By Rodney Haas 
605 Sports 

SIOUX FALLS — It was a bold vision decided by individuals before current Sanford Sports president Steve Young arrived, that 16 years later has grown into a 500-acre — multiple-sport training ground for hundreds of high school and college athletes in the region. 

Located on the northwest side of Sioux Falls and adjacent to Joe Foss Field, the Sanford Sports Complex began with a development of nine football fields, according to Young. It soon added the Sanford Fieldhouse in 2011, then the Sanford Pentagon in 2013 and now includes the latest addition of 10 new turf softball and baseball fields. 

It’s a complex that includes four facilities operated by Sanford Sports and includes partnerships with other businesses including the nearby Scheels Iceplex. 

At the center is the Pentagon, a five-sided shaped building that includes a 3,200-seat basketball arena in the center of the building with multiple basketball courts ringing the outside of it. The Pentagon is home to the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the NBA G-League, and this winter celebrated hosting its 100th college basketball game. 

Across the street from the Pentagon sits the fieldhouse, a 90,000 square-foot facility that is home to the baseball/softball and football academies, and sports performance which includes sports nutrition and sports mental performance. It also provides a place for elite-athlete testing for biomechanics or exercise physiology. 

“It’s really a desire to have what we call the ‘continuum performance’ surrounding the athlete,”  Young said. “Wether we meet them in the training room for their initial injury or they come to us because they have a desire to move from the eighth grade C team to the B team or they have the desire, ‘Hey I want to play this in college.’ We have a continuing performance where all those professional service lines work together for the betterment of the athlete. That was the vision and it just kind of built from there.”

Sanford Academy’s Caden Alfson, a pickup player for the Dell Rapids Mudcats delivers a pitch against the Hartford-Humboldt Gamecocks during the state amateur baseball Tournament August 15, 2025 in Brandon. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)
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The complex is home to around 165 travel teams that range from complex’s academies in basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball, golf and football, while at the same time catering to the hundreds of athletes who specialize in an individual sport.  

“We definitely focus on all three levels from a complete introduction,” said Sanford Sports Academy director Todd Kolb. “Most kids live in the middle, they like to do the sport, it’s sociable, to the third level where they are looking to do something beyond high school.” 

For parents, who have a son or daughter entering the seventh grade with an interest in playing school sports, Young said they can grab a strength coach, a sports therapist, an academy coach or director, an athletic training or an exercise physiologist and surround the parent with a handful of questions about what their child might be interested in? What do they think they are good at? What do you want to try? 

“We could eventually create a situation where we can map out a plan and say, ‘Here’s where we think we think you should do,’ ” Young said. “Maybe it’s not with us, maybe it’s with Sioux Falls Little League, or maybe it’s you need to learn to move a little better. We’re going to start with our knee injury prevention and our jump protocols, and we're going to get you in the weight room with our strength coaches and we’re going to develop you as a general athlete who wants to move better. Or they find out that individual is super-athletic and talented and we put them through some testing and, ‘Hey you should try out for this sport, that sport and see where you want to land. 

“The beauty about the complex is yes the facilities are great, but in my opinion, the people are even better than the facilities and we can put our expertise around the goals of the athlete. You can create a plan to get them from A-to-B.” 

While the cost of the academies can be a pricey investment for parents, Kolb said the sports academy does offer a variety of different opportunities including camps and clinics along with scholarship funds to help families.    

“It’s something the leadership at Sanford has gotten behind and we want to make sure this place is a place for all kids no matter what their background as much as possible,” Kolb said.  

Caden Alfson, pickup player from Sanford/ Humbolt-Hardford Wood Ducks gets high fives by his Dell Rapids Mudcats teammates after hitting a home run in the ninth inning against the Freeman Black Sox during the second round of the 2025 South Dakota State Amateur Baseball Tournament, August 13, 2025 in Brandon. (Rodney Haas / 605 Sports)
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As for the overall impact the complex has had on high school athletes, Young points to several examples where athletes were able to accomplish their goals of making it on to the varsity team or getting an athletic scholarship.   

“The funnel is much wider than it was when we were growing up,” Young said of the changing landscape of college recruiting. “They’re able to be seen more through social media. We’re able to step in and hopefully have a respectful and integrated approach.” 

Young mentioned the example of Sanford Sports hosting a football combine on Friday that was expected to be attended by 20 football programs from the NAIA to the FCS level, plus the footage would be uploaded and available online for coaches who weren’t in attendance.  

“We are hopefully instilling lifelong lessons and a desire to improve and stay healthy and stay active,” Young said. “When you think about all the kids that we are working with. They are going to be our future leaders, they are going to be future citizens. They are going to vote and do good in the workforce. They are going to do good community service. Hopefully we are setting a good example for them as they move forward in their life.” 

As for future plans for the complex, Young admits there’s a lot more land that could be developed, but added they had to be respectful and good stewards of it. He believes in more fields and said they could use more indoor turf and more courts.  

“The campus is not going away. I think it will grow and grow more naturally,” Young said. “In the meantime, what we can do and what we can control is a better process. Making sure that we are always on the cutting edge of continued improvements and our experiences are meeting the needs of the community and to make sure we are the most efficient we can be for the athlete. 

“We do it to help the athletes get better, but we also do it because we have a heart as humans. We want them to learn the valuable lessons that most of us as athletes growing up learned through sports. That is how to interact in the community. How to show respect. How to take care of others. How to look people in the eye, shake hands and have good sportsmanship. There’s the soft skills in life that we are trying to instill in character development.”