“Let’s build something special.” East Liverpool Next Gen coming in 2026
The back room at an East Liverpool fitness center will soon become a game-changing indoor turf training facility for young athletes dubbed the NextGen Athletic Lab.
Stu Wallace is the cofounder and president of the East Liverpool Youth Academy.
“What we’re doing is we’re providing a space for kids to come in and train, move around, provide challenging workouts and a space for them to push themselves and grow, regardless of what the weather looks like,” Wallace said.
The NextGen Athletic Lab is a turf indoor training facility designed to host year-round programs for all students in sports during off-seasons in and around East Liverpool.
“We’re going to work with football players and small kids to develop athletic skills and movements. These are all going to be included in the ELYA program, so they’ll be able to come in there and take advantage of these programs,” Wallace said. “It’ll also be open for any school and city that needs it. We’ll be able to give them a space to work on skills and practice as well.”
Wallace is also part of the East Liverpool Community Partnership for Revitalization, a community improvement organization.
“I’m an offensive line and defensive line coach. I was looking for a facility here in the area that we didn’t have. Scott Shepherd is a well-known architect around the city, and I was running some ideas by him when he said, ‘Why don’t you talk to Tom down there at Power Fitness?’” Wallace said.
He soon partnered with Tom and Megan Beagle who are the owners and operators of Power Fitness Gym in East Liverpool.
“It’s going to bring a lot of people to the gym and it’s something to draw people here in the area,” Wallace said. “I wanted to make sure that we were able to not only give the students in East Liverpool something new, but also for the public to be able to use. It can be an incubator for personal trainers.”
They decided to convert the 4,200-square-foot back room of the gym into the NextGen Athletic Lab.
Wallace doesn’t have the full list of programming ready just yet, but wants East Liverpool parents and kids to know the lab will be open to all.
“I feel like here in East Liverpool, we need to come together to build something that our kids can take advantage of, where they can walk to. It’s a lot closer for them to experience and take advantage of our youth programs,” he said. “It’s going to be team and sports oriented, but athletic movement is good for everybody, regardless if you play a sport or not, in a group atmosphere.”
The turf is scheduled to be delivered and installed at the gym within the next six weeks, according to Wallace, with plans to unveil around spring of 2026.
”We’ve been able to raise $15,000 thanks to the mayor and a private donor,” Wallace said. “It’s let us get started. We’re looking at getting it installed after the New Year. We’ve done a lot of work in there, a lot of remodeling with Tom.”
For the project, they’re still looking for financial support to pay for pieces of equipment inside the facility.
“Exercise gives kids something to look forward to. It’s going to challenge them,” Wallace said. “Whenever there’s a lot of idle time, kids have a lot of opportunity to think negatively or do things that are not going to be that are not going to be conducive to growth. The more they move, the more they’re around other kids, which gives them an opportunity to hone in on social skills and challenge themselves. That’s going to definitely help with mental health.”
