Ohio Valley Athletics is proud to announce a collaboration between us and SYNA Speed and Fitness. In the coming weeks and months, you will see a series of articles and more on how to make yourself a better athlete.
That is the primary goal of both of our companies. We both care about the Valley and the people in it. We are beyond excited to be able to bring you some of the best content around. Hopefully, this will be a great starting point for kids and adults all over the Ohio Valley to make themselves the best version of themselves they can.
Since the fall of 2013 Josh Pyles and his company SYNA Speed and Fitness has been training athletes and adults from all over the Ohio Valley. During that time SYNA has produced some of the nation’s top athletes that have competed at the highest levels the world has to offer.
A 2004 graduate from Shadyside High School, Mr. Pyles is no stranger to being an OVAC athlete. While at Shadyside he excelled in both football and track. After high school he followed his passion for sports and attended Ohio University. There he majored in exercise physiology.
Following his time at Ohio University he was able to obtain a job at the world’s premier sports performance training location in the country, IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. There he was able to learn and train with the best in the world, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Tim Tebow, Cam Newton, Andrew McCutchen, and 400-meter gold medalists Shawn Merritt and Demetrious Pinder.
It was also during his time at IMG that Mr. Pyles started to reflect on growing up here in the Ohio Valley. He thought about how many great athletes have passed through our community. Yet, there was nowhere to train with a professional, degreed, and certified strength and conditioning coach. Nor, was there any help for the area athletes to have a sense of direction on how to obtain a college athletic scholarship.
Against the odds, Mr. Pyles moved back home with the idea of starting his own sport performance company and providing that missing piece our area athletes needed. Living off his friend’s couch in Shadyside, the first few months proved to be a challenge. Then the word finally got out about the results and the education area athletes were receiving with Mr. Pyles.
In its very first year, over 100 athletes were training through The Pyles System. Including a now 10-year NFL veteran CJ Goodwin, as well as 3x NCAA National Champion from Iowa, Spencer Lee. The most current standout must be NBA Finals player Haywood Highsmith.
This early success set the tone for the years to come. Fast forward to 2023 the company rebranded and expanded to 3 locations in the Ohio Valley (Cambridge, Follansbee, and Moundsville), to make it convenient for athletes from all over the Valley to have access to the SYNA System. They even have a facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
10 years later, hundreds of D1 scholarship athletes have come out of these training facilities, the D2 and D3 scholarship numbers are in the thousands.
It’s not just the superstars that Mr. Pyles trains. There is a wide range of demographics this company covers. Each year they train over 1000 people, ranging in age from 8-80. Sometimes just getting someone to live their everyday life better is the best result one can ask for. It’s about making you the best version of you possible.
As for the athletes themselves though, Mr. Pyles explains what some of his biggest keys to success are. Besides the knowledge and work ethic SYNA has, it’s the connections his staff, his partners, and himself has with so many colleges and universities around the country. If a student checks all the boxes, it’s nothing but a phone call to a college coach to get our kids in front of a scout. Once these athletes have that opportunity, they typically crush it and end up fulfilling their goals.
This is not just the Josh Pyles show though. While he did set the standard and had the initial vision for the company. The engine to the SYNA STANDARD is two men by the names of Pete Messer and Ralph Patrella. These two coaches come with 20 plus years combined experience in professional coaching, with degrees in exercise physiology and ATC (Certified Athletic Training).
The experience and knowledge of these two will give a high advantage to anyone involved and training at SYNA. Pete is an athletic training guru and Patrella is a program genius. Either one of these two standout coaches could have a career anywhere in the country, but they choose to stay here in the Ohio Valley and bring the highest degree of coaching to our area’s adults and athletes.
10 years after Mr. Pyles started all this the company is not slowing down. As we mentioned previously, they just expanded to Follansbee, WV, and Cambridge, OH. Include the Moundsville, WV facility, this will only further serve the people in the Ohio Valley. Their services include speed and agility training, strength and conditioning programming, injury ready to play, as well as weight loss and overall wellness.
SYNA gives free fitness and sports evaluation to all new people looking to elevate their performance. Their services could be life changing. It’s definitely worth checking out.
If anyone would like to know more information on this great company, contact them directly at syna@gmail.com
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