Cleanthony Early is one of the top junior college basketball players in the country.

And next year, Early a sophomore at SUNY Sullivan, plans on making an impact on an even bigger stage. He is set to play at Wichita State, a perennial top 25 team in the Missouri Valley Conference.

Early, an explosive 6-foot-8 power forward, will converge on Wichita State faster and stronger, thanks to Rick Scarpulla and Ultimate Advantage Training Facility. In preparation for big-time basketball and, perhaps, March Madness, Early worked out with Scarpulla.

ULTIMATE ADVANTAGE TRAINING CENTER is now on facebook.

Army/Navy has been called the greatest rivalry in sports anything you do is important. It doesn't matter if you are playing marbles, you want to win.The Army Powerlifting Team did their part defeating Navy once again to make it 11 in a row 10 in a row for Coach Scarpulla and his Black Knights. Giving them the longest current win streak against Navy at West Point.

We here at Ultimate Advantage and the Army Powerlifting Team send our heartfelt prayers and thoughts to Josh Leone his wife Michelle and their 2 beautiful daughters. Josh was badly injured in a terrorist bombing in the Middle East while serving our country. Josh is a West Point graduate and former Army Powerlifting Team Captain. He is one heck of a lifter and friend of mine and my family and I are heart sick over the news we received. We wish him well and pray for a full and speedy recovery.

In todays sports the need for faster, stronger, more explosive athletes is one of the top priorities for all athletes as well as coaches. Most sports played today are really about short to midrange acceleration and physical domination, therefore explosive speed as well as explosive strength is a must. A solid speed and strength program will not only help in your performance. In addition it will greatly reduce the risk of injury. Here are a few tips to becoming faster and stronger athlete and a few misconceptions exposed.

For those of you who think that running gets athletes in 'shape' to play a sport. Think again and read on!

By Kevin Gleason
Times Herald-Record
Published: 2:00 AM - 06/30/10

Dr. William Rose is a Middletown pediatrician with children who have played college sports. Pat D'Aliso is a health teacher at Monroe-Woodbury and head coach of one of the top scholastic football teams in the state.

They believe supplements are largely useless and potentially harmful.

"There's not one supplement that we recommend,'' Rose says. "I don't think it helps.''

By Kevin Gleason

A.J. Kmiec couldn't gain weight for the life of him. Everything changed when he started taking a dietary supplement called Cyto Gainer while undergoing a strict training regimen.

Kmiec, entering his eighth-grade year in the Pine Bush Central School District, has gained 21 pounds since arriving at Rick Scarpulla's gym in August.

He didn't just gain weight,'' says A.J.'s mom, Maria. He gained muscle. And we've never been able to get him to gain weight.''

Coach Rick talks about sport specific training versus non sports specific training.

Just a quick word on a topic that seems is not that well understood by many people. Hard work! That is what it takes if you want to succeed in sports or life or love or anything else. It seems that point has gotten lost or forgotten or something.

When I work with athletes and crank up their level of work, or should I say effort  level, seems some people say I am extreme or worse. I really don't care what those people say because most times they are not people who have any right saying anything at all. Sometimes they are just making excuses for themselves and their lack of work ethic.

Army Powerlifting returned home from Orlando Fl. and the Colligiate Nationals with a great 3rd place finish. This event was the largest college lifting event on record and the stage was set for 3 days of hard competion. With over 50 schools in attendence each lifter had thier hands full. The opening attempts were weights that would have won thier class a few short years ago. We knew this was going to be a fight. In addition our roster size was less then half of the size of the other top schools. We were grossly undermaned.

Steve Schweikhart

The term "off season" has basically vanished from the vocabulary of the high school student athleteespecially when you are talking about a school the size of Haldane. With a very small pool of students from which to pull, the school's teams feature a majority of athletes that cross over from sport to sport, trading in their fall-season cleats for basketball shoes in the winter and spikes in the spring. With the demands of up to three sports during the school year, it is virtually impossible for athletes to develop and improve their skill level in all three.

Winter is coming to end as our Ultimate Advantage athletes roar on to success. With Spring just around the corner I wanted to reflect on some of the exciting successes our athletes experienced over the winter months.

Jeff Clark is tearing up the NCAA swim lanes setting several school and pool NCAA records. Jeff is working very hard and will be competing at the NCAA Finals coming up in a few weeks .

Big Congrats go out to tackling machine Nick Scarpulla who had an outstanding season leading his team in almost all defensive categories. Big Nick also finished as a Northeast Conference leader in tackles and was ranked by the NCAA as atop 50 defensive player in the nation. Nick will be brining his game to D-1 University of Albany in the fall. As he has been recruited to play middle linebacker for the Great Danes. Nick proved once again hard work does pay off.

Coach Fury and his Navy team came to play but were unable to mount any offense as the Black Knights were to strong to be beaten as they just kept hitting lift after lift. 

Congratulations to Valley Centrals  Morgan Holbrook on winning the County and sections girls tennis Championship. Morgan rolled undefeated  through the regular season and through both championship playoffs. Great Job. Morgan now heads to the state championships in early Nov. Congratulations also to Kim Fernez of Monroe Woodbury who had a great season and placed third in the 
county championships. Nick Scarpulla is still in the middle of  having a solid  season at Hudson Valley. Nick is leading his team and the
 North East Confrence in tackles. Also congratulations to Jen Peters of Minisink Valley who is destroying anyone in her way on her way to being section 9's leading scorer in girls soccer. Army Powerlifting is edgeing closer to its heated rival Army /Navy will square off under the bar on Nov.21 at West point. Come on out and show your support