CrossFit Athletic Group

It's the strangest thing how many people look back on our spontaneous lockdown workouts from last spring with a fond memory. I know I've said this before, but it's probably one of those things that was not necessarily pleasant in the moment, but nice to admire from afar.

Once my morning crew was set - which took about a week - I had some choices to make regarding who would get the afternoon time slots.  I wrote about it in A Post About What I've Been Up To:

Then in the afternoons we picked up three new dads that will be introduced here soon. They are 100% Champions Club people and seem to be a mix of Mr. Z's sense of humor and the Bennis's dedication. Because they seemed like such good fits to our culture and their connections in the Madison Heights community, I went all in on them. I understand things might change a bit when sports and school open back up, but that's a risk I'm willing to take for these three. They are potential lifers.

There are so many factors that go into whether or not someone is going to be a lifer, many of which are outside our control. But maaaaaaaannnn, I think the Champions Club hit a home run with these three. On March 27, Mr. Webster and Mr. Malak did their first workout in the parking lot on Girard by the old Churchill High School, and on April 11, Mr. Krstich did his first workout at Exchange Park.

To be honest, things didn't start too smooth with the Lamphere dads; Mr. Malak replied to all my "4:30 at Dorchester" texts with a pent-up teenage attitude, Mr. Webster took up 7 parking spaces every time herolled into a location, and Mr. Krstich... well, we know he's the schmooze master, so he always seemed to charm his way out of a more difficult version of the workout.

I'm sitting here looking at the picture above and wonder how the hell those three were tricked into running, squats, handstands, and summersaults in the rain, snow, blazing sun, and everything in between. I'm thankful for whatever witchcraft was behind it, though. Mr. Webster and Mr. Malak have been nonstop since Day 1, while Mr. Krstich took the Summer and fall off, returning to the gym in December.

Overshadowed by extra swearing and excessive flatulence of the adults was another Lamphere kid who made his official Champions Club debut during lockdown. Nick Krstich's first session was on March 20 at Royal Oak High School... or, at least, it began at Royal Oak High School, then was moved to the parking lot of Total Soccer right across the street after we were asked to leave.

Nick was actually the second Lamphere kid recommended to us by Mr. Malak (after his son, Jake). Nick came in with Koltin in January but held off due to a nagging hamstring and elbow. After working through a lot of technique stuff last spring, he hit the Summer hard with us and continued his momentum to the fall, where he quarterbacked the Lamphere team to a great season.

From our original Lamphere Invasion of 2020, we ended up keeping 9 out of 14, and I wouldn't count Jake Malak out permanently, either. From that group we had tons of Beast Modes and Graduations; our gym now knows mobility day as "Taters 'N Gravy;" and there was even a representative in the Summer 2020 Dream Team (I know, I'm sorry, won't happen again). Like I have said before, the kids are the picture on display but the parents are the frame that holds everything together. And these three dads, along with Mr. & Mrs. Van, have built a very sturdy support to our Southsiders crew for years to come.

Oh wait, there's two more coming... but we'll wait till May to talk about them.