ST. GEORGE — Reach Higher Athletics will open its new Elite Sports Performance Training Center in May of next year, continuing an evolution that started four years ago in a warehouse on Industrial Road.
The new 32,000-square-foot athletic training facility will feature basketball courts, an indoor turf field, a sprint lane, a weight room, a smoothie bar and a sports treatment area.
CEO and athletic trainer Dylan Adamson told St. George News that along with the daily performance skill training, the new facility will allow for camps, clinics and community events.
“It will allow us to really spread our wings and help this community grow in the athletic world – and overall,” Adamson said.
Since its inception in St. George four years ago, Reach Higher has been located in a large warehouse on Industrial Road just north of E. Red Hills Parkway.
“This has really been a great little temporary facility for us,” Adamson said, “allowing us to grow here and build a following and build a name in the community.”
Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, Adamson played football for Dixie State University in 2008 and 2009.
He is a self-described protege of Chip Smith, an athletic trainer in Atlanta who was one of the pioneers of combine training over 30 years ago. Combine training helps collegiate athletes develop the skills needed to make the transition to the professional ranks. Smith is known in the business as the “godfather of speed and agility.”
The new Reach Higher performance center will be a West Coast National Football League combine training location.
“We worked closely with Chip before we decided to come back to St. George,” Adamson said. “With us being part of his system and his group, he wants to extend that basically out here. So he’s going to be in our building starting 2023.”
The training techniques at Reach Higher are team oriented but also tailored individually so each athlete can work on sport-specific training.
“When it comes to our performance training, a lot of what we work on is to make you stronger, faster, more explosive,” Adamson said. “Things that all athletes, no matter the sport or position, are going to want to work on.”
The new performance center will be better equipped to support several of the local teams that workout there, he said.
Reach Higher trains the local American Amateur Union basketball teams, which are known to assemble the best high school players into all-star teams. The trainers also work with the SU Elite Softball club and 435 Elite Volleyball Club teams featuring players from around Region 10.
The trainers at Reach Higher also teach skills that can be used off the court.
Adamson said one of the guiding texts employed by his trainers is “Coach Wooden’s Pyramid Success Playbook,” a manual written by legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden.
“He was one of the best to do it not only coaching on the court but off the court,” Adamson said. “He built really great leaders of men, and that’s something we’re striving to do here with Reach Higher as well.”
The new Reach Higher Elite Sports Performance Training Center is slated to open May 1 at the west end of 1600 South and Dixie Drive.
Photo Gallery
Athletes at Reach Higher Athletics work on performance skills, St. George, Utah, Dec. 28, 2021 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News
Athletes at Reach Higher Athletics work on performance skills, St. George, Utah, Dec. 28, 2021 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News
A sign portraying the future Reach Higher Athletics Performance Center on 1600 South off Dixie Drive, St. George, Utah, Dec. 28, 2021 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News
Site of the future Reach Higher Athletics Performance Center on 1600 South off Dixie Drive, St. George, Utah, Dec. 28, 2021 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News
Site of the future Reach Higher Athletics Performance Center on 1600 South off Dixie Drive, St. George, Utah, Dec. 28, 2021 | Photo by E. George Goold, St. George News
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