout in both basketball and baseball, and a 2010 graduate of Drury with a degree in marketing. “In college, I took an intro to video class, and I fell in love with doing that,” he said.
“I PLAYED A WHOLE BUNCH OF SPORTS GROWING UP, SO I HAVE THE PLAYERS’ SIDE OF THIS. THEN I COACHED, SO I HAVE THE COACHES’ SIDE OF IT, AND NOW THAT I’M A PARENT, I KIND OF KNOW WHAT PARENTS WANT OUT OF IT. SO I’M TRYING TO MERGE THAT ALL TOGETHER TO WHERE ALL THE PEOPLE HAVE WHAT THEY WANT OUT OF THE THING.”
“The rest of the time I was in college and had a project, I just made a video for it. That’s where I got the background. I never thought that was going to be my career path, but I just continued doing it.” He joined his dad, Denny, at Westminster in 2012, when he was the head coach of the Blue Jays baseball team. “When I was helping my dad at Westminster — and as you know, at small schools you have to do everything — we obviously needed media and a place to promote our players, and something to help with the recruiting. I outs of it. I devoted myself and started going through the trial and error of doing it. And I had guinea pigs at Westminster to test it on.” It was no surprise to anyone that Dane was good at it, really good.
was very talented,” Hughes said. “Once I started working with him, I knew he was the right guy; he’s a super hard worker and just a have grown into what it is without Caleb.”
Front Row has grown to a staggering 432 teams that take advan- tage of their services, including the majority of the teams in the di- rect Central Missouri area. The overall territory runs north to Mexico and Moberly, south to Eugene and Eldon, and west to Knob Noster. Going east, it stretches all the way into St Louis. The quality of their business puts them in the most enviable position you could ever want — people who have a positive experience will most certainly share the good news with others.
Show-Me Sports /// 87
He got his LLC for Front Row in 2016 and started working at the business full-time in 2021.
“I started the business with the video background, but it’s kind of mor- phed more and more into this niche of sports photos,” he said. “I would have never guessed that if you’d told me this in 2012, that’s for sure.” Dane Hughes isn’t Howard Hughes, and to say a star is born would be a bit overstated. But it is safe to say that his vision has become reality, and he’s not even 40. You never know what his en- trepreneurial spirit might come up with next.
Maassen joined the business as an intern, also in 2021, when he was still in college. Hughes was getting quite busy and needed
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