Where athletes go to train and get away from it all
Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2007 12:05 pm
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... QI9LK1.DTL
Where athletes go to train and get away from it all
John Crumpacker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
(06-20) 04:00 PDT Twitchell Island , Sacramento County -- Nero the Italian greyhound was gnawing on the foreleg of a sheep the other day. Seems coyotes had devoured the remainder of the animal.
Cows sometimes mosey over to the fence to take in the strange human activity through huge bovine eyes. Seven species of hawks cruise overhead in search of lunch. An occasional gopher snake slithers across the gravel paths.
Lizards, mice, rabbits and other critters leave prints in dust that settles on the rubber runway mats. For heaven's sake, do not go tramping into the weeds and grass. It's tick season.
Huge tanker ships, a startling sight at such proximity, appear to drift by on the horizon. Jet skis also ply waters that offer respite to swimmers on hot afternoons.
Yes, it's different out here on this patch of delta land near the confluence of Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Sacramento counties.
It's just over the Antioch Bridge, not far from Brentwood, closer still to Isleton and Rio Vista, bound by Three Mile Slough and the San Joaquin River and smack dab in the middle of nowhere. The athletes like it that way.
Welcome to TigerBar Ranch, a 10-acre swatch of erstwhile agricultural land and home to the TigerBar Sports club, "dedicated to facilitating holistic sports performance," as its Web site proclaims.
"It's peaceful," said Brock Kreitzburg, a bobsled athlete. "It's nice to get away. When you're out here, you focus on training. There are no distractions."
"It's like home," visiting Irish coach Paddy Fay said as he surveyed cows in the field. "It's a great setting."
"It's very beautiful and peaceful out here," high-jumper Amy Acuff said. "You have Mount Diablo over there and the two rivers. I see lots of animal tracks on my runway and try to figure out what they are. A lot of coyotes come out at night."
What as many as a dozen elite and national-class athletes, most of them in track and field, are doing here is suggestive of what's wrong with the structure of many Olympic sports in the United States.
"The reason we're doing this is, in America, we do a great job of coaching youth sports through high school and college," said Dan Pfaff, resident coach of TigerBar Sports. "We have the best system in the world from cradle to college and at 22, we throw these people on the street. These people need places to train and network support to keep them together.
"Every person who is here is here because (he or she) couldn't find access to training facilities or coaching."
Thus, Twitchell Island, with its space, isolation and those famous delta breezes.
Thus, Pfaff, a low-key coach with high-profile athletes, 33 of whom were or are Olympians.
It's a roll call that includes active athletes Acuff, pole-vaulters Tye Harvey and Tommy Skipper, discus thrower Suzy Powell and previously, Canadian sprinters Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin, Canadian high-jumper Mark Boswell, sprinter Obadele Thompson of Barbados and, for a short and unhappy stint, Marion Jones. (Jones sued Pfaff in 2005 for breach of contract; the case is still in litigation and Pfaff cannot talk about Jones publicly.)
Real-estate developer Tony Rosenthal, 51, of Brentwood is the force behind this unusual training center as well as its benefactor. He and a partner, Richard Silva, own 539 of Twitchell Island's 13,000 mostly flat acres. When Powell, who formerly worked for Rosenthal's development company, came to him in 2005 complaining about not having a consistent place to train, the light bulb lit.
"I could not understand why the best (female) discus thrower this nation has produced cannot find a place to use," Rosenthal said. "To me, that's wrong. I simply said why don't we change the paradigm? Throw the discus, hit a cow and go to dinner? I had just bought the property."
(No cows were harmed during a Chronicle reporter's visit to Twitchell Island.)
The 10 acres now in use for training at TigerBar Ranch (Rosenthal's and his wife's initials can be found in the name he gave the place) do not include a discus ring or throwing area just yet, but it's in the works. In the meantime, Powell throws the discus at local high schools, primarily in Rio Vista.
"We should build the discus ring this summer," said Powell, a Modesto native and two-time Olympian who recently set the American record with a throw of 222 feet even.
Twitchell Island, like many in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, is zoned for agricultural use. Rosenthal has applied to Sacramento County for an outdoor recreation permit but has not received it.
