Athlete of The Month
To start off this month’s update, we would like to celebrate our June Athlete of the Month. This award is chosen by the coaches and interns based on which athletes demonstrating our core values – accountability, adaptability, education, fundamentals, humility & transparency, creating a positive environment, and the right effort. Athletes that exemplify these attributes on a consistent basis are elected by the coaches and ultimately one is chosen for the month.
This month, Ben Sargent, from the Junior Premier Victoria Mariners. Ben is also a student in our APEX Institute where he is working on a self-directed study through the PACE program. Ben is looking at how his training program effects his 60-yard sprint for baseball as well as how it effects his exit velocity when hitting. Ben is a leader within the program, demonstrating a focused work ethic, understanding how to be a high performer, while having fun.
Will you be joining the APEX Institute?
As school is finishing up this year, we look towards September and returning to some semblance of normalcy. Next September, we are opening our own sports school, the APEX Institute. This will give student-athletes the ability to complete their studies at Speed Mechanics while getting their training completed during school time.
There will be two cohorts (morning and afternoon) of up to 30 students each. If you are in the morning cohort, you will attend Speed Mechanics from 8 am to 11 am. During that time, students will be broken up into two groups with one group training and the other working on their schoolwork with our teacher onsite. During classroom time, students will be able to complete their online courses, work on their PACE program courses, or work with coaches on nutrition, video analysis, sports science, or with our Mental Performance Coach. While one group is studying, the other will be completing their training that day.
Mondays and Thursdays will focus on speed and agility, while Tuesday and Friday will focus on strength and power, and Wednesday will be a movement variability day where students will practice new skills like gymnastics, tumbling, rolling, grappling, and more. After their half-day, students will return to their regular school for their afternoon classes. Registration is now open and running until July 31, 2020. The first 30 accepted applications will receive $100 off per month ($1,000 CAD savings).
Recent Athlete Signings
We wanted to highlight two athletes in our facility, who have recently signed with professional sports teams Kyle Degelmen, and Eric Hegadoren.
Kyle is a 17-year old professional soccer player who has just signed with FC Energie Cottbus and their U-19 Academy team in the Bundesliga in Germany. Kyle has been working with Coach Khyl for two years on speed and strength development. Kyle has come a long way in that time both physically and technically. He continues to ask questions and is driven to be a better player both on and off the ball. He has the best work ethic I’ve ever seen and there is no doubt this will continue to push him higher. Kyle is a phenomenal soccer player and we’re excited to see what this season brings him in Germany.
Our second player and former Coach/Intern at Speed Mechanics is Eric Hegadoren. This 6’11” right-handed pitcher signed his first professional baseball contract with the Quebec Capitales in the Frontier League, an independent league affiliated with Major League Baseball. Eric worked with us from September 2020 until he signed, working on building a robust shoulder built to withstand the demand of a professional season. In his first 3 games, Eric has given up only 1 run, struck out 4 batters, and has an ERA of 1.69. Again, we are very excited to see what he can do. We’re all cheering for him, and we will have his games up on the TVs at Speed Mechanics!
