CrossFit Athletic Group

I have a few shirts stored away somewhere that say Earned, Never Given - which were ironically given out to everyone who participated in said program, camp, class, etc. When I really think about it, I don't have a problem with participation trophies or swag bags for everyone; just showing up puts you ahead of a lot of people. I also don't mind "Legacy" awards like a senior who's been through the program getting nominated for All-League or something like that. What I do have a gripe with is this:

I hate Michigan State football with the intensity of a thousand suns. I would rather lose to Ohio State by 234 points than beat Sparty by 1. I want them hamblasted into irrelevance as nextdoor neighbors to Rutgers and Northwestern, or I want them off our schedule completely. Yet, Kenneth Walker III was the rightful Heisman Trophy winner in 2021. He was the most outstanding player in college football, was the single most valuable player to any college (not just sports team), and needs to be given a percentage of Mel Tucker's current 9-year contract. There is nothing specifically descriptive about the phrase All-League or All-State, but the Downtown Athletic Club and all the voters need to be held accountable to the phrase "most outstanding player in college football."

One of the simplest ways of interweaving a true competition into our individualized gym is to have a singular award and hold myself accountable to what it means. The Athlete of the [blank] simply goes to whoever had the best season; it's equal parts objective and subjective, leaving enough wiggle room to be represented by different styles of athletes but also comparable and repeatable across any given season. The difficult part about this for me is ignoring the narrative and popular choice and make sure it goes to the person most deserving; it's a lot easier to defend Bryce Young getting the Heisman that it would have been for Kenneth Walker III, or even Aiden Hutchinson. There have definitely been plenty of against-the-grain awards given out: Elizabeth Banet became the first person without top attendance to win Athlete of the Summer in 2015, beating out a 99% Shakes; Dillon Sharp went back-to-back Athlete of the Spring and Summer during lockdown; Mrs. Tara went back-to-back winter and spring awards in 2021; Bubs repeated her banner in 2022; Woorden got consecutive Athlete of the Winter awards; Fry, Jaylee, and Mr. Ron did not get banners during their perfect attendance Summer.

This spring was no different. Mrs. Hana has done better this spring than she as ever done before. Mr. Malak has done better this spring than he has ever done before. Mr. Ron has done better this spring than any dad has ever done in their first spring. And yet...

gg mr. malak

Mr. Mark had the best spring out of anyone.

Oddly enough, Mr. Mark almost had the best winter out of anyone; he was certainly as fit as he'd ever been up to that point, it's just that Aaron had a better winter, even though more people saw Mr. Mark in action. What I was looking for out of him was 1) a higher intensity on short duration WODs and 2) better control over heavy weight (relative to him). What we got this spring was both: Heavy thrusters, fast squats, max deadlifts, hill sprints. CrossFit demands a competency in all domains, not just your wheelhouse, and the reason we came out of last Summer with Mr. Van as the fittest dad in the gym was because he'd be closer to Mr. Mark's mile time than Mr. Mark would be to his max deadlift; now it is a different story. And even though Mr. Mark spent a majority of his spring working on his weaknesses, he still got plenty of opportunity to showcase his strengths, highlighted by hitting scores of 6 + 3 /6 - 3 (95 lbs) for The Chief, an hour and 45 minutes for Clovis (one of the only people to have finished the entire workout), and a pr on Murph, going 42:53 straight through.

Here's another thing to consider: the parents probably have a more difficult time winning any particular award because they are on the same playing field as the kids. It would be easier on decision-making for me to have an AOTS parents category separate from the kids, but I think it means more when Mrs Tara, Mr. Kuiper, Mr. Carey, Mrs. Kroll, Crystal, Mrs. Nevarez, Wendy, and Mrs. Carey win one. To say Mrs. Mark earned then one is a given.

...........

In past years I used to rely on an intense influx of New Kids during the spring to give us a boost for the Summer: 2013 had the Northwood invasion; 2015 is when we brought on a group of new parents (Mr. Auggie, the Andersons, Mrs. Kroll); 2016 was the Goobers from Warren Mott track; 2018, 2019, and 2021 stockpiled enough Rookies to fill a session (or two) before Day 1 started; and during lockdown we brought in the Lamphere invasion with Mr. Malak, Mr. Webster, and Mr. Krstich. Last year we were loaded with enough repeats to just go back into Summer with basically the same roster, and I thought this Summer was going to be the same. Then we brought in CT and Mya in late April, and in recent weeks we brought in Mr. Bitu, Mrs. Kiffany, and Allie Adams, plus Myron and Faith coming back and a few more high schoolers ready for the Summer.

Our college kids are back and so far the one I'm impressed with the most is Koje: she seems to be taking her fitness more seriously than ever, which, coming off a Defensive Player of the Year in her conference, should be bad news for her opponents. Although to single her out would be doing a disservice to Zander, who's picked up right where he left off from last Summer, highlighted by a 7-second pr in Murph.

Speaking of hero workouts, anyone done a more physically and mentally demanding workout than Clovis? Our Memorial Day choices were definitely rough, but man, Clovis was absolutely crushing. Other benchmarks included Angie, Chelsea, and Cindy, plus a few trips to the Hill.

On the sports side of things, Lamphere softball and baseball won their districts at the same time on the same field; Madison/Tea' and Lulu squared off in the district final at Athens, Sam and Sarah Curtis got to play as doubles tennis partners for LCN, Chase reunited with Coach Casey on the AAU basketball scene, and David Sap has really been working on his golf game... or so he tells us.

That's about it fellas! Summer 2023 is on the other side!