Local gym is all the Rage

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, January 4, 2011

There’s a facility in Everett where thousands of youngsters over the years have been able to feel like pros. All it took were a handful of tokens and the desire to swing away at everything flung by the pitching machines at the Rage Cage in south Everett.

It’s not just for kids and softball players anymore.

The past two winters, upstairs in the wood-frame main building and in an indoor hitting cage out back, the complex has become the offseason home to several pro baseball players.

Athletic trainer Jeff Millet operates Northcore Performance Training out of the Rage Cage complex, and his clients are much more than little kids with big-league dreams.

A couple of them are big leaguers — Travis Snider of the Toronto Blue Jays and Brent Lillibridge of the Chicago White Sox. Those two, former stars at Jackson High School, are joined most mornings in their offseason workouts by three other local minor leaguers — Cascade High grad Steven Souza of the Washington Nationals and Shorecrest grads James Robbins of the Detroit Tigers and Pierce Rankin of the Blue Jays.

“I’ve kind of grown up there,” said Snider, who took hundreds of swings as a kid at the Rage Cage.

It’s a setup that began to develop several years ago in Arizona.

Early in his pro career, Snider worked out at Pro Advantage Training, a facility in Tempe, Ariz., where several major leaguers did their offseason training. Millet, who grew up in Sequim, had graduated from Arizona State University and was an assistant trainer at Pro Advantage.

“With the number of major league guys training there, the head trainer worked with them,” Snider said. “Jeff was the guy who worked with me the most and we hit it off, not only from a personality standpoint but also in that we were on the same page with what I needed. He would tone me down when I needed it and push me when I needed it.”

Both Snider and Millet had thoughts of returning to the Northwest — Snider to work out closer to friends and family and Millet to start his own business — although they never really talked about it while they were in Arizona.

However, in August of 2009, Millet left his job and drove to Seattle, where he hoped to land a job and save money to, hopefully, open his own facility.

He found work at a Seattle fitness center and, after the 2009 baseball season, continued to handle Snider’s offseason workouts.

Over lunch early last offseason, Snider pitched an idea. If Millet started his own gym, Snider not only could help round up ballplayers to work out there — and help pay the bills — but also locate a building to house it. Snider had connections in Everett with Dan Holtgeerts, owner of the Rage Cage, and the idea took hold quickly.

“We came over here and looked at the space and decided we could make it work,” Millet said. “Basically, we just took the back corner in one of the indoor cages there, walled it off and bought equipment. The first week I was training him, there was construction going on.”

Snider told Lillibridge and Souza, and they joined the program. So did Mariners infielder/outfielder Matt Tuiasosopo, a former Woodinville High star who worked out in Everett last offseason.

“The first offseason I worked with the professional guys, I didn’t make any money,” Millet said. “I just put it all back into the business. I wanted to start small and slowly build it up because, especially in this economy, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Millet has since has moved the gym into an 800-square-foot space on the upper floor of the main building at the Rage Cage. The players typically work out there early in the morning before finishing with agility, throwing and hitting in the 4,000-square-foot indoor cage area.

“It was a huge risk,” the 33-year-old Millet said. “I left everything behind, including a good-paying job. But I figured if you don’t make this move, at some point you will be stuck working for somebody else the rest of your life. I enjoy what I do. I do it for the money, but also because I enjoy helping people.”

Besides the pro players working out this winter, Millet also trains about 50 other athletes ranging from 13-18 years old.

“What I enjoy the most is hearing parents and coaches say they see a huge difference on the field in strength and quickness,” Millet said.

To the pro ballplayers who spend at least eight months away from home, the facility allows them more time with their friends and families.

“I get to spend a lot of time with people I didn’t get a chance to see as much as I’d liked to because I was spending six to 10 weeks in Arizona,” Snider said. “It’s a blessing to stay at home.”