CrossFit Athletic Group

Aaron Sexton is my main man! Jay Junkin is* my best man. Ashley Fry is the best man, woman, child, unspecified other, or mutant robot the Champions Club saw in Summer 2019. This was apparent from somewhere around the middle of July. I tried to avoid the 2013 Katie Bromm/2016 Shakes runaway winner thing to keep the tension and suspense, but everyone knew it right from the first workout.

Even though Fry started things off with a really impressive 5k run sub Workout, there is not really one specific instance that can be pointed to as her defining Desmond Howard Heisman Pose moment; she just simply brought it every single day of the Summer (except for the one day she had the audacity to miss.) She was running better than runners, lifting better than lifters, keeping herself composed when things didn't go her way, and the usual welcoming smile and warmth towards new peeps. She ubered to a mobility session Fergodsakes. And that one day she missed... she was a couple thousand feet in the air on a plane piloted by an odd Russian Olympic Lifter who then proposed to her on Mackinac Island. The only possible thing that could overshadow an engagement is the lofty title of Athlete of the Summer, and Fry got both. The only downside is I can't possibly see how it could get better than this!

*his status is now in jeopardy after I got hamblasted in the Mario Baseball Championship. More on that in a future post.

For the second straight year, Fry finished on top of the Champions Club's attendance, but the rest of the top 10 is loaded with veterans, rookies, and a few surprise names. Attendance percent in ( )

Champions Club Summer 2019 Dream Team

1. Ashley Fry (99)

2. Evan Pugh (90)

3. Luke Heide (88)

4. Aaron Sexton (82)

5. Jay Junkin (82)

5(t). Katie Shakes (82)

7. Josie Junkin (79)

8. Anthony Banet (76)

9. Andre Saffar (76)

9(t). Nick Bewick (76) 

...........

The numbers. Oh, the numbers! We ended up with 130 on the dot. I think we went from the second week to the second to last week without going lower than 60 on a regular workout day. We went what seemed like 25+ on every theme workout and topped out at 30 for 80s. I'll check back on the final attendance numbers in a few days, but if we were averaging around 60 per day out of a possible 111 people (subtracting the 19 babies), that is a very good number. A lot of this was aided by the 10 am and 6:30 pm sessions... more on this later. But yeah, from a numbers perspective we knocked it out of the park.

What does that mean? Probably not as much as it seems on paper, but definitely more than nothing. We got really, really lucky this time around. We did a swing-and-miss on just about every New Kid from the spring, winter, and fall. Coach T came through by basically declining to train 3 of his 8th grade Ford kids so they could do the Summer with us. Then Mrs. Steinwascher helped by recruiting a few more from that side. On the other side, Shannon pulled through with a few of her running recruits as well. The dominoes are crazy and sometimes they don't fall the way we want. This time they did. It is also not something I can bank on every year. 130 is a lot, somewhere around the 150 mark is the ceiling and would take a lot of luck to get to that. But the good thing about this Summer is it probably puts the floor somewhere around 90-100, which is a really good Summer. I'm down with that.

The rookies. Dood. We ended up with either 40 or 42 of them. Not exactly sure at the moment. I lost count(!). And we have some keepers! Lira, Dylan/Nick Hofmann, James, Alex, Paris, Tea, Adam, Dillon, Mr. Kuiper, Joseph (aka CzechMan), and Diamond are all locked in for the Fall, and a few more are still on the fence. We also had Dakota and Grace head off to college - two kids who seem like they'll be the Bubs-type that come back any time they're home. We had Maddison Bettys probably (maybe) surpass 2014-Jennifer Banet as the best rookie we've had. The overall technique was great for every movement. The community feel was great. They babysat the Nevarez kids during the 11 am session. For a rookie class like this to happen again, a lot of things out of our control needs to go right. So like I said, this is probably an all-time class and won't get repeated. I'm cool with that. I enjoyed coaching them every minute! They were my favorite session - even more than the Babies.