Rosenthal also has applied for 501-3c status as a nonprofit. He and Pfaff and the athletes hope a major sponsor can be found in order to develop TigerBar into a complete training facility for elite post-collegiate athletes.
"When it's all said and done, you should have a full-fledged state-of-the-art center if you can afford it," Rosenthal said. "That hard part is affording it. I would like our facility to one day not be the last choice but the first choice. With the right people wanting to participate, we really could build a nice center for track and field, particularly field."
A 10,000-square-foot peaked metal barn on the property is used primarily for storage until the recreation permit arrives. When it does, athletes will be able to pole vault and high jump indoors and perform other training exercises. For now, the building houses dozens of vaulting poles, exercise balls, stacks of weights and, at the moment, Nero at rest.
Nero is Harvey's dog and running partner. One look at the sleek animal and it's obvious the breed is built to run. Nero has a top-end speed of 35 mph. In comparison, an elite sprinter such as Bailey, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist, reached a top speed of 25-27 mph.
"He's the perfect running partner. He makes sure I keep in shape," said Harvey, Acuff's husband and a vaulter with a best of 19-01/4.
Acuff, Harvey, Powell and the rest of the TigerBar crew will take part in the U.S. nationals in Indianapolis, Thursday through Sunday. At stake are spots on the U.S. team for August's World Championships in Osaka, Japan.
Rosenthal is the first to admit elite athletes such as Acuff, Powell, Harvey and Skipper did not come to Twitchell Island because of him or his land. They came because of Pfaff, a former coach at LSU and Texas with a reputation for resurrecting the careers of older professional athletes in his understated style.
"Dan Pfaff -- he's the No. 1 reason," said pole-vaulter Becky Holliday, who once held the collegiate women's record at 14-8 while at Oregon. "I stayed in Eugene after college and had probably the best facility in the U.S. the last five years, and didn't do anything with it. It's all about the coaching, I'm learning."
Kreitzburg, the bobsled athlete, is here working with Pfaff on improving his speed, the crucial element at the start of a run; a faster start usually means a faster finish.
"I came down for that man, Dan," he said. "You're looking for an edge. Every hundredth of a second counts. Being here with Dan, I feel we've made huge strides. Once my teammates see how much I've improved, they'll want to come down here, too."
The TigerBar spread is becoming something of a magnet to athletes. On a recent Tuesday afternoon, hot and still in that dead zone before the breezes cool things, Irish sprinter Joanne Cuddihy paid a visit, accompanied by her coach and nutritionist. With her Irish complexion, the red-haired Cuddihy slathered herself with sunblock (SPF 30) before working out under the delta sun.
One day in January, Duane Carlisle, the 49ers' assistant strength and conditioning coach, stopped by to talk speed technique with Pfaff.
If you build it, they will come -- but only if there's someone on site dispensing wisdom and advice. Pfaff has a two-year handshake agreement with Rosenthal to work with TigerBar's athletes through the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"It's really hard to find a coach after college," said Acuff, who went to UCLA. "They're all in college programs. To have one of the best coaches in the country (in Pfaff) is incredible. We have a relatively small number of athletes, so we get a lot of personal attention."
And no distractions. No Little League team waiting to use the field, no college track team working out, no traffic, no noise.
Just watch those ticks. It's different out here.
TigerBar athletes at the nationals
Amy Acuff, high jump
Becky Holliday, pole vault
Niki McEwen, pole vault
Tye Harvey, pole vault
Tommy Skipper, pole vault
Others to watch
Ryan Hall (Stanford) 5,000, 10,000
Erica McLain (Stanford) triple jump
Kristin Heaston (Cal) shot put
Alysia Johnson (Cal) 800
Jillian Camarena (Stanford) shot put
Tori Anthony (Castilleja High) pole vault
SFGate.com: Go online for more photos.
Keeping track
U.S. track and field championships
When: Thursday-Sunday
Where: Indianapolis
TV: 5-6 p.m. Friday, ESPN2; 11 a.m.-noon Saturday Channel: 11 Channel: 3 Channel: 8 4-5 p.m. Saturday, ESPN2, taped; 10 a.m.-noon Sunday Channel: 11 Channel: 3 Channel: 8
Where athletes go to train and get away from it all
John Crumpacker, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
(06-20) 04:00 PDT Twitchell Island , Sacramento County -- Nero the Italian greyhound was gnawing on the foreleg of a sheep the other day. Seems coyotes had devoured the remainder of the animal.
