From 7th grade to sophomore year of high school I trained at a place called Winners Edge. In the gym there were a bunch of bigger guys, all bodybuilders and weightlifters, and here I was, little 8th grade me walking into the gym, and every single one of them noticed and said hi. But most of all, Dom and Kirk helped me through my problems.

I wasn’t very big. I hadn’t worked out before, other than working with my dad. But anyways, I walked in and everyone looked at me, I was the youngest and the smallest person in the gym. Everyone else had been lifting here for years, they all knew each other and they all talked throughout their workouts.

“How’s it going buddy?” he said, reaching his hand out to shake mine.

A little nervous, I reached out and shook his hand.

Throughout the year, he said the same thing everyday, sometimes he would come up to me and say it, and sometimes he would yell it from across the gym. And sure enough, in no time, he had everyone saying it, nobody had even known who I was, until he and Kirk would yell my name from across the gym and everyone would look and turn around.

I hadn’t ever worked out before, and to be honest when my dad first mentioned it, I did not want to workout. It seemed like time away from baseball and something that I would struggle to keep up even with baseball.

After working out for a couple of months, I began to like it, my perspective had completely changed and I had started to look forward to coming to the gym and working out. I began to see progress. My weight was relatively the same, but I had gained muscle. My lifts kept getting heavier and heavier. For the first time in a long time I had physically felt better about myself and just felt better in general.

Both Dom and Kirk really changed who I was. At first I was a little kid who had no idea what he was doing, but now I love working out, it makes me feel like a completely different person and I can honestly say that it changed my attitude and my mental state. Suddenly I was more happy and I felt healthier and just better.

Now working out is a daily thing for me, with baseball, I change those workouts to be more baseball related, and even when I workout at home, I still use the workouts that he mentioned and the workouts that we did at Winners Edge in order to better myself.

Because of Dom and Kirk I have a full ride scholarship at Upper Iowa University, of course, it is not completely because of them, but they played a huge part in my progress as a player and as a person and there is no way that I would have been the player that I am without the work and motivation from them.

And for that I thank them, they helped me through some difficult times and now they’ve gotten me into lifting, which helps me through even more difficult times.

They saved me and my family a ton of money, without even the intention of saving us money. They’re a group of guys in the gym that are welcoming and never stop motivating and pushing me to be the best person I could be. Thank you.