All Sport Academy - How Good Do You Want To Be Today?

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve written, it’s been incredibly busy here at ASA now that everyone is getting inside for winter workouts. Not only that, but we’ve got a million new things happening here, so I figured I should write about it all.

Baseball - First of all, we have two new baseball instructors, Ron Sutter and Andre Harris. Ron’s been doing lessons here for a few months, Andre only about a month and a half. Both guys come to ASA with a wealth of knowledge and experience and both guys are amazing instructors. Ron’s background is varied as he was a head coach, an athletic trainer, an athletic director, an instructor with the New York Yankees Youth Clinics (at Yankee Stadium!) and has been doing private lessons for about 25 years. He’s currently a principal in Brick, so he’s yet another professional teacher that we have on staff. Ron will be holding his annual baseball school at ASA starting January 19th, the nine-week school will meet twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes.

Andre Harris is an ex professional player that was most recently in the New York Mets organization (AAA). He’s played in the Minnesota Twins system and was on the Yankees spring training roster in ‘04 before an unfortunate car accident put him out of the game for a couple of years. Andre’s done lessons since ‘02 and has a steadily growing group he’s working with at ASA. Andre and Ron are currently planning our summer clinics and classes.

ASA is also forming 8u, 10u and 12u teams to play tournaments and games in ‘08.

Softball - Jodie Ricciardi, ASA’s softball coordinator, has recently finished a four week hitting clinic and has scheduled another one for January (10th thru 31st). Jodie’s been doing more and more lessons at ASA and will be working with a number of teams and individuals over the winter months. She’s also in the process of planning ASA’s summer softball camps and clinics.

Mixed Martial Arts - ASA is home to the NJ Combat Club, which is a competitive fight team. We’ve had three guys compete in the recent Grapplers Quest and have two guys competing this coming weekend in kickboxing matches in Rahway. At Grapplers Quest NJCC came home with two second places and a third place! The team trains three days a week at ASA and has grown to 15 members in two months. Head trainer and co-owner Tony Andreocci was recently certified by Shawn Tompkins as a trainer and affiliate of Team Tompkins Katsudo Fight Systems.

Wrestling - ASA has joined up with the recreation departments of New Brunswick and North Brunswick to start rec. wrestling programs for both communities. As a first year program we are looking to just get the group started and teach basic wrestling skills. We hope to get involved with a wrestling league, but will just pick up matches with local towns as we can. Coaches Chris Marshall and Jason McLean are both head wrestling coaches at local high schools (Marshall at Asbury Park and McLean at New Brunswick)

Cheerleading - The ASA Dragons Cheerleading squad has recently formed and will be competing in cheer competitions in ‘08. Coach Nicole Cecchini will lead the Dragons.

Soccer - Louis Ken-Kwofie has recently joined the ASA instructors crew and will be offering individual and team soccer training. Louis formerly played professional soccer in Europe and was a member of the MetroStars in the 90s.

Track - ASA will start a track club in the spring so that the athletes that are training here can compete as a team in the ‘08 AAU and USATF track meets. We currently have four high jumpers training here that all have tremendous potential to be amazing jumpers over their high school careers. ASA’s own, Derek Forthun (yes, my son), finished the ‘07 season officially ranked 19th in the USA in his age group by an independent ranking organization, which qualified him for All-American status. His middle school record jump of 5′9″ would move him up to a tie for 12th place in the country, but because school meets aren’t recognized, it’s wasn’t accepted. We believe the four jumpers (three freshmen and a sophomore) we have will not only do well in the summer meets but will compete for points in their counties. We are looking for more athletes to join the ASA track club in any event, as we get members, we’ll bring in coaches.

Personal Training and weightlifting clubs - ASA strength and conditioning instructor JR Papernik will be starting a weightlifting club. Individuals interested in Olympic lifting or Powerlifting are welcome to join the group. JR is a former NJ State record holder in the bench press and has trained numerous lifters.

Misc. - As many know, we’ve brought in a variety of pieces of equipment here at ASA to allow us to offer different items to our clients. We have embroidery, screen printing, photo enlargements, full color banners and recently purchased equipment to make a variety of personalized items such as plaques, mouse pads, car license plates, clocks, etc