CrossFit Athletic Group

During the summer months of 2009, Brian the Trainer left me alone in the CrossFit world with Old Faithful and not much else while he took a month-long trip to the west coast to visit his brother. During those months I hit the workouts solo - sneaking into Foley's weight room or else heading out to the track and improvising pull-ups on the back of the bleachers.

On one fateful July day I convinced my 14-year old neighbor Jay Junkin to do a CrossFit workout. So I walked him up to the track in the middle of the day, medball in my dufflebag, trying to think of a good workout to initiate him in what was going to be day 1 of a new lifelong CrossFit journey. The closer we got, the more pressure I felt to actually, you know, pick a workout for him; we were already sweating our balls off on the walk, so there would no need for a warmup, and therefore no extra time to plan. I needed to act fast, lest he would think I was a bad coach, so I decided on the first workout that popped into my mind:

"Kalsu"

For time:

135-lb. thrusters, 100 reps

*begin every minute with 5 burpees

It was known as the most difficult workout in CrossFit's arsenal and I figured that would be a good test to see if Jay really had what it takes to be a CrossFitter; I, of couse, had never done the workout. Plus, I'd be letting him off easy by using a 20-lb. medball (actually, Old Faithful was probably 19.2 pounds at the time).

About 3 minutes into the workout I realized this was a horrible, horrible idea but no amount of shaking legs or rounding back or missed catches in directly in the summer sun would deter me from trying to save face. "Okay, maybe let's try for 75 instead of 100" I told him. "And don't worry about the squat part of the wallball." It was no good. Jay stopped 37 wallballs in; neither one of us needed to say the workout was done. I remember thinking Jay Junkin would never do CrossFit again and it was my own damn fault.

Nearly two years had passed since that day; there was now this thing called the Champion's Club and I had successfully not killed dozens of kids right around Jay's age and we were getting ready for our second Summer. So I gingerly asked Jay if he would consider giving CrossFit another try and to my astonishment he agreed. He joined our first-ever Rookie 10 am session on June 13, 2011.

It is now 10 years later and Jay Junkin has about as healthy of a relationship with CrossFit as one can possible have, give or take hamstring mobility. He's been on a low trajectory towards a distant horizon since Day 1 and it's led him to the Jay you guys know today. Over the last decade the Champions Club has undergone some major changes; thankfully having Jay Junkin in our ranks wasn't one of them.

There really needs to be some other way of honoring our 10-year kids other than a collage of old videos and photos here, but until then I don't have words for how appreciative I am of Jay being such a staple in the Champions Club for the last 10 years. The patience he shows with his fitness and athleticism coupled with the humility and easy-going nature make him absolutely irreplaceable. We are truly lucky to have him. If we did an Athlete of the Decade award, he's be right there with Mrs. Carey. Congratulations my man! Let's hope there's another great decade ahead.

Recommended reading:

Big News from Grand Valley

Athlete of the Fall 2017

Summer 2019 AOTS Runner-up

All-Decade List: Best Beast Mode (#11 and #6)

All-Decade List: Bring Your A-Game Session

Parents Under Pressure and the Jay Junkin Effect