Our October Athlete of the Month goes to DeAndre Coke! DeAndre has been with Drop Box for the last 2.5 years. If he’s not off traveling to some fabulous place for work, you can often find him working hard at our 0630 class. It’s been great to see DeAndre succeed in all his personal goals that he has set for himself! Most importantly, DeAndre is very supportive and helpful to those around him. He’s community driven and an overall fun guy to be around with. During the CrossFit Open season, DeAndre also took time to DJ our Friday Night Lights! Very cool of him! Congrats DeAndre!

Wow thanks for selecting me for the Athlete of the Month. I’ve always admired the stories of previous featured athletes and I’m honored to be considered amongst some other great members of our Box. I guess a little bit about me first. I’m 29 years old and I’m from Chesapeake originally. A year ago I bought a condo and live right in the heart of Downtown Norfolk with my 7 year old Pitbull Storm, and absolutely love it. By day I have a wealth management and financial planning practice where I help people and individuals plan for retirement, save for college, life insurance planning, etc. I also do a lot in the community on a few boards, the one I’m most passionate about being the Boys & Girls Club of Southeast Virginia. Outside of CrossFit and work I enjoy Snowboarding, DJing, and Dancing.

My CrossFit experience started long before I actually joined the gym. I had been “working out” for years, which really just meant going to Planet Fitness twice per week, going straight to the weights (I hated cardio), doing a set, check Facebook for 5 minutes, do another set, check Instagram, and so on and so forth. I wasn’t seeing any progress, nor was I really looking to, I just liked the feeling of saying “I work out”. Through those years I had many friends who were hardcore into CrossFit and I always thought they were crazy. “I’ll never do that,” I always said, or “you’re just going to injure yourself, all that work is just stupid.” Well that happened for a few years, despite them trying to get me to join. At one of our conferences in Dallas they had all got together to work out and I joined them. It was a basic chipper with bodyweight and dumbbells… Well at the time I could barely walk for a week after that workout. “Never again,” I said. Well one thing I hated about Planet Fitness was how PACKED the place was during January (not to mention Pizza Mondays once a month). I basically never worked out the beginning of the year because I hated waiting for equipment. Well one December I finally got tired of doing that and I googled the closest CrossFit gym to my office and on January 1st 2016 I walked into Drop Box and never looked back.

2016 I became more athletic and started improving on my form and progressed from scaling everything to starting to RX more things, and my cardio ability improved significantly, but not much changed physically. I also entered my first competition (Gangs) where we came in dead last but I loved every minute of it. January of 2017 we did a nutrition challenge for 8 weeks and that changed everything for me. I had never tried eating healthy before, but when forced to do so, and with the help of Coach Stephanie I learned how to actually eat the right foods. I lost over 10 pounds in that 8 week period and dropped another 15 pounds the rest of the year and 5 inches on my waist. Now I know how to eat healthy consistently but still enjoy junk when I want to. I still do a 4 week cleanse a couple times a year to shred when I feel it necessary. 2018 has been a breakthrough year of maintaining my health, getting better with my lifts and workouts, and accomplishing new things (I FINALLY got Double Unders and HSPU this year!!)

Overall CrossFit and Drop Box specifically has changed my life for the better. I’ve never felt/looked better, I’ve built the best relationships (Shout out to my gym wife Lauren!!!), and I have created a lifestyle that will stick with me forever. It definitely hasn’t been easy, it’s taken patience, and has been a pretty humbling experience, but to Coach G, Art, Stephanie, Twitch, Beth, Kim, and everyone else who’s played a role in my CrossFit development over the last 2 ½ years I am forever grateful. Thank you.

Deandre aka as DJ Serius, Crossfit open 2017- friday night lights

deandre aka as dj serius, crossfit open 2018-friday night lights

Gangs of the mid-atlantic 2017, felx appeal: deandre, taby, lauren, jeff

Gangs of the Mid-atlantic 2017, clean ladder

Deandre and teammate tyrece, Crossfit Krypton’s compete for a cure august 2018

Crossfit Krypton’s compete for a cure 2018

Lauren, Deandre, and Gil celebrating with a night out

October Athlete of the Month- DeAndre Coke!