Bio
I guess you could say that I don’t have the typical background of most people that are fitness enthusiasts. I tried my hand at the typical team sports as a young child but never grew a passion for any of them and definitely never stood out as an athlete. Into middle and high school, my focus was on unhealthy habits (to say the least) and sports or fitness weren’t even a blip on my radar. Having no clue what career track I wanted to pursue after high school as well as the fact that I wasn’t about to get accepted into any University with my GPA, I decided to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. That decision changed the trajectory of my whole life and although I didn’t realize it at the time, began my lifelong passion for health and fitness. I soon learned how out of shape I was when I could not pass the minimum physical fitness standards required just to go to boot camp. After months of remedial training and finally making it to Parris Island, SC for boot camp, I broke my foot during training week 2 and was sent to the Medical Rehabilitation Platoon (MRP) until such time that I was healthy enough to train again or be medically separated from the military forever. MRP is where I learned mental fortitude. Over the next three and a half months, I self-dieted while I healed and when I was finally cleared to train again, I went back to re-start my regular boot camp cycle 40 pounds lighter and 100X mentally stronger. For the first time in my life, I was recognized for my physical abilities, mental toughness, and after six and a half months on Parris Island, was selected as the Honor Graduate of my Platoon. As my enlistment in the Corps continued, so did my passion for fitness. Whether it was heavy rucking up and down the dark, stuffy well-deck ramp of an aircraft carrier or spending hours under the Iraqi sun doing prison workouts with a couple sets of old rusty, sand-covered dumbbells, I was always striving to level-up my capacity for fitness.
Turning Point
My turning point was when I decided to separate from the Corps in 2009 and return to civilian life as a completely different man than I had left it. I was not about to let myself revert back to old negative habits as I’d seen so many of my fellow Marines do. I made it my personal mission to not only maintain my physical fitness, but become even better than I had been in the military. It started with long runs, biking, swimming, and hypertrophy weight training until one day in 2010 my brother talked to me about something called CrossFit and asked me to attend a class with him. I was in the best shape of my life at the time and that WOD floored me in under 30 minutes. I couldn’t believe how much more room for potential I had and I was hooked. Fast forward to the present and I am truly blessed that I have found CrossFit Vint Hill as my gym home and have been given the opportunity to give back to the community that I love through coaching. We don’t have members, we have extended family who would not hesitate to do anything for one another both inside and outside of the gym.
Motivation & Passion
My beautiful wife, Samantha, and our two beautiful young girls, Hailey Virginia and Emma Lynn, are my persistent motivation and passion. As a husband and girl-dad, I bear the enormous responsibilities that entail my roles as provider and protector, of which I cannot do to the best of my abilities without being in the best physical and mental shape possible. CrossFit Vint Hill and the community that comes with it, hold me accountable to that every day.
