Pushing the limit in '08

Center boosts young athletes' performance

Walk into Velocity Sports Performance as a grown adult and you may think how much the world has changed since you were a kid.

The $3 million, 25,000-square-foot center in Mount Pleasant's Wando Park, a stone's throw from the Mark Clark Expressway, looks like a new training building for the New England Patriots, barring the basketball and volleyball court at the back of the building.

Besides the regulation courts, Velocity has a four-lane, 60-yard sprinting track, 40 yards of artificial turf area, a range of plyometric, balance, agility and resistance equipment, an Olympic weight-lifting area, a "parent viewing area" and a locker room, all in a climate-controlled building.

Yet it is not a fitness club. You can't just walk in before or after work and exercise.

Though it will have programming for adults, Velocity is a "sports performance" training facility that focuses primarily on getting youngsters to run faster, leap higher and be stronger, more flexible and less injury-prone — giving them the edge in a world that's increasingly more competitive in terms of making a high school team, vying for college sports scholarships and possibly even landing a professional sports contract.

Velocity's slogan: "Great athletes aren't born. They're made."

The five-year-old franchise has 77 locations, primarily in major cities in United States and Canada. Dirk and Tracy Dewitt, former collegiate athletes who live on Daniel Island, brought it to Mount Pleasant.

"It's the wave of the future," says Dirk, a former football player at Hope College in Michigan and a local endurance athlete.

Dewitt says Velocity's approach taps into numerous trends in the fitness industry, including the prevention of repetitive-use injuries suffered by youngsters who concentrate on one sport and "functional" fitness for adults.

In fact, take a look at the list of the Top 15 fitness trends of 2008 (accompanying this story) and Velocity fulfills nine of them, including No. 1. All of Velocity's staff come from a collegiate sports background.

--Strength coach Allan Johnson was the first strength coach for the Baltimore Orioles (including Hall of Famer Cal Ripken) and served as a strength coach for the Ohio State and West Virginia football teams, including 17 teams that reached bowl games and three that played in national championship games.

--Scott Greenman was a wide receiver at Hope College and an all-state 200-meter hurdler in Michigan.

--Michelle Ray played basketball and at UNC-Asheville and served as an assistant coach at the College of Charleston for four years.

--Tracy Dewitt was a swimmer at Oakland University, near Detroit, and is the current Palmetto State Triathlon Series champion. She is considering turning pro.

The staff will work with athletes on an individual or team basis and has been training athletes outdoors or at other facilities since the summer, as the center was being built. (Velocity expects to open its doors in mid-January after getting final permits.)

The coaches have worked with volleyball and soccer players from Bishop England, lacrosse and basketball players from Wando, and the First Baptist School in Mount Pleasant girls varsity basketball team, as well as two Arena football players and a first-round professional lacrosse player.

Both kids and parents say they are fired up.

"It's awesome," says Stephen Chase, a sophomore on Wando's varsity basketball team who credits workouts since August with improving his quickness and speed.

Kim Martin, mother of Wando lacrosse player Simmons Martin, says he has been working out with Velocity coaches since July and has seen similar results. She adds that he loves being pushed and hopes the training will improve his chances for a college lacrosse scholarship.

Coach Michelle Ray took the Velocity training system to College of Charleston basketball players this fall and saw nearly immediate results. She says the training will help the ever-important quickness of the "first step" off a dribble or toward the basket. She adds that the "Vertimax," a piece of plyometric equipment that straps to a belt and works jumping muscles, quickly adds inches to a vertical leap.

Dave and Kathy Eckert, parents of First Baptist freshman Sarah Eckert, were watching a team workout and recalled the team knowing they were benefiting from it because, as Kathy noted, "they were sore like they had never been before."

She added that the center is a "blessing" because the school gym's basketball court is multiuse and sometimes not available for practices.