Pro Prep Academy co-founders Andrew Harris and DJ Lalama are thrilled to announce a new partnership with United Therapies STRIVE, which will serve as the official home for the company.
Founded in 2013 by Rehabilitation Director David Pineau, STRIVE is an industry-leading multidisciplinary facility – the first of its kind in Manitoba. STRIVE has a full-service strength and conditioning gym that includes 2000-square feet of artificial turf and state of the art equipment. Classrooms are also available for consultations and meetings.
STRIVE was built with the idea of providing education, not only to the facility’s staff, but the company’s clients and community as well. Pro Prep embraces this, and will house their skill development, performance training, academic tutoring, nutrition, JOGA and sports psychology wings within the space.
“STRIVE, led by David Pineau, is full of great people. They have a great mission and great values. It aligns well with what Pro Prep Academy wants to do, and where we see sport and student-athletes in this city and province going,” said Lalama.
“We always talk about the 360-degree athlete development model. It’s something that Andrew and I are very passionate about. We’ve put a staff together that exemplifies that every step of the way. For us to be able to cater to every single need, resource and tool, and to do it under one roof, the communication, safety and comfort that these athletes can feel on a day-to-day is second to none. We wouldn’t be able to do this without STRIVE, so shout out to them.”
“STRIVE and its staff have serviced and trained the highest-level athletes and individuals for the last several years. Both DJ and I had an opportunity to see first-hand the type of facility and staff that Strive had to offer and it was a no brainer for us to merge a partnership with them when the opportunity presented itself,” added Harris.
“We want to work and grow with like-minded individuals with similar goals and vision to uplift and bring the most out of the athletes in our community. We want nothing more than to build up and help groom the next Desiree Scott or DJ Lalama.”
Pineau has known Lalama for several years, through the training world. They’ve kept in touch, and, along with Harris — who also trains at STRIVE – have a mutual respect for each other.
“DJ and I have always had, in the back of our minds, a thought that we could potentially work together at some time. I think honestly COVID maybe gave everybody an opportunity to start working on it and talking about it. This has just kind of progressed over some conversations over the last couple of months,” said Pineau.
“Andrew and DJ aren’t the first people that wanted to be a part of this, and to use the facility, but really, again, it’s built out of that mutual respect, and the way that they do their training, as well as respect in turn for the way that we’ve built our business and training the proper way. Ultimately that’s what a good gym does, is build community. That is one of the pillars of what we do in STRIVE, and why we opened, is to build that community feeling. Really, it’s truly about relationships, both with your clients, but also potential partners, and just other people in the business.”