CrossFit Athletic Group

In the best way possible, Summer 2023 was the worst nightmare for attendance keeping. Take a look at this picture:

How the hell am I supposed to count this attendance? Rae is not physically in the gym, does her attendance count? It's around 11 am and Cec and crew are still there, should their attendance count for 3? Ianah and Lola were technically at the 10 am session but they opted to play instead of work out, does that still count? Pitt and Michael are there for an hour session that has not started yet, nor will it be anywhere near an hour long, what if they have to leave, you know, "on time?"

Standards were changed, exceptions were made, options were given, and while it's going to be difficult to compare this Summer to previous ones, I think we still have a pretty accurate record of who was and was not at the Champions Club this Summer. Let's see what we got!

Summer 2010 Final Attendance

Summer 2011 Final Attendance

Summer 2012 Final Attendance

Summer 2013 Final Attendance

Summer 2014 Final Attendance

Summer 2015 Final Attendance

Summer 2016 Final Attendance

Summer 2017 Final Attendance

Summer 2018 Final Attendance

Summer 2019 Final Attendance

Summer 2020 Final Attendance

Summer 2021 Final Attendance

Summer 2022 Final Attendance

Summer 2023 Final Attendance

There are 174 people on this list. Probably around 150ish on the official roster, which is a record. Also a record was 85 people in one day for Randy and 46 people at the Disney Workout.

That is many.

Dean! Have you been eavesdropping this entire post?

I've been eavesdropping all Summer.

Excellent. Well, what do you think.

Like I said, that is many.

And that's not all either. There is another Matt I think, two James, and Mrs. Patricia joined late.

It sounds like these numbers might not be accurate.

Depends on who you're talking about. They are accurate for our regulars... or, at least within the normal margin for error of any other Summer. Where this started to get tricky was with the 10 am session and the Farm System. Technically Rae, Liz, JT, and Parker and crew have their own session on Sundays... but they were here most mornings, sometimes playing and sometimes working out. And I want that. So what sense would it make to do like I did in the past and only count them out of 10 days? I realized this a few weeks into the Summer, and probably didn't count them in as many days as they were actually here. Plus, Coach Conway opened up the pipeline to The Family's own Farm System, so we had more names in there as well.

Finally, there were more people this Summer than ever that I thought were with us - some gave a verbal commit, some paid, some I put the press on - and ended up adrift, so to speak. So instead of having poor Erica fumble around and try to match an Excel sheet to what is going on in my head, I just copied and pasted her master table, hoping we can sort the names out by memory.

Oh, so you're not waiting until the very end to give Erica her props this year?

Uh, yeah I am. Not appreciating Erica as much as she deserves is a Champions Club tradition I'm holding onto dearly. Same with Rachael Kroll.

Are you going to uphold any other unsubstantiated Champions Club traditions?

Absolutely! Here's the year-by-year comparison.

10th place

2022 - 91% (Wesley/Bubs)

2021 - 86% (Anto)

2014 - 85% (Ricky)

2023 - 83% (Mr. Kuiper)

2015 - 82% (Lauren Higgins)

2020 - 81% (Conamora)

2013 - 79% (Meaghan Murley)

2019 -  76% (Bewick/Andre)

2018 - 67% (Jennifer/Mrs. Tara)

20th place

2022 - 83% (Mr. Curtis)

2021 - 77% (Bewick, Kyron)

2023 - 74% (Chase, Mrs. Hana, Mya)

2020 - 70% (Mrs. Tara)

2015 - 67% (Mrs. Carey)

2019 - 64% (Sajib)

2013 - 60% (Faust)

2014 - 58% (Sabal)

2018 - 55% (Mrs. Carey)

30th place

2021 - 70% (Aaron, Dylan, Paris)

2022 - 66% (Bewick)

2023 - 64% (Mr. Mark, Shakes, Kyron, Allie A)

2020 - 63% (Javier, Mr. Van, Mrs. Hana)

2015 - 57% (Hannah - Sabal's wife)

2019 - 51% (Erika/Jacob)

2013 - 51% (Alex Andreoli - my cousin)

2018 - 47% (Dylan Colussi/Emily Walker)

2014 - 42% (JZ)

40th place

2021 - 60% (Dillon, Conamora, and crew)

2020 - 56% (Coach Casey and crew)

