100 in 100: Day 57- Ella Rust

The second time Ella Rust's high school soccer team came through Prototype's doors, something had changed. A year earlier she'd walked in for a team recovery session not knowing a single movement in the room. This time, she was the one walking her teammates through it — showing them the ropes the way her friend and teammate Caroline had once shown her.

That first visit came during Ella's freshman year at Westborough High School, right after she'd wrapped up a strong debut season on varsity. Her team came in for a recovery session, and it was Ella's first real exposure to a gym of any kind. At the time, she had no strength-training background — just a soccer career she wanted to take further, and a martial-arts discipline that ran just as deep. Ella was in the middle of training toward her black belt in Krav Maga and building out a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practice alongside it — the kind of discipline that hadn't yet found its way to a barbell.

It was a conversation with Caroline, a teammate who was already training at Prototype, that convinced Ella to give it a real shot. "I started coming to the gym consistently to take my soccer to the next level," Ella says. "I'd never done any strength training before, and after talking to Caroline it seemed like it would be a great addition to the soccer training I was already doing."

That's the part that still surprises her when she looks back on it. "It was crazy to me how much had changed in that year," she says of the moment her team returned for their second visit. She already knew the movements. She was comfortable in the space. And she found herself helping teammates who'd never done them before — the same thing Caroline had done for her.

The Numbers Tell Part of the Story

Nineteen months into a training record that now spans hundreds of logged sessions, Ella's numbers reflect an athlete who started with nothing and built real, measurable strength.

Those are just two data points from a much bigger record. In that same window, Ella has also pushed her bench press to 110 pounds for six reps, her front squat to 150 pounds for a double, and her power clean to 95 pounds for sets of three — each one a rep she couldn't do, or didn't know how to do, before she started.

Her training shows up in more than the numbers on a barbell, too. A body-composition scan taken in February and checked again in early June showed her skeletal muscle mass up by roughly four pounds while her body-fat percentage trended down — the kind of shift that tends to follow real, structured, consistent training. It's a trend worth noting, not a headline number, and one more piece of evidence for what nineteen months of showing up can do.

Learning How to Train, Not Just How to Lift

Ella will tell you the physical gains are only part of it. "Since I'd never done any training in the gym before, every movement I've learned since coming here has added to my skillset," she says. "Lifting real weight and focusing on how every exercise will strengthen the different muscles I need for my game has helped me develop both mentally and physically."

That relationship is part of why the gym has become as much a mental habit as a physical one. Out of season, Ella is in nearly every day after school — a consistent bridge between schoolwork, soccer, and recovery. The ice bath, she says, is her favorite part of that routine.

None of it happened in isolation. Ella points to the community she's built at Prototype as inseparable from her progress on the field — teammates like Allie, Lainey, and Caroline who train alongside her, and who she now spends much of her time with outside the gym as well. "I likely wouldn't have gotten close to them without joining," she says, "and it goes without saying that in soccer I wouldn't have the physical strength I've gained here, and wouldn't be at the level I am now."

From Athlete to Junior Coach

Ella's growth at Prototype hasn't stopped at her own training. She's stepped into a Junior Coach role at the gym, teaching youth soccer through the Nike Soccer camps Prototype runs, assisting with coaching for the Prototype Academy teams, and leading sessions in youth group classes like LTAD and Fundamentals.

It's a role Prototype calls proximal zone coaching: junior coaches like Ella are closer in age to the athletes they're teaching than the head coaches are, which puts them in a unique position to connect with the kids they work with and pass along the lessons they've learned firsthand. The development runs both ways, too — coaching has a way of sharpening a young coach's own skills right along with the athletes they're teaching. At Prototype, the belief behind it is simple: the highest form of learning is teaching.

There's real developmental science behind that idea. Psychologists describe a "zone of proximal development" — the space where a skill is just out of reach on your own, but achievable with the right guidance from someone who's already been there. Being close in age to the kids she coaches puts Ella in something researchers call a near-peer mentor role, which tends to make guidance feel more approachable than it would coming from an adult. And the learning doesn't just flow one way: teaching a skill is one of the fastest ways to master it yourself, a pattern sometimes called the protégé effect. It's a big part of why Prototype invests in junior coaches like Ella in the first place.

Which brings the story back to where it started: a freshman who once needed someone to show her the ropes, now the one showing others — on the gym floor, and now on the coaching side of it, too. Ella didn't come to Prototype looking for a community, a mental-performance coach, or a coaching role of her own. She came to get stronger for soccer — and found all of it anyway.

"The gym is a consistent part of my day. It's a good break between schoolwork, soccer, and training — especially the ice bath."

Ella is one of the most disciplined and, I would say, mature athletes we have the pleasure of working with at Prototype. When I first learned that she was training for her black belt in Krav Maga (which she now has!), training BJJ, is a high-level soccer athlete, a full-time student at WHS, and is investing in herself with her physical training here at Prototype five days a week with recovery — it blew my mind. It can seem overwhelming for most. I've even thought, "how can she do all that?" But it's a great example of discipline, making trade-offs, and pursuing excellence.

I also think it's not just a testament to Ella and who she is, but it's clear she has an amazing support system from her family, her teammates, and her friends. Every day I see Ella in the gym, training hard and working on herself. Then using the recovery space — the cold plunge, the sauna, the Normatec boots — all while doing her homework. She even turned around the details for this story in a short time. She's impressive, but the best part is she's not even at her peak. I'm excited to see Ella continue to grow and improve as an athlete and a person here at Prototype. The sky is the limit for her!

This story was developed through written responses submitted by the member and shaped with the help of AI writing tools. The facts, quotes, and experiences are Ella's own — AI helped organize and present them in a format worthy of the story she's lived.