Velocity Sports Performance Official Website

Today, The Gatorade Company and FOX Sports Net announce the second season of the successful, original program, REPLAY the Series, Fueled by Gatorade, which re-stages classic games between some of the nation's biggest high school sports rivalries. In its second season, REPLAY will reunite two high school hockey powerhouses from Detroit - the Trenton Trojans and the Detroit Catholic Central Shamrocks - who were unable to finish their second match up of the 1999 season after a life threatening injury forced an early end to the game with the score tied 4-4.

 

"Hockey passion runs deep in Detroit, and is felt throughout the community," said Brendan Shanahan, NHL Vice-President and former Detroit Red Wings forward. "The NHL is thrilled Gatorade is giving the original players of these two teams a second chance to settle their score in front of all their friends and family."

 

To get ready for their once-in-a-lifetime rematch, the Trenton and DCC players will take part in a customized 8-week training and nutrition program developed by the Gatorade Sports Science Institute (GSSI) and implemented with the help of professionals from Velocity Sports Performance. GSSI has worked with elite and professional athletes for more than 25 years and will help the Trenton and DCC squads understand their individual fueling needs as athletes before, during and after their on- and off-ice training sessions.

 

"We are looking forward to working with these athletes to prove once you're an athlete, you're always an athlete," said Sarah Robb O'Hagan, chief marketing officer of Gatorade. "It's an honor to be able to prepare these teams to come together in the spirit of sport, passion and good natured rivalry as they compete for their schools one last time."

 

The REPLAY game is tentatively scheduled to take place in early May and a documentary produced by FOX Sports Net about the REPLAY athletes' journey will air nationwide in June.

 

"This is an exciting opportunity to collaborate with Gatorade on a very creative and home grown project," said Read Jackson, FSN's senior vice president of production and executive producer of REPLAY. "The tone of the REPLAY documentary series provides a trip down memory lane as viewers get to vicariously re-live their high school sports experience, whether they played on a team or not."

 

As the Trenton and DCC players prepare for their game, REPLAY fans can follow their journey by visiting www.replaytheseries.com, the official home of REPLAY. Visitors to the site can also check out the first season of REPLAY that featured one of the nation's biggest high school football rivalries between the Easton Area Red Rovers and the Phillipsburg Stateliners.

 

REPLAY, a series of sports documentaries focusing on rematches between great rivalries, is based on an original concept from the creative teams at Gatorade and TBWAChiatDay Los Angeles.

Richard Sharpnack, Jr.

856-874-9700

rsharpnack@velocitysp.com 

Cherry Hill, NJ (2008) –– Nike will be hosting the National SPARQ “My Better” Championship in just 2 weeks at Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon. The Championship will take place July 23^rd and 24^th and the top male and female athletes will not only be crowned as the reigning Nike SPARQ Champions but they will have the opportunity to spend a day with a professional athlete.

 

Velocity Sports Performance Athletes, Janaia Maith of Lumberton, NJ and Lauren Gaskill of Mount Holly, NJ will be among the top 10 finalists, all vying for the coveted spot of the 2008 Nike SPARQ Female Champion. Currently Maith ranks 4^th nationally while Gaskill, chosen as an alternate, ranks 11^th out of 448 female athletes. Maith and Gaskill currently attend Rancocas Valley Regional High School, train with each other at Velocity Sports Performance in Cherry Hill and have made notorious athletic accomplishments throughout the South Jersey area.

 

The 20 finalists, representing various sports and states across the country, will follow a typical SPARQ protocol which measures the basic components of athleticism; speed, power, agility, reaction and quickness. Their results from the five tests will be weighed (according to their height, weight and age) to generate a single numerical score known as a SPARQ Rating. The male and female athletes with the highest rating (therefore possessing the highest athletic prowess in the country) will be crowned as the 2008 Nike SPARQ Male & Female Champion.  

 

The preliminary challenge took place on Saturday, May 3^rd at more then 60 Velocity Sports Performance Centers across the country, including Cherry Hill, NJ and tested over 3,000 high school athletes.  The SPARQ test that was administered included a 1 Step Vertical Jump, 30 Meter Dash, Compass Drill, Overhead Power Ball Throw & 30 Second Endurance Jump. The official link with final results is available at http://www.sparqtraining.com/my-better-results/.

 

This March, Nike launched its most comprehensive performance category, dynamic training; which combines a relationship with SPARQ, high performance products, online experiences at nike.com, and a new association with Velocity Sports Performance Centers.  The category was introduced to consumers through a multi-media campaign called “My Better.”

 

About Velocity Sports Performance Training Centers
Velocity Sports Performance, the industry leader in providing advanced sports performance training for athletes of all skill levels and ages, was founded in 1999 by world-renowned coach Loren Seagrave, a five-time NCAA champion coach, who trained Olympic, professional and major college athletes.  At Velocity Sports Performance, athletes of any skill level from age eight through adult can realize their potential through advanced training programs taught by degreed and certified coaches, scientifically designed to increase speed, power and agility, while reducing the risk of sports-related injuries. There are over 60 Velocity Sports Performance facilities across the United States, each with an average of 19,000 square feet of state-of-the-art facilities.   Visit www.velocitysp.com for more information on training programs and franchise opportunities.