2022 - 56% (Owen - tiebreaker goes to year with more people at that percent)

2023 - 51% (Lulu, Pitt, Gianna)

2015 - 47% (Mrs. Pip)

2019 - 47% (Joe/Makenna)

2013 - 46% (Mama V and a bunch of others)

2018 - 40% (Murley/Conor)

2014 - 32% (Mr. Wonsil/Crystal)

50th place

2021 - 54% (Mrs. Nevarez/Josh Backos)

2023 - 49% (JT and a 8 others)

2022 - 47% (William)

2020 - 46% (Abbi)

2019 - 41% (Mr. Carey)

2015 - 38% (Nick from DLS Soccer)

2013 - 37% (Jesse)

2018 - 29% (Maddy Wesner)

2014 - 21% (Tara Taylor)

and we're going to keep going because it's great!

60th place

2021 - 49% (Caleb Backos, Woorden, and crew)

2023 - 43% (Dita, crew)

2022 - 37% (Arthur, Chase, Conamora, Lily)

70th place

2021 - 43% (Chase)

2023 - 37% (Mr. Marsh, Kadence, Samantha)

2022 - 33% (Paris, Maggie, Bethany)

Wait, why aren't 2016 and 2017 on there?

10 place in 2016 was 63%. 10th place in 2017 was 56%

I see.

Yes, dark times in the attendance books.

Who is this Mr. Ron guy?

Think about someone who is always there; someone who seems to defy the rules of biology and oxygen by communicating in an endless loop of a single topic until infinity; someone who, by all accounts, should be a grown ass adult by now with other things to do, but somehow clings tight to the young kid he always was.

So he's me?

...

... I mean.... I'm sorry excuse me a minute.

...

Well I'm asking because I heard he was upset he had to share the spotlight with someone else who also got 100% attendance. And I also heard confusion about how it was decided to track 70 days instead of the entire Summer. Care to explain?

Oh, right! Well, for the first time ever we have two people with 100% attendance: Mr. Ron - who is definitely not Dean - and Mrs. Van. Mrs. Van missed the Saturday 4 Corners adventure (in retrospect, maybe Carvin and Pitt were out looking for her), which was like 6 days after we stopped counting attendance.

Remember, the Champions Club started as a high school program. A Catholic high school program. Catholic schools like to drag their kids back in the middle of August to sweat until their ass cheeks show through their schoolbell khakis, which is somehow not against dress code. And at Foley, most kids we had played 3 sports, so the fall football/volleyball/cross country seasons got under way even before that. We thought it was fair to taper down as August rolled around, and that turned out to be right around the 70 day mark.

As the years went on and we branched into different communities, teams, and counties, Summer attendance was adjusted to not count until each individual got out of school and ended when their fall sports started. However, I also began to notice how much the sports seasons were getting blurred (like the age lines in our gym); football workouts start in January, cross country "practice" starts in June, white boy suburban basketball has adopted the PSL formula of year-round practice, and soccer is just dumb. And when I look at our Summer attendance numbers, that's second thing that popped out to me: we have Mya, who we caught in a transition between lower-level travel soccer and higher-level travel soccer; Faith, who was not even technically cleared to do our stuff, let alone sports, with her knee injury; and Chase, who is Chase. Every other high school kid was subject to the intrusion of their sport(s) seasons. The first thing that popped out is our core group of parents, college kids, and middle schoolers killed it with their attendance (and performance).

So here was the "identify the choice" thing I saw: adjust the attendance days counted to cater towards our regulars, or respect the fall and spring sports even if they're indruding. And I'm chosing the latter. When volleyball starts I want Faith to come in because she wants to, not because she feels obligated to Mr. Malak's attendance team.

Speaking of attendance team, how did those turn out this Summer?

Glad you asked! But there is one change this year: Mr. Van paid a hefty sum to Mr. Mel Kuiper so his draft analysis could be included with each team.

4th Place: I'm In Rochester Now (42.4%)

Mr. Van's analysis: 21.7% less than Bruce Almighty

3rd Place: In the Bathroom for the Warmup Run (47.4%)

Mr. Van's analysis: 16.7% less than Bruce Almighty

2nd Place: Green Beans and Grass for Lunch (51.4%)

Mr. Van's analysis: 12.7% less than Bruce Almighty

1st place:  My Achilles, Chief (52.7%)

Mr. Van's analysis: suck it Malak

Who is this Mr. Van guy?

