Scouting Heroes

Over the past 10 years, Keur has quickly become one of the top sports and entertainment executives in the United States. While on the team-side, Keur has been recognized 5 times as the Minor League Baseball Executive of the Year while overseeing the business operations for the Burlington Royals (Kansas City Royals affiliate) and the Daytona Tortugas (Cincinnati Reds affiliate). Besides his work overseeing the overall strategy, development, and operations at Scouting Heroes, Keur is the founder and owner of Knuckleball Entertainment. Knuckleball Entertainment owns and operates both the Burlington Sock Puppets and the Danville Otterbots of the Appalachian League. The Appalachian League is fueled by Major League Baseball and USA Baseball. Keur was recently recognized in 2020 as one of Elon University’s Top 10 Graduates within the Last 10 years. Keur has played an active role in being involved in the Sport Management department at his alma-mater and has a strong track record for developing students looking to create a pathway into the sports and entertainment industry.

Melissa has spent most of her career on the team-side of sports as well, with an emphasis on training and developing entry-level candidates or students entering the industry. Balbach spent time with Keur at both the Burlington Royals and Daytona Tortugas and has experience in the Triple-A with the Durham Bulls and Reno Aces. Balbach is a graduate of North Carolina State. She is committed to ensuring that our team members are prepared to make an immediate impact within the organization and constantly refining their skills to maximize performance and growth within the team.

Brandon graduated from St. Cloud State University, located in Minnesota, with a major in Recreation and Sport Management. He has 7 years of experience with training and managing a quality control team and scouts, who covered thousands of games each year in a multitude of sports around the world. He has experience in hiring and developing college students as well as those looking to begin and gain experience for their future or current careers. He has also worked with college students to provide them the opportunity to do their practicums or hours needed in order to graduate from the Sport and Recreation management major. He knows first hand how hard it can be to break into the sports industry so he prides himself on getting people that initial experience and developing their careers so they can potentially move on to roles within the company or help them secure the jobs they are seeking elsewhere.

Max started his professional career in minor league baseball working with the Greensboro Grasshoppers and later with the Daytona Tortugas. While primarily in sales roles, Max has always excelled at being an asset to any operation and has gathered experience in a variety of different roles & focuses. Max is a graduate of Guilford College, where he was a member of the varsity baseball team and served as the play-by-play broadcaster for many of the college's sports teams.