by, Chris Sinagoga | Tuesday, September 6, 2022 at 6:00PM
Okay so it's September 2 now, and I'm not writing anything tomorrow because college football, and the entire rest of this post is finished, so I think I need to finally make a decision here. And as of this sentence I have not yet; I suppose this angst I'm feeling is payback for all the times I've put the parents on the spot by asking them to pick between their two kids for a team workout. So what I think I'm going to do here is write on the fly for the next however many minutes of contemplating, referencing, archiving, reflecting, and feelingsballing and see where it leads; if I'm going through this torture I'm dragging all you poor bastards with me.
We need a guy in the rafters. We need a guy in the rafters bad. Aaron isn't much of a guy sometimes, but in a biological sense he counts. He finished 3rd in 2019, and it has been foretold since his Rookie Summer of 2013 that we might see him up there one day. We've been waiting a looooooooooong time for Aaron to have a Summer like this, and I, personally, really want my man up in the rafters for what he gave and the dramatic jump he made since I called him out after Murph.
I've always had a thing in my head that if the Athlete of the Summer ever came to a dead tie between a repeat winner and a new winner, the nod would go to the person who already won it; the logic there is it would take an uncommon amount more to even consider a repeat winner than a new name. And let me tell you, I would love to have a repeat banner up there to set a new standard. So did Bubs do enough for a tie? Forget tie! Did she do enough to win outright?
The thing about numbers is it's not usually a fair way to compare things, which is why Track and Field has boys events run separately from girls events. So really, I don't think that did much for me here except make the post longer. It's probably about even here anyway.
What about intangibles? All the things that don't get recorded in Build a Champion but play a major role in their development? For Aaron, it was the 90's Theme Workout: I have been waiting for young fella to be okay telling people what to do, and in a group of dads he looks up to, Aaron did that and was comfortable doing it; I almost gave him AOTS on the spot. Similarly, Bubs's nutrition has been absolutely dialed in, and it shows with how she has managed to follow up an award-winning spring with an all-time Summer; the continuous pr's and body transformation can't happen through working out alone at this point in her CrossFit career.
Hmmm... no help there. What about weaknesses? Bubs needed to find a gear that could get her pr's in short-duration workouts; a speed that nutrition alone cannot fix. Fran and Grace and a pr mile showed she made a big improvement there. Aaron needed to find a legit capacity in long-duration workouts; no more losing to track kids. Welp, he smoked Badger and beat Zander in his own workout.
Extracurriculars? Aaron coached Bread through some baseball lessons, Bubs coached Mrs. Gloria through her weekly workouts. Bubs did more with Theme Workout planning and testing, but Aaron played an awesome big cousin role with the 9 am boys; football and Z-ball on the turf was a regular.
Uggggghhhhh. This is freaking killing me.
I'm looking up at the banners right now, remembering other tough decisions: the Dillon vs. Cecilia 2020, the Elizabeth vs. Erika 2015, and the 2014 Lauren vs. Jason. Up to now 2020 was the closest, and as I was walking up to the gym that Summer I remember thinking, "Who did closer to their best?" Yeah man... I was hoping a realization would come after that. But it didn't.
Does this mean it's a tie? And a tie goes to Bubs? I also think their attendance was the same; funny how that used to be the first thing I considered, and now it's an afterthought (I can thank Saporito's influence for that).
Why did Sign-A-Rama have to change locations? I hope they still have the banner design saved. Maybe I could ask if they could fit fit two names on the... what kind of soft shit are you on Chris??
Last week, as a reflex, Mr. Kuiper blurted out "Bubs you're built like a freaking truck!" and I remembered thinking how it was odd that her build does not match the workout domain you would expect her to enjoy the most; max effort days and short burners are a chore for her in a way that Badger is not. Aaron is the opposite paradox: a slender, almost-as-tall-as-me, little-traces-of-baby-fat-covering-lean-muscle dude that loves max effort days and short burners and dreads long workouts. But the main difference I noticed this Summer between the two (now that I am really trying to nitpick) is how they went about doing what they didn't like: Bubs went at her weaknesses hard because she knew it was the right thing to do; Aaron absolutely embraced his and truly turned them into a strength. When was the last time he lost to Zander on a warmup 800? When is the last time he even showed a trace is "I'm over this" with an 800-meter warmup?
