Look up inside D1 Training STL West and you’ll see banners hanging in the rafters, each one carrying a name. They don’t belong to pro athletes or state champions. They belong to members.
Some are moms and dads who just finished their 1,000th workout. Their kids came to watch, and so did Grandma and Grandpa. Everyone stood under the rafters while a name went up.
For owners Ryan Roth and Dan Connolly, moments like that are the real measure of what they’ve built in Ballwin, Missouri. They’ve had plenty of time to see it happen. Their facility opened in 2018 as the first D1 Training location in Missouri, and eight years later, they say the growth that matters most isn’t in the business. It’s in the people.
Roth and Connolly knew a thing or two about training before they ever opened a facility. Both starred on the football field at Southeast Missouri State. Connolly went on to a 10-season NFL career, eight of them with the New England Patriots, and earned a Super Bowl ring with New England. Roth was an All-Ohio Valley Conference defensive lineman, and he worked for D1 Training before deciding to open a location in Ballwin.
They came in with athletic credentials. But eight years of ownership taught them that what keeps a D1 thriving has less to do with résumés and more to do with relationships.
When you see members every day, the change can be hard to notice. Then you look back over eight years and realize how far people have come.
“We think the biggest change for me is just having been here long enough now to actually see the impact D1 has had on people’s lives,” the owners said. “We have adults who came to us eight years ago out of shape or overweight who are now in the best shape of their lives.”
The same is true for their youngest athletes. Some kids who started in D1’s Scholastic Programs have moved through Rookie, Devo and Prep classes, and many are now competing at the varsity level in high school.
They’ve seen it inside their own homes, too. When the facility opened, each owner had just one daughter old enough to train. Today, all eight of their kids train at D1 STL West regularly.
“When we think about how we’ve grown, we don’t necessarily think first about how much the facility or the business has changed,” they said. “We think about how many individual lives we’ve gotten to watch change over those eight years. That’s probably been the coolest part.”
One of the most rewarding parts of longevity, Roth and Connolly said, is watching whole families grow alongside the facility.
One adult member has trained with them since opening day and brought her kids in from the start. Those kids began as Rookies and are now varsity athletes who still train at D1. Eventually, they’ll head off to college. And someday, they might come back as adult members.
“There’s something pretty special about the idea that someone could start training with us at seven or eight years old and potentially still be training with us 15 or 20 years later,” they said. “I think that’s when you realize that you’re building something bigger than just a place where somebody goes for a workout. You’re building relationships with families, and in some cases those relationships can last for generations.”
For anyone considering buying a franchise, this is worth thinking about. D1 serves athletes from age seven through adulthood, so one family can stay connected to your facility for decades.
Roth and Connolly are honest about the path. They don’t claim to have gotten everything right the first time. They’ve made mistakes over eight years, and they’ve learned from them.
What they have figured out is what makes a great D1 coach.
“It’s their ability to connect with people,” they said.
Many of their coaches arrive fresh out of college. Meanwhile, much of their adult membership is in their 30s, 40s and beyond. That can put a 22-year-old coach in front of a member old enough to be their parent. The coaches who thrive are the ones who can bridge that gap. They connect with a 45-year-old adult and then turn around and connect with a 12-year-old athlete.
“They learn about people. They know what’s going on in their lives. They build real relationships,” the owners said.
That kind of connection is what drives retention at D1 facilities across the country. It’s also why D1 invests in developing coaches through programs like its Coach Certification Program.
Their own roles have shifted over the years, too. Neither owner originally planned to run the facility day to day. As circumstances changed, each stepped further into operations at different times. The constant has been their belief in what D1 can mean for their community.
“If we can find employees who believe what we believe, people who care about D1, our members and our community the way we do, I think we’ll be successful,” they said.
As one of the longer-tenured owner groups in the D1 system, Roth and Connolly have clear advice for anyone opening their doors this year.
First, go all in.
“A business like D1 needs the passion of the people who fell in love with the concept enough to open one in the first place,” they said. “You need to be involved, and you need to find a way to pass that passion along to the people you hire.”
Second, be patient as your community gets to know the brand. Just because you know and love D1 doesn’t mean everyone in your town does yet. Building awareness takes time, even for a brand growing as fast as D1.
The owners who build strong communities are the ones who show up and earn their community’s trust. If you’re weighing opening a gym on your own, consider how much of that groundwork a proven system and an established brand can help carry.
That brings it back to the rafters.
Years ago, D1 STL West began recognizing members when they hit major workout milestones by hanging banners with their names overhead. The owners believe they were among the first D1 facilities to make such a big deal out of it. Today, milestone celebrations happen throughout the D1 system, and it’s still one of their favorite traditions.
“We say that everyone who walks through our doors is an athlete. And we mean that,” they said. “For some of our adults, D1 might actually be the first time in their lives that they’ve really thought of themselves as an athlete or had an athletic accomplishment publicly recognized.”
For a member hitting their 1,000th workout, the celebration often turns into a family event.
“Their kids get to see Mom or Dad accomplish something that required years of discipline and hard work,” they said. “And that member gets to look up afterward and see their name hanging in the rafters and know that what they accomplished mattered. When we see something like that happening in our facility, that’s one of those moments where we can look around and think, this is exactly why we opened D1.”
Follow along with the athletes of D1 Training STL West on Instagram.
Ryan Roth and Dan Connolly’s story is one of many across the D1 network. Hear from more owners about why they brought D1 to their communities on our franchisee testimonials page.
Ready to see where your own story could start? Request more information about owning a D1 Training franchise today.