Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ERIC ITA DESERT PATROL Sports trainer Mike Waters gives a lift to the next generation of athletes. "Our blueprint here is to do everything for the right reasons. We've had great results with that, and in turn we've been a successful business," he says of 10,000-square-foot facility—complete with 40 yards of indoor turf, hanging ropes, kettle bells, and more—that he has owned for the past nine years. the The Big Brothers Big Sisters event scheduled for this month is an opportunity for "bigs" and "littles" to uti- lize the INSIGHT Favorite food: "Salmon and asparagus for a healthy meal, but I have what I call 'a double bacon cheeseburger problem.'" Celebrity you'd most like to train: "All the pretty women—Jennifer Lopez especially." Phase 1 Sports strengthen their bonds. "After facility talking to a lot of mentors, it seemed that many of them go to the movies with their 'littles' or to the library, but they never do anything with a lot of physical activity," he says. "We want to get them mov- ing and teach them a little about health and nutrition, hopefully motivating them to play sports or get involved in other programs." Waters, 34, has always viewed sports as a way for kids to stay out of trouble and create opportunities for themselves, and this stems from personal experience. Growing up in Southern California, he had a best friend he did absolutely everything with up until good sport MIKE WATERS GETS KIDS IN MOTION AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE VICTIMS ON THE PATH TO RECOVERY THROUGH HIS FITNESS PROGRAMS. BY DOROTHY CASCERCERI F or years, Phase 1 Sports co-owner Mike Waters has dedicated his career to cultivating and training young and professional athletes. But this season he's focusing on two different demographics: children in need of more physical activity and domestically abused women. Combining his knowledge of training and his passion for volunteering, he's organized a physical fitness day for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southern Nevada, and free self-defense classes for women from The Shade Tree shelter. 64 VEGASMAGAZINE.COM Waters went to college to play football. That friend is now 12 years into serving a 19-year jail sentence for armed robbery. "I owe football for sending me in this direction," he says. "I started to wonder how many young athletes don't have anyone who's proud of them." NFL linebacker Brandon Marshall and D.J. Campbell of the Carolina Panthers are two successful men Waters worked with from a young age. He aims to do the same for others, whether they can afford his facil- ity's fees or not. "No athlete has ever been turned away from our program—ever," he says. "How do I say no to them and still go to sleep at night?" This attitude is what led him to develop his self-defense program, with free classes once a month for domestic violence victims from Shade Tree. As a mentor to so many young people over the years, he was touched by the stories of single mothers in abusive relationships. "We're not only going to teach them the physical parts of the class but the mental parts of it," he says. "Maybe they've already been through something traumatic, so we are giving them the opportunity to do some- thing proactive." V and