<table bgcolor=#eaeaea> <td> <font color=#000000> <p align=justify> You may have seen Dextria Sapp before. You may remember her as Miss Black Louisiana U.S. 2005 or Miss Black USA 2005 or as Miss Fitness Louisiana 2003. Or maybe, you saw her when she came in second on NBC's Best Friends Fear Factor.
You'll get a chance to see her again, when the UL exercise science graduate and personal trainer hosts an early morning show called Fitness First with Dextria Wednesday and Saturdays on KLFY TV 10's Passepartout.
"I've always wanted to have my own TV show, all related to fitness. That's my passion and that's what drives me."
<center><p><a href="http://www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080601/LIFESTYLE/806010339/1024" target="_blank">The rest of the story</a>
Judy Bastien •
jbastien@theadvertiser.com • June 1, 2008
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The show, which is scheduled to launch June 18, will be patterned after those of other exercise gurus, Sapp said. "But, more informative - and I'm trying to reach a wider audience.
"We're in the top five most unhealthy states, with obesity - especially childhood obesity."
The first few segments, centered on children, have already been taped, featuring students at Woodvale Elementary.
In addition to demonstrating exercise techniques, Sapp will feature guests with expertise in different areas, from doctors to well-known local athletes.
Sapp pairs a love of fitness with a drive to succeed, both of which began when the Alexandria native was about 6 years old.
"I started dance when I was 5 or 6. And the elementary school in Deridder offered track. I got involved and I was good. I just stuck with it. I couldn't stop. It became an obsession - but, a healthy obsession."
After high school, Sapp moved to Lafayette to attend UL on a scholarship. When she was a sophomore, she served an internship at the Cooper Fitness Center in Dallas, where she also received her certification as a fitness trainer.
Since earning her degree, Sapp has gone to work as marketing director for Sleep Management, a durable medical equipment company. In her spare time, she works as a personal trainer at the City Club at River Ranch and teaches kickboxing, aerobics and horseback riding. An avid horseback rider, she also enjoys guiding her own horses through the elegant movements of dressage, an equestrian sport that involves precise maneuvers.
Sapp credits her mother, a special education teacher and her father, a resource conservationist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for giving her the attitude that she can do anything she sets her mind to.
Her attitude is obvious to those around her.
"What strikes me about her is her enthusiasm for what she does," said Lafayette resident Donnie Wallace, director of operations for the PGA Golf Tour, "and the fact that she truly tries to bring the best out of her clientele.
"Her level of knowledge is another thing. But, she has that enthusiasm for whatever she takes on." Wallace was the quarterback for the UL football team in the 1980s and subsequently, a news reporter at Channel 10 and is now a fitness client of Sapp's.
"(She has) enthusiasm and focus," he said. "The show is a prime example. I heard about it in theory and now, it's a reality. That sums it up in terms of her ambition. It speaks to her drive and goal setting."
In terms of goal setting, Sapp does it as a regular practice, in small increments and large ones.
"I'll be opening my own personal fitness studio," Sapp said. "It's my next five-year plan."
She plans to call it Dexercise.
The first five-year plan was made about six years ago.
"At 20, I said I'll own my own home. At 25, it was my first big purchase and the studio is my next."
But that, too, is just a step along the way in Sapp's plan. She hopes to break into the world of personal fitness training in a big way, someday.
In the meantime, she's toying with the idea of another national TV appearance. Her post-Fear Factor contract with NBC recently expired, so she's free to try out for another reality show.
"Next year, another personal trainer and I from the City Club are thinking of trying out for The Amazing Race."
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