TheBoltBlog

Where to start? Ups, downs, and one of the best moments of my coaching life.

To the Stormcenter,

I couldn’t be more proud of the way we represented this weekend. I received several compliments about our fans/community. The Stormcenter was a force! Thanks to Jeff, David, and Robyn for coordinating our banners. I remember being a small pack of BOLTers in 2012, no signs, one bear, and a few neon shirts. When I looked up to our crowd dominating section 130, our 3 banners, my bear, my people, I was overwhelmed and proud.

Thanks to the Caravan Crew (Lance, Mayur, Geoff, Jeff, Josh D) for transporting and taking care of BOLT Bear. Thanks to Bill for tweeting for BOLT Bear when his claws got in the way.

All of our BOLT Kids were amazing. Quite possibly the coolest thing of the weekend was watching our BOLT Kids represent and cheer for our athletes. I saw a few kids, but not very many that were on the rails yelling their hearts out.

Thank you to David and Bill for your statistician work and keeping me up to date on all the relevant times, etc.

Meg “The Stormtracker” Forbes, great job with coordinating our group texts and giving the Stormcenter important info about start times etc. And a blinking sign?!?! That was legit!

Robyn and Karen thank you so much for all the hard work on the T-shirts/apparel. There is no way I could have done this without you! Not only did our stuff look amazing, BOLT was clearly visible throughout the Freeman Coliseum.

Thanks to Jamie for all her doctoring work, you all may not see it but she is ready to help any of our athletes behind the scenes. She taped my wrist and allowed me to even have a chance at competing. I tried to Snatch/OHS 135 today and it felt terrible. No way I was doing MU or OHS without her help.

One word sums it up perfectly….Team. I know I am forgetting to mention or may not be aware of other ways you all contributed. But you all were instrumental this weekend. As Owner/Coach I cannot express the relief of pressure/stress; knowing so many have my back.

Yeah…see I knew I would forget some people. The Bryants, seriously how could I not mention you all. Maybe because it is so obvious to me how awesome and instrumental you are to our family. Thank you for the after party, but most of all thank you for your example, I don’t think I know a more generous family. Mark I respect you immensely, Su you are supermom…or supereverything, Cole you are my buddy, Jack-BOLT Hoodie fanatic-way to get our sign placed we were on crossfit games official photos, Claire and Jewel win perfect attendance for BOLT Kids!

To Team BOLT – Sam, Chris, Eric, Janet, Karen, Rachel, Ashley and all those that participated as part of our team for the Open,

Coaching is easy when you have great athletes willing to work hard. I asked these athletes to sacrifice time with family/friends and commit to an extensive workload (trust me the training was not easy). What a pleasure to watch your hard work, blood, sweat, and tears result in improved strength, capacity and overall athletic growth. Proud to compete alongside you!

From the exciting atmosphere throughout the Open to Sam and Janet walking out on the floor for Event 1, it has been quite a journey (and we are not quite done yet;)). Thank you all for trusting me as your Coach, thank you for pursuing excellence, and most importantly thank you for being amazing friends/teammates.

To our individual Regional athletes

Courtney –
I know a little bit about injuries resulting in your inability to compete. “Gut-wrenching” does not do the feeling justice. Court went down in the athlete area while warming up. He immediately headed over to the Airrosti tent to seek medical attention. With the Airrosti Doc ready to put him on ice, Court began apologizing, he felt like he was letting us all down. We talked, I let him know he was not letting anyone down and encouraged him to give it a shot. Without knowing if he would even get through 10 Wall Balls, Court went out and gave his absolute best even in his limited condition. I could never ask for more of any athlete.

I will never forget the first time I tore an ACL and all of the emotions that come with a devastating injury, frustration, anger, feeling sorry for myself, loss, just to name a few. As I crutched out of the stadium I see my Uncle in his wheelchair; he has been riding in one since he was 16 years old. The morale of the story…..we are blessed, the sun will shine tomorrow and Court will learn from this year and use the circumstances this weekend as fuel and motivation.

Cass-
For those of you that don’t know, 2012 Regionals did not end well. Cass was right at the top ten heading into the final workout, we were worried about the DL and then she was repeatedly no-repped on the MUs. Without a doubt one of the most terrible/helpless moments of my coaching career, watching as she looked back at me for answers.

She re-tooled, put in the work and then delivered one of the most focused, in the ‘zone’ performances I have witnessed in person….LEGIT! Re-watching Event 6 on the Games broadcast kinda went like this for me…. I am watching another CrossFit competition online. These athletes are amazing. Hey that’s Cass I know her, she is destrominating this workout! “CrossFit BOLT fans are going bananas”, those are my people! Did I just wake up from a dream? No?!?! Awesome!!!!

You have inspired your coach, everyone at BOLT and anyone who watched the South Central women’s competition. Congratulations!