Lamar Bank president steps down

VersaCourt is the maker of the VersaCourt sport surface system, which provides a durable, safe surface for indoor and outdoor courts. The courts can be used for a variety of sports, from basketball and tennis to volleyball or inline hockey.

United Turf produces SofTrak artificial putting greens, used in commercial venues and homes of professional and amateur golfers, such as Fred Couples, Steve Flesch and Bruce Lietzke. Locally, United Turf recently replaced the natural grass greens with artificial turf at Oakmont Hills Resort’s nine-hole golf course south of Hollister.

Little stepped down as Lamar Bank president after 26 years to focus on the new company, which operates under the name VersaSport International LLC. He’ll be staying with the bank as vice chairman. He said the decision was based on a personal relationship he formed after 18 months selling the SofTrak putting greens.

“I became a SofTrak dealer as a hobby initially and the product just really appealed to me,” he said. “I thought it had a lot of applications, not only in the backyard putting green environment, but in the commercial environment because of water restrictions and maintenance on a commercial site.”

Lance Pierce, who already owned United Turf, formed VersaCourt with Lamar resident Jerry Marti in 1998. Little became a partner of United Turf in December in preparation for the merger.

“I became close friends with the founder of (United Turf), Lance Pierce,” he said. “We exchanged a lot of ideas on business development, and as time went on I felt with the right injection of capital and business experience the company could attain another level of growth that it hadn’t reached.”

Pierce and Little declined to discuss the terms of the merger.

Pierce is the president of the new company, while Little serves as partner and CEO.

The new company will help market the VersaCourt product through an existing network of more than 60 SofTrak dealers across the country and internationally.

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