In CrossFit, one of the best ways to determine who is the fittest is by comparing weaknesses, and this is something I talk to a lot of people about in terms of nutrition: how is your "bad day" this month compared to your "bad day" from a year ago? I think... I know... Aaron did a better job at his weaknesses this Summer than Bubs. /scrolls up and sees Bubs's time on Grace and Fran and snatch pr... okay, think. But it's a pretty solid think. Can Aaron's counting play into his times? Sure. But the eye test of watching those workouts in person tells me that a few extra reps here and there wouldn't have made much of a difference.
Hmmm... Let me marinate on that for the night. Check back later.
...........
Champions Club Summer 2022 Dream Team
Aaron Sexton - the Champions Club embodied in a single person
Bubs - literally the best
Evan - upper body catching up with terrifying lower body, also playing rugby again
Jessica - found another gear, and most importantly did it herself
Mr. Ron - out-talked Mr. Gjon; nuff said*
Mr. Van - 4th place in AOTS, fittest dad in the gym, really proud of the big fella
Mrs. Carey - edged out Anto by a nosehair for the last spot here; consistency wins in this case
Sam Curtis - lowest attendance on here, best finish to the Summer
Wesley - has muscles, overgrown hair, scars from falling, and mad respect from everyone
Zander - runs with the cars, lifts with strongish girls, 3rd place AOTS, my man 50 grand!
*also had perfect attendance, which is mildly impressive
Predictions. Now allow me seven attempts to look stupid in September.
One of the weekend workouts will have 50+ people
Team Bubs wins the attendance draft by a landslide
The basketball hoop finally breaks
We have 40 Babies + Double-A, but attendance isn't consistently over 10 at either session
The dads have a resurgance and challenge the moms for supremacy
The best website post of the Summer will be published the night before it starts
Our AOTS will be a baseball kid
Let's see how it panned out:
Nope, but we set a record with 44.
Maybe? Still not finalized. I'll update this part.
It did not; I think Jessica's soccer field trip to some foreign place helped that
Exact. 40 on the dot, most sessions were between 8-12.
Absolutely!
I think so, but Champions Club ABC's was cool too.
Man I still don't know, but either way not the three I was thinking of in May
Dads. The dads were absolutely on point this Summer. Mr. Van was that dude, but Mr. Malak, Coach Casey and Mr. Kuiper were borderline Dream Teamers as well. Plus rookies Mr. Ron and Mr. Curtis did their thing: perfect attendance and 60+ lbs of weight loss respectively. I don't know if I'm confident enough to say the dads are fitter than the moms (at least, unless Mrs. Tara undergoes a dramatic sex change) but they are right there. And honestly, the parents in general stole the show once again this Summer. What a great foundation to have.
Speaking of boys. We have high school boys now. They come in the form of a 9 am session and they look a little something like this:
Sure there are a few girls sprinkled in there (Mici, Jelena, Adam, Mackenzie) but throw in Chase, Josh Van, Dylan Colussi and the seasonal Derek/Loop combination and I think we'll be all right!
Sweat shirts. For the love of St. Louise Catholic Church Donation Box, please stop bringing hoodies, sweatshirts, and other jacket-type things to Summer sessions!
Babies and Double-A: Let the village raise your kids. It was a really, really good start. I'll say that. Most of the families are local too, which is also a good thing. The actual Sunday sessions for them were cool, but the real value came on the fringes. Here's some highlights from them and a few other sessions:
Session vibes. The one thing about this Summer I wish was better was the theme of sticking to a session - especially 10 am and 11 am. We need to find a way next Summer to make the session personal more concrete and consistent; Zander is better when he's at 10 am and the 10 am session is better when Zander is there. On the other hand, the jumping around does produce a variety on the fringes of a session that would not have happened otherwise. Zander, for example, would not be going to college with a new bike if he hadn't been working out with Mr. Curtis at 3:30. So... yeah, I can see both sides of it. Just depends on what's needed.
