New training center focuses on diverse approaches

The Sparta Athletic Training Center (ATC), which recently opened on 235 E. Williams Ave., is having a grand opening Saturday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony beginning at 7:45 a.m. with Mayor Ken Tedford in attendance.

The new training center is also having a 5K run/walk on Saturday beginning at 8 a.m. Participants can pre-register before the race.

Before the ceremony, owners June Lindsay, Brandon Sanders and Brandon Alvarez have already begun working with members of the community to show them diverse approaches to physical fitness.

June Lindsay, a resident of Fallon for more than 10 years, went into detail each owner’s separate approaches to fitness in Fallon.

“My focus is on helping the seniors to be able to have balance and stability in our age because I know what I went through myself,” said Lindsay, one-third owner and licensed trainer since December, “My two partners, Brandon Sanders is into teaching kids how to play football and training them for it. Then Brandon Alvarez is into heavy weights.”

The gym’s design is a creative manipulation of the former site of Dave’s Automotive building, a single-floor rectangular space boasting an intense red on black color scheme. The walls are also decorated with jerseys and plaques commemorating part owner Brandon Sanders for his time playing college football with the University of Mississippi through two Cotton Bowls.

While the bulk of the equipment is for heavyweight training, Lindsay noted that the gym is accommodating of all levels, particularly since her focus is training with the elderly and teaching them stability and balance.

ATC also features select aerobics equipment, a batting cage behind the main lot, specialized weights for all levels of training and assorted pads and stationary equipment friendly to those interested in mixed martial arts.

Two members of the community, Sean Hill and Dylan Baker, hare already using the equipment in their attempt to pioneer a new fight-team in Fallon.

“A couple of my brothers said that they were opening up a new gym,” Baker said, while Hill retrieved hand blocking-gear for practicing heavy punches, “We’re starting a new fight-team here in town so we decided to make this place our home.”

The ATC has been an idea in the making since last March, according to Lindsay, who cited family and friends who helped paint and donated equipment as essential to the process.

“My husband and I moved here in 2004, bought a place and built it up,” she said. “He got sick, and that’s what motivated me into exercising. I was a caregiver for four years, and everybody that came and helped, my church, people I knew all I came to help me through this.

“Whoever comes in here is what we want. We want what the people want in this town.”