# Will Bartholomew - From Peyton Manning's Teammate to D1 Training Founder

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-of-fitness-60424/will-bartholomew-from-peyton-manning-s-teammate-to-d1-training-founder
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-of-fitness-60424/will-bartholomew-from-peyton-manning-s-teammate-to-d1-training-founder.md
Podcast: [Future of Fitness](https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-of-fitness-60424)
Published: 2026-07-08T09:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://futureoffitness.libsyn.com/will-bartholomew-from-peyton-mannings-teammate-to-d1-training-founder
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/futureoffitness/FOF_WillB_mixdown.mp3?dest-id=577851
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/future-of-fitness-60424/episodes/will-bartholomew-from-peyton-manning-s-teammate-to-d1-training-founder
Duration seconds: 3104

## Resource

Before he built one of the biggest names in youth sports training, Will Bartholomew was a walk-on at the University of Tennessee trying to survive fall camp with a quarterback named Peyton Manning. In this episode, the D1 Training founder sits down with Eric Malzone to trace the whole arc — training athletes in an open field back in 2002, opening a patio-carpet-and-turf gym with racks he screwed together himself, and slowly turning that into a franchise system now closing in on 220 locations nationwide. Will gets honest about the messy middle: no point-of-sale system at location two, why D1 doesn't open on Sundays, selling off 27 real estate properties and a physical therapy business to go all-in on the gym he actually loved, and the advice from his father that changed everything — "never scale anything until you've scaled it yourself." He also digs into what makes a great youth strength coach today, how D1 uses radical transparency and scorecards to keep coaches bought in, why he thinks the $115 billion youth sports market is still in its first inning, and the balance every sports parent is chasing between competing hard and keeping the game fun. Whether you're a gym owner thinking about franchising, a coach trying to build a real career in strength and conditioning, or a parent navigating the youth sports world, this conversation is packed with hard-earned lessons from someone who's lived every side of it. 🎯 Key Takeaways 🏈 Will's path ran through a state wrestling title, a full ride to Tennessee, a national championship alongside Peyton Manning, and an NFL knee injury that redirected him straight into the weight room business 🌱 D1 Training started in 2002 in an open field before opening its first real location in spring 2003 — patio carpet, hand-built racks, and bur…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/future-of-fitness-60424/episodes/will-bartholomew-from-peyton-manning-s-teammate-to-d1-training-founder/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/future-of-fitness-60424/will-bartholomew-from-peyton-manning-s-teammate-to-d1-training-founder.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.