CrossFit Athletic Group

On May 24, 2015, Jacob finally convinced his dad to join the Champions Club. Over 2 years later, Mr. Auggie has become a fan-favorite among the likes of Rachael Kroll, Mr. Z, Mama V, and the rest of the crew. As you can guess, most of his admirers jumped on board when they noticed he showed little hesitation giving me a hard time about anything he didn't like in the workouts. But that often ended there.

I wanted to bring back this series for a long time, and as I was going through lists of people in my head to feature, Mr. Auggie's was the one that kept coming back. I've known him for like 15 years, am good friends with his son, and he's been with the Champions Club for what seems like forever. Yet, our conversations always revolve around Michigan football or funny work stories. I had a feeling there was some cool stuff there if someone just asked, and I also was interested to see how Jacob became Jacob.

So here we are: Behind the Champion feat. Mr. Auggie.

Can you talk a little bit about where you grew up? Where did you go to high school and college?

I grew up in Madison Heights and went to Lamphere High School.  While I was there I was a mediocre football player (that’s being kind), a pretty bad basketball player for a couple of years, and a pretty decent High School baseball player.  Once I graduated I spent a year at Adrian College.  I decided that wasn’t for me and transferred to Oakland University.  I graduated from Oakland U with my degree in Human Resources Management.

I think everyone kinda knows you work at Macomb County Jail, but I don't think everyone knows about the process of "getting ordered". So can you explain what goes into that?

The process of getting ordered over is unpleasant (if I am going to keep it PG).  Essentially, we are a facility that needs to keep staffing levels on a 24/7 basis.  That being said, we all still have lives, get sick, and sometimes just need a day away from what can be a pretty negative environment.  This creates overtime opportunities that are often filled with people voluntarily taking the spots.  Unfortunately, there are times when people don’t want the overtime and those spots still need to be filled.  When this happens, the people who are currently working a standard 8 hour shift take turns being “ordered”.  This means that you need to stay for an extra 8 hour shift.  Unfortunately, there are times when you don’t find out you are being ordered until about an hour before the end of your original shift (so about an hour before you planned on going home).

Do you get any insights into life in general by working at a prison?

The most basic thing I have learned from working at a jail (which is different than a prison by the way) is that people generally don’t like being told what to do.  I think the hardest part for an inmate is having their choices taken away.  They don’t get to decide what to wear, what they get to eat, when they have to go their cells, and if they have a Television they have to come to an agreement between about 30 people on what they are going to watch.  It is amazing how much easier things go if you are willing to check your ego and ask an inmate to do something before simply telling them they have to do it.  In most cases inmates respond positively to being asked and it never gets to the point where you have to order them to do it.

Is that something that took you a long time to figure out? Did you just observe how they were reacting to the other officers and make your decision to ask instead of order? What about me ordering you around in here?

I actually figured out that people prefer to be asked rather than told to do something long before I started working here.  The first management position I ever had I learned that quickly. As far as liking being ordered around by you, I don’t really look at it that way.  I consider the things you tell me to do as the specific structure that I don’t know how to coordinate on my own.  I still made the choice to come to the gym, so I’m not really being forced to do anything.

Keeping it roughly PG-13, what is one of the best stories you're allowed to share from your time working

My favorite work stories involve some of the names of the people we deal with.  One of my favorites is the brothers Lemongelo and Orangelo (named for Lemon Jell-O and Orange Jell-O)

How did you end up getting dragged into CrossFit? What keeps you coming back?

I started doing CrossFit after a whole lot of nagging from Jake.  I finally realized I was getting way too out of shape for my liking.  I keep coming back because despite my complaining I feel a sense of accomplishment after finishing a workout and do feel general improvements in movement in every day life

What is your first memory of me? Not necessarily CrossFit related.

My first memories of you involve you and the other neighborhood kids playing football up at Japhet (where you and Jake had to be on separate teams).  Always thought it was cool that you were willing to hang out with the younger kids.

What are your first memories of Jay? Do you have any funny stories to share about Jacob and Jay being classmates for so long?

The memories of both Jessie and Jay that stick out to me involve 6^th grade basketball.  I can remember going that whole season driving them and Jake back and forth to practice and trying my hardest to get them to speak.  I was completely unsuccessful.  It was like they lost the ability to speak when they got in my car!!!

Swamp People workout. Summer 2012.

Who was a more challenging child to raise: Master P or Jacob?

The boys were about a draw in difficulty to raise.  Completely different challenges, but it all about evened out in the end.  I got lucky though, both really good kids.

Can you go into a few specifics about what made them have their unique challenges to raise?

I can’t (won’t) go into specifics about individual challenges raising the boys.  Those are their stories to tell, not mine.  I will say that it all seemed to boil down to the same thing, though.  The most difficult thing for me is figuring out how to make your point in a way they will understand and that will impact them.  There’s not just one blanket thing you can do that will get through.  You need to figure out what works for each one.

Did you ever have an experience coaching either of those two in baseball? If so, how did you balance the line between being a dad and being a coach?