Summer shirts. Part of being behind on some stuff means shirts got pushed back. A few of the moms helped design them, and they're gonna get ordered in September. We're not doing a lot of them: around 40 or so I'd imagine.
Summer of "Me". That was in my mind at the start of Summer and it seemed to be a theme throughout. The stories I heard about parents adjusting their work schedule, kids missing unnecessary sports activities, and Mrs. Gloria telling a doctor to shove it make me hopeful that we'll continue learning how to truly keep our health as the priority. This is a process that does not end, by the way. There will always be things competing for our attention, and the more desirable you are to be around the more competing things, and the more difficult the process. Having a very clear hierarchy is the best way that I know of to keep yourself going in the direction you want. I am really proud of you guys for making it happen.
Summer of Me. As I'm writing this, there's a big UHaul in my driveway waiting to get picked up any minute now. None of my things are in there. The irony is both beautiful and painful. I appreciate the challenge it presented, I was, am, and will always be grateful for the people from that part of my life, and I love you guys for real.
Who are "you guys" exactly? Are you friends? Well, I wouldn't trade Pokemon cards with you, and I doubt you know all the words to La Di Da Di by heart, so probably not. Are you family? Hmmm... closer, I guess, but I see you more than my family, and probably talk about stuff more freely. Are you acquaintances? Hell no. Way too many syllables. All I know is I was taking a cool down walk with Mrs. Carey and this conversation came up, and had me subsequently stumped. So I asked around and it seems most of you are as well.
Language can be really limiting; after all, the things that exist will still exist whether or not we decide the best way to label or describe them. Whatever we want to call each other doesn't matter; we can feel the love as soon as we step through the garage doors.
Final thoughts. There are some little things that didn't happen - or didn't quite happen the way I wanted - this Summer that, in the short term, didn't make much of a difference; they are things that only I would notice immediately and you would only notice if it was a repeat thing. That list includes not emptying the garbage after sessions, mislabeling pictures and workout results, forgetting to invite some people to the Harry Potter Workout, and other small things. There were enough of those instances that left me annoyed with myself a bit, but not enough to distract me from the fact that just about everyone on the roster is fitter now than they have ever been in their life. From a pure performance perspective, this is the best overall Summer I can remember.
From a community perspective, the mixing of age groups in the post-workout hangouts was really enjoyable to both be a part of and to watch. (Random thought, but why is "a part" separate and "apart" together?) We lost Sydney and Schott to job relocations for the time being, but Erica should be back soon, and it's looking like Saporito might be back back. Did I mention Erica had a freaking baby!?
Summer is always my favorite three months out of the year and it is all because of the energy I get from the Champions Club. On a meta level, it's really hard to follow up what we did in 2019, 2020, and 2021, and we managed to do that and more. Thank you for another great one!
...........
... or 4 days, as it were. It's September 6 and Mrs. Gloria is about to come in soon. Never mind, she's here now; she can wait. I am honestly still not completely sure; literally every point I make in favor of one person could also be said about the other...
My sessions with Mrs. Gloria and Mrs. Leze (the Mrs. Gjon) are done now, and my mind was only remotely on what I was supposed to be doing. My gut feeling tells me Bubs has a little more in the tank that she didn't have to show because of how fit she is and Aaron gave just enough - both tangible and intangible - to get an outright win.
In literally any other year.
We can nitpick and compare for days (like I have), but while running with Mrs. G a few hours ago I came to the simple reality that I don't honestly think anyone can say they had a better Summer than Bubs, and it's not fair to hold it against her for having less of her hill to climb because, like our Hill, it only gets harder the further up you go. I think we're gonna have a repeat banner.
aaron sexton, 