Melissa Voss | Editor
From taking on the track during his time on Tri-Valley high school, Dakota State University and the professional sphere, Seth Boomsma makes it his mission to professionally train South Dakota’s athletes. Taking his experience with multiple coaches, trainers, and programs from over the years, Boomsma created Boom Athletics, a professional athletic training program that works with individuals on athletic training, nutrition, injury prevention, and character development. Today, Boom Athletics aids over 140 athletes and is based out of Tea.
Boomsma was a four-time state track and field champion during his years at Tri-Valley high school. Over the course of his high school career, he won 13 state meet metals, won four state championships, named MVP of the 2011 South Dakota state track meet, and two all-class gold medals.
He moved on to Dakota State University in Madison where he won numerous state and national awards such as being a two-time recipient of the Dakota State’s Most Outstanding Male Athlete title, being a USA Championship Qualifier, and a six-time NAIA All-American.
In 2017, he signed a professional contract with Brooks Running, where he was invited to run in professional meets both nationally and internationally. He then retired in 2019.
The idea of Boom Athletics originated in Boomsma’s second year in professional track, when he was wondering what his next moves were going to be.
“I was wondering what I was going to do next. And I had all this wealth of knowledge built up from this performance training background and I was thinking ‘what direction do I want to take that’? And that is I really thought deep and started Boom Athletics in March 2018,” Boomsma states.
His programs and philosophy revolve around curating a detailed, individualized program for each athlete that comes through the door. Boomsma believes that there is no one size fits all program for athletes, that figuring out each athlete’s individualized goals are the key to curating a unique training system for them.
“My unique background provides proven methods that will help guide each athlete to reaching their goals,” Boomsma says.
But as the demand for his expertise increased, he soon realized that he would need the bigger space. On May 1 of this year, Boom Athletics opened up a performance center in Tea. The center consists of a weight room, 40 yards of track, electronic timing gates, a vertical jump tester, a run rocket, and more.
When thinking on how becoming a trainer has impacted him, Boomsma finds that his experience training athletes has been more rewarding on him than his years as an athlete.
“When you are an athlete, you think your competitive days are up and over. Transitioning to a coach and trainer, seeing an athlete hit a [personal record] or getting them to see their own progress it has been such more rewarding than when I was an athlete myself,” Boomsma mentions.
Averi Schmeichel, a hurdler from West Central, finds that her experience with Boom Athletics and working with Boomsma in the past nine months has helped her come back strong after an injury.
“I started working with Boom Athletics in November of 2019. With Seth’s expertise & technical knowledge, I have been able to come back from injury & continue to improve. Boom Athletics has given me so many opportunities to connect with college coaches, compete in club track meets, and train with many of South Dakota’s top Track and Field Athletes,” Schmeichel states.
As Boom athletics continues to grow, Boomsma wants to continue to give his athletes the quality experience that Boom Athletics prides itself on.
“As long as we continue to guide the athletes to achieving the goals that they want, we can provide with the support with athletic programs around. The level of support here are unmatched.”