I had lots experiences coaching them in baseball.  It’s a lot of fun, but sometimes tough to draw the line.  I expect more out of my kids than the other ones.  It’s probably like that for most dads.  You see what your kids can do on a daily basis so you expect them to perform. You only see what those other kids can do and what terminology they understand when you’re with them.  Consequently, they can act like they don’t understand something sometimes or act like they are physically unable to do something and you just don’t know.

How did you balance being responsible for your kids with letting them make mistakes for themselves? Did you constantly check their phones, or internet history, or whatever?

I think it is important to let people make their own mistakes.  I started by letting them make small decisions and checking to see the outcome.  If they made decent choices I would ramp it up a little and give them more freedom.  Because of this, I waited a little longer than lots of parents to let them have cell phones.  Also because of this, I have never checked their internet history or phone records.  I trusted them to use the items by the time I let them have them and felt like it would be an invasion of their privacy to check them if I didn’t think something was really wrong. Luckily, they never gave me a reason to have to do that.

What are some of the things that you punished them for "back then" that you would look back on as maybe not a big deal now?

I tried not to punish them very often and I can’t think of anything that I punished them for that I now don’t think was a big deal.  A better question would be if I went overboard on the punishments that I gave out.  The answer to that is hell yes!! Was walking Jacob over to a kids house to apologize for embarrassing the kid a little overboard? Probably. Was making Jake write essays and do made up homework over 4^th grade summer because I wasn’t happy with his grades overboard? Again, yep. Was getting in Evan’s face in Culver’s parking lot for lying to me overboard?  Starting to see a pattern here?

Is Jacob seriously a Scottish Lord?

Yes.

Can you explain how that came to be?

That one's easy. Each Xmas I try to get a gift for the boys and my nephews. Something kind of off the wall that I can get for each of them. That year I decided to get them each 1 square foot of land in Scotland (saw it on the news). They use it to help promote their tourism I believe. Anyway, it comes with some perks including guided tours if you ever go to Scotland. Also, if you are a land owner in Scotland (I believe England has the same deal), no matter how small the parcel, you are officially a Lord or Lady depending on your gender obviously. Legally, they could even have their drivers licenses changed to include the titles. I thought it was pretty cool for an inexpensive gift.

What is one or two things you really enjoyed doing as a kid that you still do from time to time?

The thing that I did as a kid that I still enjoy is easy. I absolutely LOVE playing catch!! I really don’t know why, either. Always have since I was little. I don’t get a chance as often to play catch with the boys because of our schedules, but we still get out once in a while.

Master P and Mr. Auggie. October 2013

When you were 22, could you beat current-Jacob in wraastling? How would you go about exploiting his major weakness of being a pansy?

Could 22 year old me beat Jake in wraastling? Absolutely!!! He is way stronger than I was but he still hasn’t figured out that where the head goes the body will follow.  Would have either been a tragic accident when I broke his neck or the rest of his body would have gone down with the head. LMAO.

I’ll deny this next part if you ever tell him I said it, but that kid is tough as hell.  I never could have played through all the injuries that he played through.  He’s had a rough go with that stuff, but always manages to do what he needs to.

Being in the legal system for a long time, if you could either make or change a law, what would it be?

Making or changing a law is a tough one to discuss without coming up with something that will offend people.  Although there are some that I would change I am going to change the question to something I think we should all agree on.  Rather than changing a law, I think we need to change the facilities.  Although jails and prisons will always remain important, I think we need more Mental Health facilities. 

You are probably too young to know about this, but in the 1980s there was a drastic reduction in these facilities under President Reagan (still one of my favorite Presidents).  However, this decision was shortsighted.  The number of people with Cognitive disabilities in facilities like ours is far too high.  Some do get sent to more appropriate facilities but there are just not enough of them.  Consequently, we end up with far too many people who just don’t belong in jail and they don’t get the help they need to change their future behavior.  This is really what people are talking about when they discuss “Warehousing” versus rehabilitating.

What is an every-day thing in your life that goes unnoticed by most people, but really pisses you off?

An everyday thing that really pisses me off is people just standing like zombies in the store.  Be aware of your surroundings!!! Don’t just stand there in the middle of the aisle blocking everyone while you look for the cheapest can of soup!!!

What is an every-day thing in your life that goes unnoticed by most people, but you really enjoy?

An everyday thing that makes me happy is just when the whole family is together.  Everyone gets so busy, it is rare when we are all together without somebody getting ready to go out somewhere.  I really like it when all just get to hang out

Is there a character trait that you kinda wish you had? Not in a serious or demeaning way, but just something that would have made your life better?

The character trait I kinda wish I had would be to be less argumentative.  Just something about a good debate that I cannot steer away from.  Definitely not normal, but it is just me. lol

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Bonus questions (both of which Mr. Auggie added himself!):  Favorite President and favorite inspirational quote. Teddy Roosevelt is my favorite President. If you need to ask why, just check into him a little bit to see some of the things he did and the obstacles he overcame.

Favorite inspirational quote:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."

This is an illegal wraastling move, as far as I know.