I feel the U13 age group is a good age group at which to begin more serious fitness work.  Though I am confident that I can take the girls through various sprinting routines, stomach exercises, and throw a speed ladder for agility and quickness work, I preferred to bring in a fitness professional this winter to take the lead here.  Not only will they be more competent with the girls than I will, but I am also hoping to observe and learn from their sessions in order to increase my knowledge base in this area. 

I spoke with an old Thunder teammate of mine, Aaron Leventhal.  Since retiring from the professional soccer ranks, "Levy" had looked to get licensed as a Certified Personal Trainer.  He opened up a FIT Training Studio in Minneapolis a few years back, and just expanded this last year by opening another training studio in St Paul. 

I contracted with him to provide 30 minutes of "Fit Training" in conduction with our Saturday training sessions at Holy Angels.  The girls would get 20 weeks of training for free, in essence, in exchange for getting the FIT Training Studios log on the back of our warm-up jackets, and also having the girls take part in 6 Crash Training sessions in March/April. 

Our FIT Trainer, Danielle Pellicano, was a player with the Minnesota Lightning last summer, and has now moved full time into the training business.  She is no-nonsense with the girls, works them hard, and knows what she's talking about.