Cows sometimes mosey over to the fence to take in the strange human activity through huge bovine eyes. Seven species of hawks cruise overhead in search of lunch. An occasional gopher snake slithers across the gravel paths.
Lizards, mice, rabbits and other critters leave prints in dust that settles on the rubber runway mats. For heaven's sake, do not go tramping into the weeds and grass. It's tick season.
Huge tanker ships, a startling sight at such proximity, appear to drift by on the horizon. Jet skis also ply waters that offer respite to swimmers on hot afternoons.
Yes, it's different out here on this patch of delta land near the confluence of Contra Costa, San Joaquin and Sacramento counties.
It's just over the Antioch Bridge, not far from Brentwood, closer still to Isleton and Rio Vista, bound by Three Mile Slough and the San Joaquin River and smack dab in the middle of nowhere. The athletes like it that way.
Welcome to TigerBar Ranch, a 10-acre swatch of erstwhile agricultural land and home to the TigerBar Sports club, "dedicated to facilitating holistic sports performance," as its Web site proclaims.
"It's peaceful," said Brock Kreitzburg, a bobsled athlete. "It's nice to get away. When you're out here, you focus on training. There are no distractions."
"It's like home," visiting Irish coach Paddy Fay said as he surveyed cows in the field. "It's a great setting."
"It's very beautiful and peaceful out here," high-jumper Amy Acuff said. "You have Mount Diablo over there and the two rivers. I see lots of animal tracks on my runway and try to figure out what they are. A lot of coyotes come out at night."
What as many as a dozen elite and national-class athletes, most of them in track and field, are doing here is suggestive of what's wrong with the structure of many Olympic sports in the United States.
"The reason we're doing this is, in America, we do a great job of coaching youth sports through high school and college," said Dan Pfaff, resident coach of TigerBar Sports. "We have the best system in the world from cradle to college and at 22, we throw these people on the street. These people need places to train and network support to keep them together.
"Every person who is here is here because (he or she) couldn't find access to training facilities or coaching."
Thus, Twitchell Island, with its space, isolation and those famous delta breezes.
Thus, Pfaff, a low-key coach with high-profile athletes, 33 of whom were or are Olympians.
It's a roll call that includes active athletes Acuff, pole-vaulters Tye Harvey and Tommy Skipper, discus thrower Suzy Powell and previously, Canadian sprinters Donovan Bailey and Bruny Surin, Canadian high-jumper Mark Boswell, sprinter Obadele Thompson of Barbados and, for a short and unhappy stint, Marion Jones. (Jones sued Pfaff in 2005 for breach of contract; the case is still in litigation and Pfaff cannot talk about Jones publicly.)
Real-estate developer Tony Rosenthal, 51, of Brentwood is the force behind this unusual training center as well as its benefactor. He and a partner, Richard Silva, own 539 of Twitchell Island's 13,000 mostly flat acres. When Powell, who formerly worked for Rosenthal's development company, came to him in 2005 complaining about not having a consistent place to train, the light bulb lit.
"I could not understand why the best (female) discus thrower this nation has produced cannot find a place to use," Rosenthal said. "To me, that's wrong. I simply said why don't we change the paradigm? Throw the discus, hit a cow and go to dinner? I had just bought the property."
(No cows were harmed during a Chronicle reporter's visit to Twitchell Island.)
The 10 acres now in use for training at TigerBar Ranch (Rosenthal's and his wife's initials can be found in the name he gave the place) do not include a discus ring or throwing area just yet, but it's in the works. In the meantime, Powell throws the discus at local high schools, primarily in Rio Vista.
"We should build the discus ring this summer," said Powell, a Modesto native and two-time Olympian who recently set the American record with a throw of 222 feet even.
Twitchell Island, like many in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, is zoned for agricultural use. Rosenthal has applied to Sacramento County for an outdoor recreation permit but has not received it.
