CrossFit Athletic Group

After a hiatus between Theme Workouts, we are planning on rolling them out three consecutive weekends in August. The first of which will be the return of the Pirates Theme Workout this Saturday at 8 am.

This is 7th grade Carter, Joe Wonsil as Blackbeard, Mike Morrow, and Alexis HilliardThis workout first came up in Summer 2010 in the Old Weight Room and was repeated in Summer 2015. The exact format is still TBD, but plan in it being similar to Space Jam where the entire group is split into two teams, and it will be a race to the finish to see who wins. In the past there was a treasure map involved and the partners/teams had to decipher it to know where to go. That will not be the case this time. Both teams will know exactly where to go. The captains will be announced in the next few days.

Hope to see you guys there!

Conamora, Josh, Zeena - Halloween 2017

This is something I have thrown by a few of you recently, but seeing as we're less than a week away and shirt designs will be in the works, I need some closure.

The first day of the Champions Club was June 14, 2010. This will be our 10th Summer, but we haven't been around for 10 full years yet.

Is this our 10-year anniversary?

First ever Champions Club Theme Workout - Hawaiian Workout in a complete downpour

If you are new around, we usually do this about every other Summer. The Graph was originally conceived in the Old Weight Room where Brian, myself, Gabe O'Neil, and Scott Gwisdalla were arguing about how much athleticism could override a bad personality, and vis versa. In the Summer 2011 (Fieldhouse), Murley surprised us all and brought in a full graph ready to go. It was repeated in 2013, 2015, and now here in Summer 2017.

It is meant to be read like a normal graph in math class. The X-axis represents one's personality and the Y-axis represents athletic ability.

It is also meant to be in good fun. So when Crawford sees his name down by the bottom-left, he will still get defensive but will laugh because, again, it's just something to cause a little friendly debate. New names for this year's graph include: Ashley Fry, Arlene and Reggie, Avery, David Sap, Kenny, Lindsey Eason, and Mel.

Enjoy!

As expected, Sap is pissed...

Yes, that Mikey.

Mikey Peterson is Champions Club athlete number... like... 3 or 4 or something. I know Ryan was first. Then Jack. Then we might've had a few O'neals or Gleasons in there before Mikey. But either way, Mikey was one of the original crew in 2009 who formed what eventually became known as the Champions Club. And good lord was he bad.

Imagine Mrs. Carey's attention span mixed with Reggie's flexibility and 2013 Carter's coordination. It was painful for Brian and I to watch. But despite my best efforts to discourage him from training with us, Mikey just kept showing up that winter, spring, and eventually was in the top 20 attendance for the first Champions Club Summer. In fact, he won the inagural M.I.L.F. Award (Most Improved Limb Function). The next year, Mikey even ran track for us and put up some respectable 800-meter times. And during our Fieldhouse Summer, Mikey actually became the first person we awarded Athlete of the Week. Then he went AWOL.

But nowadays, Mikey is going to Kettering with Cap'n Jack and he's on the same 3-month-on-3-month-off schedule. He's working in the area from now until January and is ready to get back into CrossFit, hopefully for the long-haul. Because he's been out of the loop for so long, we're doing Fundamentals (similar to how I did with Nick Prys last year at this time) in the hopes of tearing down and building back up. The Alys and Jacks are still showing the habits of my old coaching, so I'm trying to erase those tendencies. I'll check back in after Day 8. But so far, so good.

Recommended Reading: Something Mikey This Way Comes - December 29, 2015

Before there was Maria Fiorini the Sassy 7th grader, before there was Aaron Augustyn the patron saint of tripping, there existed a boy... no... a man of Champions Club lore. His name: Mikey Peterson; the original winner of the M.I.L.F. award (Most Improved Limb Function). And lord have mercy he earned it.

During the winter of 2009 Jack Trastevere and Ryan were so excited to finally get their friend Mikey to finally try an after-school CrossFit session. I never heard of him but judging by Jack and Ryan I was expecting a similar athletic ability; not special but easy to work with. Then I saw Mikey move.

The first thing I saw Mikey do was fail an air squat. As in, not being able to stand back up. I was at a loss.

Fast forward a few months and by some miracle Mikey managed to get himself out of a squatting position on a consistent basis and even did a deadlift once or twice. But the cool thing was he kept showing up. And by the time we officially formed the Champions Club, Mikey was doing handstand push-ups and running like a normal person does. It was a thing of beauty.

Mikey (right) shown with Ryan, Emma, and Bubs in the Old Weight RoomAs time went on, Mikey complimented his Champions Club attendance by running track for us in the spring of his Junior and Senior years - participating in the 800m and mile races. He never won races and rarely won any of the workouts - especially working out with the likes of Pip, Ryan, Emma, and KJ - but Mikey Peterson was the first athlete I had to coach. Like, actually coach. He came in not knowing how to get off the ground without Life Alert and through consistent attendance transformed himself into an athlete. He also embraced the culture by being one of the first athletes to bring in family members - his sister, Amanda, was in the first Summer crew and his mother was in the first ever Mom's Club with Mrs. Pip, Mrs. Carey, and Mama V. Mikey a very important piece in keeping the Champions Club class of 2012 together, and that class was possibly the most influential one to date. I mean, just look at the faces:

Upon graduating, Mikey went to Kettering University with Jack but for one reason or another has never made it back to the Champions Club to see the gym at its current location.

