CrossFit Athletic Group

I have thought about the concept of the Athlete of the Summer award more in the last two years than I have in probably the previous 10 years combined (which is saying a lot). Are they the right thing to do? Do they encourage a healthy relationship with CrossFit? Are they what we're really about? Do I need to have a set criteria? Is it okay to make something important just because I place an importance on it? Those are questions I've been asking myself since 2015 when we had 4 Banets, Ricky and Lauren, and Katie Shakes all worthy of a banner, and the last two Summers have just multiplied that difficulty.

There have also been people in contention for the award at one point or another who were in a relationship with me, most likely going to be in a relationship with me, close friends of someone who was in a relationship with me, living next door to me, related to me, and related to each other. And then I obviously have my favorites: I'd love to see Aaron get a banner one day; I'd love to unlock the doors and see my man 50 grand Chase Kuiper up there at some point; if Mrs. Carey doesn't have a banner in the next 10 years then I'll kick everyone out for a Summer just so she gets it. As I wrote in Bubs's second AOTS feature, this gym is human, and I know that trying to systemize a human process would take a lot of juice out of it.

Every time I question myself on the Athlete of the Summer banners, the answer always comes back to who my target audience is: the athlete who wins the award. If I was part of a team of 120 athletes I loved, and gave an effort that was worthy of a singular award, it would certainly make me feel good to be noticed as such. But I also know from experience what it's like to let an award be the sole motivation for my effort, so I need to be careful and sensitive to how much of a motivating factor the banner is: if it's getting you to take one less breath during Fran, I think that's healthy; if it's getting you to show up for Fran in the first place, I think we need to dig a little deeper into who we are doing this for. Despite the subtle changes in perspective that has gone into the award since 2010, I would like to make two claims that have been a constant in the 15 Summers the Champions Club has been doing its thing.

First claim: every individual person has a different standard that would get them a banner.

Early on the award was highly based on attendance. It doesn't mean you weren't going to win without top attendance (Biff) but you had to be up there. Fortunately for me, everyone in contention was up there. Two Summers made me formally adjust: 2017 where nobody had good attendance and 2022 where Bubs had 90% and was outside the top-10. Now the attendance criteria is simply "enough," meaning without looking at the numbers (a habit I've been doing since 2020) I need to feel like the athlete in question has been at enough sessions to 1) get a community feel and 2) go into most workouts feeling the effects of previous ones; Murph on fresh arms and legs is waaaaaaaayyy different than Murph the day after Angie.

The performance side is definitely taken into account, and is also done so on an individual basis. If you look through the history of the names up there, there were plenty of athletes who were not the fittest in the gym during that time. And as we continue to recruit new people the way we have been we'll be seeing this even more. This Summer is a prime example: bringing back Shannon and Matt completely tip the scales in terms of comparing one athlete's fitness to another. We also might add Budo's husband, who would make us look at Evan and CT's deadlifts very differently. And what if it turns out Sap, unbeknownst to him, has a few little ginger Saps running around the streets of Ypsilanti? Do we start comparing him to the dads now? There's way too many unaligned factors out of people's control to try and compare one athlete to another for something as significant as this. And then the intangibles are... well... intangible; Shakes's presence in the gym can't be quantified but we sure feel it when she's on. Since our community is such a major part of our identity, that unmeasurable impact is always going to be taken into account.

Jennifer, Elizabeth, Cecilia, Sap, Shakes - Summer 2018

Second claim: Athlete of the Summer is as objective as it is possible for a subjective award to be.

I was really tempted to leave the second claim as "Athlete of the Summer is objective," but I will concede that even despite my constant attempts to slay the demons of fun and emotion, I fall victim to being a human every once in a while. With that being said, I am the only coach, I don't miss a session, and I don't work out with you guys. When the last session of the day is done I find somewhere in the gym to lay and reflect. I know back stories for just about all of you; I know what you went through to get into the gym that day and take that into account with regards to your workout and energy.

Notice how many times the word "I" appeared in that paragraph. The subjective One-Dude's-Opinion part of the process cannot be taken out. Nor does it need to be, because it's also important to understand that, despite my bias and conflicts of interest, my personal vote has only won a banner 5 times during our previous 14 Summers:

2010

• My vote: Frankie
• AOTS: Frankie

2011

• My vote: Nick Prys
• AOTS: Nick Prys

2012

• My vote: Murley or Jacob
• AOTS: Bubs

2013

• My vote: Bubs
• AOTS: Bromm

2014

• My vote: Lauren Higgins
• AOTS: Jason

2015

• My vote: Erika Banet
• AOTS: Elizabeth Banet

2016

• My vote: Shakes
• AOTS: Shakes

2017

• My vote: Jacob
• AOTS: Sap

2018

• My vote: Jennifer
• AOTS: Jennifer

2019

• My vote: Jay
• AOTS: Fry

2020

• My vote: Cecilia
• AOTS: Dillon

2021

• My vote: Cecilia
• AOTS: Cecilia

2022

• My vote: Aaron
• AOTS: Bubs

2023

• My vote: Chase/Cecilia tie (winner goes to Cecilia)
• AOTS: Mrs. Van

A biased award coming from one person is analyzed, criticized, and questioned more than that person analyzes, criticizes, and questions his building lease agreement (word is bond, Dave), profit margin (here's a cup, you guys figure it out), or retirement plan (death). I knew very well what the side effects of Bubs getting the award in 2022 were going to be, or Erica/Fry not getting it in 2018. I'd bet there are more people who have approached me with a different opinion for who they believe deserves the banner than there are people who haven't. I don't mind any of that one bit! I am blessed to be part of something that the participants feel this much ownership over. I am also so paranoid about losing integrity and credibility of my word that I don't know how else to do it; putting it up for a vote or setting a standard criteria would be stooping to a level of soft an apology could not fix. Any loss of sleep that comes with this process is vastly overshadowed by how proud I am of not only the athlete who wins the award, but also all those in contention. Competition is a beautiful, beautiful thing, and this is the only individual competition I know of that is truly unique to the individual. So here we go:

Champions Club Summer 2024 Dream Team

• Aaron Sexton
• Anthony Banet
• Jessica Suchta
• Matt Fecht
• Mr. Lett
• Mr. Ron
• Mrs. Colleen
• Mrs. Hana
• Mrs. Hill
• Mrs. Nevarez

Just like the AOTS award, I try and make the Dream Team as unbiased as I possibly can, with one exception: I give myself an executive vote on a single spot: Chase in 2020, Crystal in 2021, Sam Curtis in 2022, Madison Bettys in 2023, and now Matt was my vote this time around. Simply put, the dude is in the best mental spot he's ever been here, and the path to get there is worthy of a book. I am so proud of not only his performance in the gym but also his impact on the Summer as a whole. We are blessed to have him back. I plan on giving everyone else an extended shout in the AOTS feature post. Speaking of which, let's do this thing in real time:

My Athlete of the Summer vote is for Aaron Sexton. He set gym records on Annie, Randy, Filthy Fifty, max height box jump, and Fran. He also pr'd on Angie, deadlift, the kb swing/box jump torture, and power clean. He remains a community staple and made improvements on things like patience and composure (his main points of emphasis this Summer).

But there's the attendance thing: my gut instinct is to question whether he was here "enough," and checking the last updated sheet has Aaron at 64%, which is 7th place on an attendance team that is fighting to stay out of last place. Anto really made a major jump, and Jessica was about as close to exactly where her body and brain needed to be as possible. So how can I justify keeping them out of the rafters when their attendance was significantly better?

Because it's Aaron vs. Aaron. Just slide about two feet to the left and that should do it.