Rosenthal also has applied for 501-3c status as a nonprofit. He and Pfaff and the athletes hope a major sponsor can be found in order to develop TigerBar into a complete training facility for elite post-collegiate athletes.
"When it's all said and done, you should have a full-fledged state-of-the-art center if you can afford it," Rosenthal said. "That hard part is affording it. I would like our facility to one day not be the last choice but the first choice. With the right people wanting to participate, we really could build a nice center for track and field, particularly field."
A 10,000-square-foot peaked metal barn on the property is used primarily for storage until the recreation permit arrives. When it does, athletes will be able to pole vault and high jump indoors and perform other training exercises. For now, the building houses dozens of vaulting poles, exercise balls, stacks of weights and, at the moment, Nero at rest.
Nero is Harvey's dog and running partner. One look at the sleek animal and it's obvious the breed is built to run. Nero has a top-end speed of 35 mph. In comparison, an elite sprinter such as Bailey, the 1996 Olympic gold medalist, reached a top speed of 25-27 mph.
"He's the perfect running partner. He makes sure I keep in shape," said Harvey, Acuff's husband and a vaulter with a best of 19-01/4.
Acuff, Harvey, Powell and the rest of the TigerBar crew will take part in the U.S. nationals in Indianapolis, Thursday through Sunday. At stake are spots on the U.S. team for August's World Championships in Osaka, Japan.
Rosenthal is the first to admit elite athletes such as Acuff, Powell, Harvey and Skipper did not come to Twitchell Island because of him or his land. They came because of Pfaff, a former coach at LSU and Texas with a reputation for resurrecting the careers of older professional athletes in his understated style.
"Dan Pfaff -- he's the No. 1 reason," said pole-vaulter Becky Holliday, who once held the collegiate women's record at 14-8 while at Oregon. "I stayed in Eugene after college and had probably the best facility in the U.S. the last five years, and didn't do anything with it. It's all about the coaching, I'm learning."
Kreitzburg, the bobsled athlete, is here working with Pfaff on improving his speed, the crucial element at the start of a run; a faster start usually means a faster finish.
"I came down for that man, Dan," he said. "You're looking for an edge. Every hundredth of a second counts. Being here with Dan, I feel we've made huge strides. Once my teammates see how much I've improved, they'll want to come down here, too."
The TigerBar spread is becoming something of a magnet to athletes. On a recent Tuesday afternoon, hot and still in that dead zone before the breezes cool things, Irish sprinter Joanne Cuddihy paid a visit, accompanied by her coach and nutritionist. With her Irish complexion, the red-haired Cuddihy slathered herself with sunblock (SPF 30) before working out under the delta sun.
One day in January, Duane Carlisle, the 49ers' assistant strength and conditioning coach, stopped by to talk speed technique with Pfaff.
If you build it, they will come -- but only if there's someone on site dispensing wisdom and advice. Pfaff has a two-year handshake agreement with Rosenthal to work with TigerBar's athletes through the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
"It's really hard to find a coach after college," said Acuff, who went to UCLA. "They're all in college programs. To have one of the best coaches in the country (in Pfaff) is incredible. We have a relatively small number of athletes, so we get a lot of personal attention."
And no distractions. No Little League team waiting to use the field, no college track team working out, no traffic, no noise.
Just watch those ticks. It's different out here.
TigerBar athletes at the nationals
Amy Acuff, high jump
Becky Holliday, pole vault
Niki McEwen, pole vault
Tye Harvey, pole vault
Tommy Skipper, pole vault
Others to watch
Ryan Hall (Stanford) 5,000, 10,000
Erica McLain (Stanford) triple jump
Kristin Heaston (Cal) shot put
Alysia Johnson (Cal) 800
Jillian Camarena (Stanford) shot put
Tori Anthony (Castilleja High) pole vault
SFGate.com: Go online for more photos.
Keeping track
U.S. track and field championships
When: Thursday-Sunday
Where: Indianapolis
TV: 5-6 p.m. Friday, ESPN2; 11 a.m.-noon Saturday Channel: 11 Channel: 3 Channel: 8 4-5 p.m. Saturday, ESPN2, taped; 10 a.m.-noon Sunday Channel: 11 Channel: 3 Channel: 8