Tom Shoji, Head Volleyball Coach at Willamette University, stands with his arms crossed and watches as 58 female high school athletes (all players in the Capital City Elite Volleyball Club, which Shoji directs) jump and lunge and squat and jump and sprint and slide. It is Saturday morning and these athletes are going through extensive tests by Courthouse Performance Training. Shoji knows that something unique is happening today.

“There are all kinds of athletes out there who struggle with injury,” says Shoji. “They cannot perform as well as they want because they have weaknesses in how they move. This is neat because we are finding those weaknesses early and addressing them. I know of no other volleyball club who is doing something like this.”

Chris DuBois stands near Shoji in the Performance room at the South River Rd Courthouse and drinks from his black Marines coffee mug. He watches as his Performance Trainers test each athlete. He knows what they are doing here is important.

“Statistically speaking, the people on earth who have the greatest risk of ACL tears are high school girls,” says DuBois. “And as we test, we find that a majority of the girls here today have the weaknesses that lead to those tears and injuries. Now, we need to intervene and prevent those injuries.”

Each Trainer in Performance who is doing testing on this rainy Saturday morning is clear in this mission: intervene and prevent injury to build stronger, faster, better athletes.

“I am confident that we know what we are doing,” says DuBois. “That we can prevent injury. That we can improve performance. Our program’s history proves we can do both.”