His playing days may be behind him, but former Ballenas Whaler football standout Justin Andrushko has taken the ball and is running with it where high performance training is concerned.
A blue chip running back for Ballenas Secondary School, Andrushko, who turns 25 the end of the month, played his final campaign for the blue and white in 2005 and graduated from BSS in 2006.
This Saturday he will host his first-ever ATP High Performance Camp for young athletes of all sports aged 12-19 on the field at BSS.
No stranger to training during his days with the Whalers, Andrushko set provincial record for rushing yards in one game at 441 (to go along with six touchdowns) in 2005 — that record stood until last year, and remains a Whalers’ record.
He also still holds the varsity Whalers’ record for most rushing touchdowns in a season at 31, and most rushing yards for a season at 2,384. Going into the CFL’s 2010 prospect draft he was ranked the 10 best running back in the draft by TSN.
After graduating from BSS he did two years at the University of Waterloo, then returned home to BC for two years at UBC where he closed out his playing career in 2011, and is now attending VIU and due to graduate with his BA in physical education next year.
“I’ve always had a passion for performance, even when I was a player I always trained hard,” he said this week, explaining how last summer he did some speed training with some local young football players “and that’s how it all started. It’s great,” he said.
Shortly after that camp he created ATP (short for Andrushko Training Program).
This Saturday he will host his biggest camp to date (32 young athletes from Oceanside and Nanaimo had signed up as of Wednesday) on the field behind BSS, and worth noting he says, is that it’s not just football players that will benefit.
“It’s for all sports,” he said of the camp which will cover topics such as speed training, agility training, strength training, and warm-up and cool-down. “I just want to give young athletes the opportunity to learn how to train properly.
“The biggest thing I’m hoping for is for the kids to get something out of it,” Andrushko said easily, adding “I remember as a kid training was so important to me, success was so important to me, so if I can give back that knowledge, that’s cool.”
GAME ON
Slated for the field behind BSS this Saturday, the ATP High Performance Camp is open to players, boys and girls, aged 12-19.
Registration gets underway at 8 a.m. and the camp runs though to around 2:30 p.m.
Cost is by donation; participants are asked to bring cleats and running shoes, and a meal for lunch.
For more information go to www.atphighperformance.ca/camp.