New facilility opens in Fargo

FARGO — There’s three-sport athletes like Tanner McManus, who no longer have an excuse when it comes to training.

This area, with its harsh and unpredictable weather doesn’t grant favors for anyone wanting to do any athletic training. Perhaps having something like the POWER Center, which opened Monday, could change all that.

The blue, oval-shaped building next to Scheels Arena in southwest Fargo is Sanford Health’s latest endeavor and it just happens to be the area’s largest athletic training facility.

“You can just work on your game all year round,” said McManus, who will be a sophomore at Dilworth-Glyndon Felton High School this year. “That’s something you couldn’t do before.”

The POWER Center is the area’s first public-use, one-stop-shop for athletic training.

Sanford dropped $2.5 million into 20,000-square foot indoor facility that’s designed for athletes looking to get better in their respective sport.

In additions to weights and treadmills, the facility has 25 yards of artificial turf – which means football and soccer players can train on a grassy surface.

It also features a half-court for basketball players looking to work on their shooting. Plus, it also has four 50-yard running lanes with one of the lanes being on an incline.

“This is for the training of athletes and the training of anyone looking to improve performance and fitness,” said POWER Center director Randy Martin. “Having those different surfaces allows us to train athletes and train them on the surfaces they will be playing on.”

The facility will also be home to the Sanford POWER Hockey Academy, which feature items a hockey treadmill.

Adjacent to the treadmill is a section with an artificial surface that’s similar to ice allowing players to wear skates while working on their shooting.

It will also serve as the training home for the Fargo Force junior hockey team, which plays at Scheels Arena.

“The Force will train here exclusively for all our (off-ice) training,” said Force trainer Phil Faught. “We’re going to do our pre-season training here and some of our camps, which start next week, we’ll have athletes in here training next week.”

According to Sanford spokeswoman Andrea Voorhies, memberships for the POWER Center can be purchased for a six or eight week program as individual or group setting.

Sanford opened its first POWER Center in 2008 in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Clark is a sports writer at the Fargo Forum

Tags: sports, fargo, training