Him and Mr. Ron are best buds. They hold hands on warm-up runs.

Well then... anyway, how did you overthink the attendance draft? Did you pay your respects to the moms for going through child birth? Did you give extra attendance points to people who carpool from 3 cities away so we can save the environment?

Well, I was going to take out the bottom 4 from everyone's team instead of bottom 2, but Erica said it wouldn't have changed the order.

I had too many names on the board for the Draft. I jumped the gun on a few people signing up, as I mentioned above. That's on me.

Did you predict this order of finish?

I did not.

Wasn't there something or other where you made predictions?

Yup.. And asked questions. Deep, thought-provoking, generation-defining questions.

Shall we revisit?

I suppose. From the Summer Invite:

Questions.

Aaron Sexton. Third in 2019... second in 2022... will this be his year?

Not quite, but man did he come on at the end. I approve of his Summer.

How do I coach the Money Exhibit? Their resume' tells me they need to train like kids expecting to play high-level college sports; my gut tells me they need fun to be the priority at this time.

Still don't know for sure, but I think Lily Cleans Her Room is the way to go.

What do we do with the Rookies? This will be the first time we've graduated a group from Double-A into the Rookies; a format that has been in the fridge for the last 6 Summers. I'm super excited to see how this turns out!

Use the 10 am session as the gateway between the Farm System and The Group. Make it difficult to tell who is in the session. Buy more soft foam things in case Rae or Liz fall from somewhere they aren't supposed to be.

What will become of the Double-A session after losing their most consistent people? I might be bringing in the Family's 7th grade team; I also know, from past experiences, bringing in a full team with their own culture and expecting them to mesh with our group will take more work than it seems on paper. It can be done for sure, though.

The Family is the only thing keeping that session going; the rest of the kids are integrated into the fringes of The Group. Their culture is fine because Coach Conway is a great coach. But the Babies are probably better suited for the Double-A session if they get to play at the regular sessions during the week.

Can we bring back the Lego Theme Workout if there's 40 people in attendance? It worked really well in Summer 2017 for 11... did I remember this right... /checks records... nope, 9(!!!!!) people. I'd like to see if it can be modified for our current climate.

Brought back Monopoly instead. Lose the betting, focus on the picking your own movement.

What's going to be the mobility schedule? I know I'll get burned out by doing all 6 mobility sessions; I also want to give people as good of a chance as possible to show up for their attendance team.

Open mobility sessions for an hour and a half. Didn't like it at first, loved it by the end. Probably staying.

Have I been trying to build "a gym for athletes" the wrong way? When all the things clamboring for Priti and Dylan's attention are focussed around short-term, urgent, superficial benchmarks, maybe I need to make sure the Champions Club's approach is a long-term relationship that will be here when they are ready.

I think I lost my focus on this midway through the Summer, and I found understanding and clarity when I came back to this in August.

And the original predictions:

Predictions. Now allow me seven attempts to look stupid in September:

1. Lower attendance than last two Summers but we'll have more people than Summer 2019
2. Mrs. Tara's team wins the draft
3. The dads will be irate at who the board places in the top athleticism amongst them
4. Coach Casey, Mr. Carey, Bethany, and Shakes get their nutrition on the right track
5. The Farm System will need a reboot/retooling/redesign after this Summer
6. Mr. Mark and Mr. Ron do a muscle-up with Josh Bennis or Anto teaching them
7. We have a parent in the banners for the first time, beating out Aaron, Zander, and Jessica

Here's how it looked:

1. Yup.
2. Nope, but close.
3. Eh, kinda. Mr. Kuiper ignored it the entire Summer.
4. Shakes... not as much as I thought. The other three... absolutely!
5. Yup.
6. Not quite, but I think Aaron taught JB and Josh Backos to do one.
7. Yes ma'am!

You forgot your last prediction.

Huh?

Erica...

Oh yeah, big ups to Erica for taking the time to do the attendance. This was the most people we've ever had on a spreadsheet, and she was kept up with everything and managed to not get fired from her job. Thank you again kiddo!

Is there anything else?

I don't think so.

May I go now?

Yes, you may. Conclusion.