Then tonight happened.

Jack Trastevere walked in the doors with a friend by his side. I hadn't quite made it to the lights yet so I could not tell who it was. When I turned them on I saw a bearded Paul Bunyon-looking fellow who appeared to have just woken up from his slumber in the woods. Then I looked down and saw these clodhopper Osiris that I have only seen one person in the history of this earth sport.

Mikey Muthaf***** Peterson.

It's always good to see old faces come back around, but Mikey is one of those kids - along with Jack, Ryan, Emma, and Abby - who were so instrumental in the Champions Club being a legitimate thing. He'll always have a home here.

Great to see you Mikey and hope you come back to visit soon.

At the time I wrote this (August 8, 2015 at 8:35 pm), there were a total of 13,944 comments combined from all pages this website has to offer. The very first comment to ever be published here was:

"Jesus can walk on water, but Franklin Lama can swim on land"

One thing I have found interesting is the Athlete of the Summer for each year, by chance or by prophecy, has taken to be the personification of that respective Summer. And this comment, and Franklin Lama in general gives off the perfect vibe for what the Champions Club Summer 2010 in the Old Weight Room was: unbelievably and undeniably cool.

In 2010, we knew not of form.

There was no such thing as a hollow rock. We had two sets of rings, one rope, and zero bumper plates. The Banets did not exist. Neither did kipping handstand push-ups. Or the color red. Rich Froning had not won the CrossFit Games. The best way to squat, obviously, was with toes pointed out at a 45 degree angle. And as long as your back didn't look "too rounded," pile weight on the deadlift bar.

The internet was not what it was today. As of now, any Jacob Augustine of the world can scour YouTube and 4chan for hours and know the ins-and-outs of how to do Olympic lifts and box jumps. In 2010, the only authority was the CrossFit Journal - a subscription based publication with coaching information not available anywhere else in the world other than that location said coach was presenting and the subscribers. Meanwhile, in the constricted weight room at Bishop Foley, Brian and I took what we could comprehend out of the video clips and applied it to our training, and that of the after-school gagglers that wanted a serving of Kool-Aid.

A Summer CrossFit group was their idea, not ours, but we went along with it. For nearly five years, attempts to bring in additional CrossFitters outside myself and Brian went about as well as Mr. Z's attempts to make his elbows go straight. But now, we were on the cusp of having 23 kids doing CrossFit with us during the Summer of 2010, which would have been exactly 23 more kids than either of us had ever coached in CrossFit before.

One of those kids was Franklin Lama - a youngster who came to define the Champions Club's early years of existence.

Frankie front and centerFranklin's older brother, Ben, had been doing some training with us on-and-off during that spring, and had already signed himself and his sister, Abby, up for the Summer sessions. The Friday before Summer started, he approached Brian and myself about the possibility of his younger brother, Franklin, joining as well. Although there were trepedations about allowing a 5th grader to join our ranks of high schoolers and college kids, we said yes - mostly due to the fact that we needed as many people as we could get. Going into June 14, 2010, there was as much unknown as we had known before.

Our first workout was "Cindy" scaled to 12 minutes. Kurt Weiss threw up six times.

But in the mix of vomit, complaining, awkwardness, and bad form was a big-for-his-age 5th grader named Franklin who said a grand total of zero words. Somehow, he had the best form out of anyone. The next day's workout, Helen, was the same result - both with the workout and his words. This routine carried on for the first week or two. He was doing great, but we thought he hated us.

Then one day in June we did a benchmark workout called "Angie" - modified to 75 pull-ups, 75 push-ups, 75 situps, and 75 squats (the real thing is 100 each). Frankie was at the 9 am session and caught our attention by doing all of the squats completely unbroken. As usual, Brian and I were impressed, but still concerned that Frankie didn't like working out - the main goal for training kids his age. Then, as he was waiting for his ride to show up, Franklin Lama said his first words of his CrossFit career, "Uh... umm... that was my favorite workout so far."

I was in shock. Not only did he speak, using words, but he spoke about us - about CrossFit - in the positive tense. So naturally, Brian and I continued the conversation for as long as we could. After a half hour, his ride picked him up and left Brian and I alone in the weight room. "Dang, Frankie's a really cool kid," said Brian.

Damn right he was.

For the rest of the Summer, Frankie turned into our star student; not only during workouts, but also in the community-sense by dressing up for Theme Workouts, tagging along with the high schoolers, and even bringing in his Aunt to test out a session.

...........

In the Summer 2010, Franklin Lama showed us three important things that still resonate with us today:

1. CrossFit can be scaled for anyone
2. Good form = good workouts
3. There are some special people at the Champions Club

The first one is obvious, as it only took a few weeks for Frankie to get up to speed with the group - and surpass them. As is the second one about good form. But the third point is not so much Frankie's doing, but everyone else. Jack Trastevere, Colleen Mullen, Pip, KJ, Amanda Peterson, Max Aleshire, and Mike Size all treated Frankie like he was their peer. It wasn't even the typical "little brother" thing either; they talked to him like he was their age, pushed him during workouts, and allowed him to push them back. He was by far everyone's favorite (except for Tara, who lost to him in Best Attendance by 1 day) because he blurred the lines between age, grades, social circles, and work capacity.

He was just Frankie. That name still rings a bell.