Marlene Karas/VIEWJeff Van Orsow, a graduate of Foothill High School, trains at Athletes Performance in Las Vegas in preparation for his senior year of football at Oregon State University.
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As a fifth-year senior preparing for his final year of college football at Oregon State University, Foothill High School graduate Jeff Van Orsow only has about a week's time to spend back home in the Las Vegas area before it's back to the gridiron.
This time, he chose to spend that week logging some extra training at Athletes Performance.
Van Orsow, a 6-foot-4-inch, 265-pound defensive lineman, will enter the 2007 season with the most starts of any defensive player on the Oregon State team this fall. He is expected to help anchor the Beavers' defense and is regarded as a possible NFL prospect for next year's draft.
A chance at professional football is part of the reason Van Orsow stepped up his training regimen even before the season started.
"This is all about getting ready for the NFL combines," said Van Orsow, who finished high school at Foothill in 2003 and redshirted his first year at Oregon State. "I didn't know there was a place like this (Athletes Performance) that existed in Las Vegas, and I was only going to be here for one week. But Josh Clark contacted me and let me know there were a lot of guys here training, so I came down to check out the facility and see if I liked it and see if it's where I want to come back to in December."
Athletes Performance is located near Sahara Avenue and Interstate 15. It opened about a year ago and shares space with the Tarkanian Basketball Academy, but the two businesses are separate. The site is a temporary location for Athletes Performance, which plans to expand into its own larger facility within the next year. The company has four locations across the country and is headquartered in Tempe, Ariz.
"We basically offer everything the athlete could possibly hope for, all under one roof," Clark said.
The facility provides athletes of all ages and skill levels specialized training including physical therapy, nutrition counseling and more. Over the past year, Athletes Performance has trained 10 first-round picks in the 2007 NFL Draft and eight first-round picks in the 2006 NFL Draft, including No. 1 picks JaMarcus Russell and Mario Williams; seven first-round picks in the 2007 NBA Draft; five Major League Baseball All-Stars from the 2007 game; the German men's National Soccer team, which finished third in the 2006 World Cup; and loads of NFL veterans, MLB and top Minor League veterans and NBA veterans during the most recent offseasons.
For Van Orsow, the training has meant focusing on the ways he can improve his skills and become a better football player.
"Coming in here, I guess one of my weaknesses is my pass rush ability, so we've been doing a lot of explosion training, working with resistance and doing things to improve quickness," he said. "And I've been doing a lot of core work. It's only been a week, but already there are things I've learned that I can take back with me. At school, we do all the same weight lifting exercises. But here, we're doing the same things, only isolating the muscles, doing exercises on one leg and things like that which are going to have a greater impact."
Van Orsow, whose family has lived in the area for 10 years, is looking forward to his last year of college football and any opportunities that may come after.
"You definitely want to come in and do your best for the last year. Your senior year can make all the difference in whether or not you (get drafted) or have a free agent situation later," said Van Orsow, who recently earned his pilot's license and already has earned a degree in political science. "There's a little bit of pressure, but you just have to go out and play the game, and those things will fall into place."
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