6:30 pm. There is a point in Zoo Tycoon when you build the crocodile exhibit, throw about 4 of them in there, go tend to your other exhibits, then two minutes later you get a message saying there are 37 crocodiles and their exhibit is not big enough. That was our 6:30 session. This, on the other hand, is probably going to happen again. The overflowing of this session was due to 1) 5:30 being a rookie session, 2) college kids coming back, 3) work people working out after work, and 4) college kids who used to be college kids but are now work people. All four of those things will happen again - probably next Summer - and thank Jesus for the turf. The coaching gets sacrificed, you might not get the equipment you want, and you'll be fine. With 18-24 people at a session, you are guaranteed to have someone in your athletic vicinity to compete with. And I just couldn't get you rabid crocodiles to shut up! That is a good problem to have. It's a good trade-off for 3 months and if it looks that way next Summer I'll probably just get two more bars and a few more 45-lb. bumpers.

Theme Workouts. The costumes were dope! The turnout was even better. The music and decorations were great. Other than the missing Joker cards (my bad guys!) I thought they went really well. I especially liked the sharking in the turf. Much more dangerous. Here's some highlights in case you want a sweet dose of nostalgia.

Toy Story Theme

Disney Doozy

80's Theme Workout (Parents Highlights)

Hawaiian/Shark Week Mashup

Hawaiian/Shark Week (Parents Sharking)

Katie Shakes. A special shout needs to go to the Champions Club's Comforting Cricket. Katie Shakes did so much behind the scenes and on the whiteboard to help with the community side of the gym. She cleaned the turf, the organized dinners and golf and lazer tag and other stuff I probably didn't know was going on. She put up awesome decorations for the Theme Workouts and ran the post-Harry Potter fooding. It still would have been a great Summer without her, but it would not have been this Summer. Shakes is about as important to this community as someone can possibly be.

Erica and Coach Casey. Keeping track of attendance in past Summers has been a chore in the lines of making your bed; what's the point if it's just going to get messed up anyway. People forget their names, I forget to write someone down, Josh Howey forgets he's in the gym, you know how it goes. Keeping track of this is a head-banging process with 70 members and two people doing it. So Coach Casey and Erica decided they'd do it this Summer. Separately. And there were 168 names that came through. They had to sort through all of the Nicks and Dylans and Alexes and Jameses. They had to combine all of Jacob's alter ego names and decypher which rookies were staying and which weren't. They even organized the team rankings and such. Erica and Coach were a big reason why I was tolerable for the last month of Summer.

Aaron freaking Sexton. Maaaannnnnn how cool was it to have lil bro back in the gym! Can I get an EEP from the Katie Bromm choir!

The turf. I have said it before and I'll say it again: the back half of 32301 Stephenson has been dying to join a Champions Club Summer. It has seen 7 Summers come though and all it could do was squint around the crap that used to be back there. Now it is part of us. Big shouts to Coach T for convincing me to turfify it.

The Babies. Are still rolling and growing and the future of the gym. Last year I learned how much they added to our energy when they hung out at regular sessions. This year I learned the residual effect they had on our membership. As it turns out, the Babies have moms and dads and sisters who are out of shape and broken down and think they're older than they are. Or they're athletic and hyper and on the other end of the health spectrum. Either way, hey! Join the Champions Club!

Summary. Comparing things is a stupid habit to get into. There are so many variables to take into account that it is never an even comparison. Doing this with a business is even stupider because we are part of an infinite game. There is no competition to beat; the goal is just to outlast. So even if you are better right now, that might not be true tomorrow, next quarter, next year, or next decade. Trying to compare things puts us in a short-term mindset and makes us search for metrics that are either biased or don't show a complete picture.

But fuck it. Summer #10 was the best Summer the Champions Club has ever seen. It has been possibly the most enjoyable 3 months I have ever spent in the gym, and I cannot thank you guys enough.

We got a good group, y'all. One more time for your mind!

Seriously.

Thank.

You.