Tracking the Pack: Victor Jacques

Growing up in Miami, Victor Jacques has fond memories of the Orange Bowl. A Miami Hurricane fan in his youth, Jacques remembers watching those Hurricane teams of the 90s and tossing oranges on the field when they knew Miami would be playing in the Orange Bowl game at season’s end. He always dreamt that one day he would be on the receiving end of that showering of oranges and play in the New Year’s Day classic.

That dream became reality when he and the Huskies took the field at Sun Life Stadium on Jan. 1, 2013 to face Florida State. Well, first he got to experience the showering of oranges part in the Yordon Center when it was announced the Huskies earned the first BCS bid by a MAC school a month before.

One of three Miami natives on the Huskies’ 2012 roster, Jacques was quite popular during NIU’s Orange Bowl week. From modeling the Orange Bowl uniform to the team at its unveiling on the first night in town, to showing off the addition of the Orange Bowl logo to the tattoo of Miami on his left arm, Jacques took it all in. 

While he was back home in his element, some of the interviews posed a challenge. His Spanish was, admittedly, a little rusty after spending five years in DeKalb. When it came time to talking with the local Spanish-speaking media, Jacques was not as fluent in the language as he used to be.

“You go from speaking it literally every day here in Miami to not speaking it at all for five years, man it definitely got beat up when I came back,” he joked. “But it's kind of like riding a bike.”

Jacques tallied three tackles in his final game of college football and was able to play in front of a large contingent of family and friends.

“It was very gratifying to have, for the first time, my entire family to come out to a game and watch me play and end my collegiate career in my hometown,” Jacques said. “It’s something I never expected to happen, but it was a dream come true.”

The Orange Bowl experience and back-to-back MAC titles were just some of the reasons Jacques chose to come to NIU.

“The way we worked, especially our senior year, to get to where we were, to help elevate that program, was something that attracted me to NIU,” he said.

With several offers from other schools in state, he also wanted to go away for school. He took a visit, in the middle of winter mind you, to DeKalb and was sold on the coaching staff, the school and community.

“I had a couple offers here in Florida, but there was just something about NIU that kind of just made me feel like it was an inviting area and it was a family-style team,” Jacques said. “In the Hispanic culture, we’re a really close tight-knit family. Seeing how the players were and the community support was good to see.”

Following the Orange Bowl, his football career complete and degree in hand, Jacques reached that point in his life every college student-athlete faces.

“When I hung up the cleats, I was like every athlete,” Jacques said. “We hit that phase of what is next? I wanted to be close to the game. There was just something about the game I always got drawn back to, so I started coaching.”

He returned to Miami and began volunteering as a football coach at his alma mater, Christopher Columbus High School. Unfortunately for Jacques, volunteering just didn’t pay the bills. He needed income.

Jacques started training on his own in parks in the area. People would see him training and ask about him. He got his big break when he was connected with Monica Swasey. 

The Swaseys were a well-known strength and conditioning name in the Miami area. Monica worked with professional athletes, while her husband Andreu was the head strength coach at Miami for 16 years.

“She needed help and I pretty much fell into it,” Jacques said. “As she closed down her company, I pretty much purchased her weight room with all my savings from college. I started doing some homework on trying to find some warehouses in which to lease. I was fortunate to find one that was great and in a prime location as far as proximity to the high school I was working at. I just took a leap of faith and I started the company.”

He found a 4,000-square foot building and started building his company from there.  Jacques admits the first few years were scary but found the best form of marketing for him was word of mouth from the parents of the athletes he was training. It took off from there.

“I’ve been fortunate enough now to have expanded and now I’m running an 8,000-square foot sports and recreation facility,” he said. “On one side, we have 2,500-square feet of open space in which I plan on putting in batting cages. We have an in-house physical therapist. Before he would just come when needed. We have a whirlpool area where we do hot tub and cold tub contrast. 

“We have a 2,300-square foot open space concept gym. I have a concessions area, which I plan on making protein shakes and smoothies. In the front, we have an outdoor basketball court.”

Jacques, a self-described gym rat, took a non-traditional route in opening his training business. He wasn’t a business or kinesiology major at NIU, graduating with a degree in communications.

“Honestly, I feel like a communications degree has helped me as far as being able to communicate on a personal level with my clientele, with my athletes and really just get what I need to get across a lot better,” he said. “That definitely helped me within my business and my career.

“There was always something about the weight room I gravitated to. It just came natural to me. I would always be like a sponge in the weight room and try to learn as much as I can.”

Already in the midst of an expansion, Jacques has big plans for Victory PROformance going forward. He married another Huskie, the former Anna Roman-Pletchko, a member of the NIU women’s soccer team from 2010-12, this past spring. With Anna, who is an orthopedic surgeon, Jacques is hoping to expand Victory PROformance to offer physicals to kids, as well as rehabilitation services. 

“That is kind of the bigger end goal, really taking over and impacting the Miami sports industry as far as a one-stop shop for athletes as far as the recovery, the training, injury rehab, the whole nine yards,” he said. “That’s what we're trying to accomplish and create within Victory PROformance.”

It’s not all business for Jacques. At the end of the day, he loves his community and being an integral part of it. In addition to providing area athletes with top-notch training, his company holds an annual toy drive to benefit the Sylvester Children’s Cancer Center in Miami. Dressing up like Santa Claus is just a perk of the job for Jacques.

“I want to continue to help the community as much as I can and help these kids and give back to the community,” Jacques said. “Growing up, I didn't have this style of training. Being able to give back to the community like this is something I find entertaining and fun.”

It’s been said that if you’re doing what you love, you’re really not working. That statement certainly applies to Jacques.

“I wouldn't want to work this hard for anyone else,” he said. “They say entrepreneurship is the only time you work like 60-70 hours a week to have a full-time paycheck. I work a little crazy, but I love what I do. I love what I do.”