Regina Sports Performance Centre: “Find out what it means tome”
Born from an idea that came to him on a trip, Aubrey Steadman embarked on a journey to make his dream of the Regina Sports Performance Centre (RSPC) reality. “Good thing I didn’t open a sports facility during a pandemic,” he laughs.
Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction. In 2019, the family real estate business, Gene’s Realty Partnership, came to own the former Tartan Curling Club at 1464 Broadway Ave. Built in 1956 (coincidentally the same year Gene’s was founded by Gene Ciuca), the building itself was structurally sound but was in need of a little TLC.
Steadman says, “We owned the building next door, the former SGEU building, so it made sense from a commercial development purpose. However, there was an oversupply of office and retail space so it wasn’t the best time to build more retail space.”
Step back to the summer of 2018 and Steadman was on a trip with his 16 year-old son, Emmett Steadman, now a receiver with the University of Regina Rams, and several other young football players and coaches. The group travelled to several American university football camps including Northwestern, South Dakota and Cornell University. The camps were an eye-opener for the players, coaches and the parents as to how seriously they took training in the U.S. and the top-notch facilities they possessed.
Fast forward to February, 2019. Having seen these incredible training facilities, Steadman thought he could replicate, to a degree, the same training facilities he saw in the U.S. His son Emmett had just torn his ACL, MCL and meniscus in January playing for the U18 Team Canada team versus the U18 Team USA in the Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington, Texas. He knew this facility would be a further opportunity for his son to both rehabilitate and train for the Rams. “I was selfish. I wanted to see the best for my son and this would benefit him—but I also knew it would benefit many generations of kids and athletes—not justmy son.”
On September 1, 2020 the Regina Sports Performance Centre (RSPC) opened for business. “The pandemic added a definite twist. Our rubberized surface was installed in the summer by a specialized crew based out of New Brunswick. They quarantined for 14 days in New Brunswick before embarking on a three-day road trip with all their supplies and a letter from my company authorizing them to travel to an outof-province work site. It took 14 days to install during which no local trades were allowed on site and then the site itself was closed for seven days after their departure,” says Steadman.
Today the RSPC boasts almost 40,000 square feet of training and classroom/meeting space over two adjacent buildings. The RSPC offers 20,000 square feet of FieldTurf and Polyturf field and court amenities, accommodating football, lacrosse, soccer, basketball, junior baseball, pickleball, badminton and volleyball.
The RSPC also offers 15,000 square feet of cardio and weight equipment training space at Next Level Fitness including a 50 yard long two-lane turf running track and 2,000 square feet of Fieldturf crossfit training space. Anderson and Associates Physiotherapy clinic is also onsite. Training and rehabilitation is also enhanced by Regina’s only publicly available underwater treadmill.
While it has been a labour of love and a significant financial outlay for Steadman, he hopes the community will see the value in supporting such a facility. It is also a family affair with his oldest son, Aidan, serving as the facility’s general manager. Emmett also helps out as a facility manager when not attending university. “Nothing is better than being able to work with family,” says Aubrey, who still works with his sister and father ingene’s Ltd.
“We have an experienced sports physiotherapist, Scott Anderson, who has a clinic onsite which allows the clinic to use our facilities to provide further rehabilitation to their clients and provides onsite access to our athletes in need. We have specialized equipment specific to rehabilitation and strength building. We installed the same quality and brand of turf you find at Mosaic Stadium and have foam padding and netting to minimize player injuries.”
COVID-19 protocols are strictly adhered to. “We have purchased $20,000 in state-ofthe-art sanitization equipment used by professional sports teams for both our field and equipment including an electrostatic Clorox 360 machine. The Clorox 360 completely envelops the area electrostatically in disinfectant, dries in 30 seconds and is ready to use in less than two minutes without ever touching the equipment. Health and safety were top of mind prior to the pandemic and we have stepped that up even more. From the day we opened, we required masks in the facility, social distancing when not engaged in an activity, undertook temperature checks and contact tracing of all entering the RSPC. We also have been cleaning and disinfecting hightouch surfaces and sanitize the fields and equipment on a regular basis,” says Steadman.
Currently the RSPC is hosting the Regina Youth Flag Football League and the RYFFL 3 vs 3 Youth Basketball League with a flag rugby league starting in January. They also have numerous football, soccer, basketball, lacrosse and other sports teams undertaking training along with individual clients. All the leagues and teams have Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) approval and must follow their own strict SHA-REquired health protocols as well.
While the RSPC is booked for the winter during the weekends and weeknight, Steadman indicates there are still some limited openings. Next Level Fitness also has a limited number of memberships available. To enquire about rental and fitness membership enquiries visit: reginasports.ca.