 

NIKE, Inc. based near Beaverton, Oregon, is the world's leading designer, marketer and distributor of authentic athletic footwear, apparel, equipment and accessories for a wide variety of sports and fitness activities. Wholly owned Nike subsidiaries include Converse Inc., which designs, markets and distributes athletic footwear, apparel and accessories; Cole Haan Holdings Incorporated, which designs, markets and distributes luxury shoes, handbags, accessories and coats; Umbro Ltd., a leading United Kingdom-based global football (soccer) brand; and Hurley International LLC, which designs, markets and distributes action sports and youth lifestyle footwear, apparel and accessories. For more information, visit www.nikebiz.com.

 

About SPARQ 
Founded in 2004, SPARQ, Inc. is a performance training company based in Portland, Oregon, that provides testing and training services for passionate athletes through media and grass roots experiences. The SPARQ Rating, referred to by many as “The SAT of Athleticism”, is a proprietary method for evaluating athletic and functional ability. Testing is available through SPARQ and Nike events and through SPARQ certified trainers throughout the United States. SPARQ has tested over 200,000 athletes in high school, college and professional ranks in the past four years. SPARQ has implemented testing and measurement technologies at the 2006 USC and 2007 USC, Texas, Ohio State and LSU ProDays. The SPARQ Rating was also a central element in assessing the athleticism of the competitors in ESPN's hit series, "The Contender." SPARQ Training is defined as dynamic athletic training that develops the speed, power and explosive ability of athletes.  For more information, visit http://sparqtraining.com.

 

Many Velocity Sports Performance athletes were selected higher than their anticipated draft day selection after training at Velocity Sports Performance between their college season and the NFL Combine or Pro Days. Virginia Tech offensive tackle Duane Brown, saw his draft day status rise to a first round pick with the Houston Texans after projected to be selected in the second round.   

Seven days after the Giants stunned the previously perfect Patriots in the Super Bowl, Sean Donellan, sports performance director at Velocity Sports Performance in Mahwah, N.J., received a call at home. He immediately recognized the voice of Giants defensive end Justin Tuck. "Coach, can we come in tomorrow morning and work out?" Tuck asked. "It was a week after the Super Bowl," Donellan says, "and he was already ready to start working out for next year."

 

The following day, Donellan and the 25-year-old, now a fourth-year player, began Tuck's off-season training program. After recording 65 tackles and 10 sacks during the 2007 regular season, along with two sacks and a forced fumble in the Super Bowl, Tuck was already being counted on as an integral part of the Giants' hopes to repeat in 2009. With veteran All-Pro teammate Michael Strahan retiring after 15 seasons of anchoring the Giants D, it's a duty Tuck takes seriously. "Third down and long--that's my favorite play."

 

At Notre Dame, Tuck was nicknamed "The Freak" because of his unusual combination of raw size (6'5", 275) and speed. "There aren't too many guys who are that big and can run a 4.4 [40-yard dash]," he says. Maintaining that balance became a challenge after foot surgery derailed his 2006 season after just six games. Not surprisingly, Tuck began his comeback almost immediately after he left the O.R. He combined his workouts with rehab and joined up with Donellan, who had previously spent seven years as strength coach of the NHL's New York Islanders. Now Donellan puts Tuck through a five-days-a-week off-season regimen that's designed to improve nine aspects of Tuck's athleticism: speed, power, agility, balance, strength, flexibility, mobility, neuromuscular coordination, and conditioning.

 

The first 30 minutes of each session are dedicated to a dynamic warm-up (see "HOW JUSTIN TUCK STAYS FIT"), then the second half-hour is for movement skills and speed training. The final hour is when the lifting is done, and Tuck will usually work the lower and upper halves of his body two days a week apiece. One of his favorite exercises is a modified bench press, in which Tuck is standing up and pushing a sled with handles (and weight plates) on the sides down a track. Tuck says he's able to "really hammer and push it for like 100 yards."

 

The exercise Tuck dreads usually comes at the end of his workouts. With his back against the wall, Tuck has to do a standing leg lift, bringing each leg up and over a four-foot-high track hurdle slowly, taking as much as 60 seconds for each rep. This works the front side of his hips and hip flexors, an area that many athletes ignore. "I'll do 50 reps," Tuck says. "It's brutal. I feel like I can't walk when I'm done."

 

He keeps coming back though, because he knows what the season is all about--another ring. "It's been a fairy tale having won the Super Bowl. Everyone wants to do it all again."

 

HOW JUSTIN TUCK STAYS FIT

The N.Y. Giants end trains with a 30-30-60 workout.

 

Mondays and Thursdays: 30 minutes of dynamic warm-up, like hip work to increase mobility and flexibility; 30 minutes of movement skills and speed training: sprints, cutting runs, circuits: 60 minutes of weight work. These two days focus on upper body, first power-oriented followed by strength training. Tuck uses dumbbells, bars, and cords. as welt as resistance mechanisms like sleds.

 

Tuesdays and Fridays: The same 30-minute warm-ups and drills, followed by an hour of lower-body work

 

Wednesdays: Regeneration day. Light cardio warm-up and then stretches and flexibility exercises focused on giving his core a workout, He may also do extended cardio to increase endurance.

 

 

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