ANKENY, Iowa — Although it may be the offseason for some student-athletes, owner of Octane Performance Alex Broadus is putting them to work.
The goal: get faster and stronger.
"It's been fun," said Jack Macgregor, a junior at Lincoln High School. "It's kind of turned into something I look forward to after school in the mornings because it's like a routine now."
Broadus started working with athletes as a coach. That passion for helping his players become better led him to what he does now.
"From coaching, I've always had parents, 'can you work with my kids more?' and I was very passionate about it and I would always work with the kids more, so by me coaching them and working with other sports and being an athlete myself, that let me go in depth with it and a hobby became a career," Broadus said.
As the owner of Octane Performance, he's worked with many successful athletes throughout central Iowa.
"Dominique Dafney and Jake Hummel are guys that I've trained for a while and now they're playing in the NFL," Broadus said.
He comes up with individual training plans to accommodate the athletes' individual needs.
"For me, I did like school lifting sometimes and I have a lot of like back problems, and there it seemed like it would only get worse but here, I have like a separate sheet," said JT Spalding, a sophomore at Waukee Northwest.
When the athletes Broadus works with go on to accomplish great things in their sport, Broadus can't help but feel proud, because he's seen firsthand all of the hard work they've put in.
"I didn't necessarily make them get there," Broadus said. "Their work ethic got them there, but just being a person...being there to support them on their journey is amazing."