Congratulations to Kevin for being selected as our September’s Athlete of the Month! Kevin’s prior athletic experience made him a perfect fit for CrossFit. Kevin recently celebrated his 2nd year with us here at Drop Box but if you were to work out alongside Kevin you would think he had been doing CrossFit much longer. His patience and understanding of mechanics, consistency, and intensity in addition to being easily coachable has made him excel quickly in many different areas of fitness.. A competitive athlete but humble one, there is nothing this guy can’t do!

Thank you for selecting me as Athlete of the Month! I genuinely enjoy learning about other people’s paths that led them to CrossFit, and I’m honored to get to share mine.

A bit about me – I’m 31 years old and I’ve been involved with various sports since I was 6. My first love was soccer and I played year-round throughout most of my childhood. Upon entering high school, I decided to compete in track and field solely to stay in shape for soccer. After being introduced to the long jump, I knew that I had found my passion. I fully committed myself to being the best jumper I could possibly be. Weird thing to hyper focus on, I know.

I continued competing in the long and triple jumps throughout my time at Springfield College. I was fortunate enough to have been surrounded with incredible teammates and coaches that enabled me to have the collegiate career of my dreams.

Before I knew it, I had graduated, and my athletic career had come to an abrupt halt. I found myself struggling to fill the void that had suddenly opened in my life. I tried new things, but nothing held my interest for more than a few months. Eventually I found my way back to T&F. I trained independently at a local track and spent many weekends jumping at open college meets in Boston. Although I was doing what I loved, I missed training with my college friends. Little did I know, CrossFit was about to restore that piece that I’d been missing.

In 2019 I relocated to Virginia Beach for an opportunity at work. I had very limited knowledge of CrossFit at this point. I knew a few of my college buddies had found the sport recently and immediately began shot gunning all the CrossFit Kool-Aid. I also knew that they had found many new friends at their respective gyms. Since I had just moved to a state where I didn’t know anyone, I felt this would be the perfect way to meet like-minded people. I googled “CrossFit in Virginia Beach”, saw that Drop Box was 5 minutes down the street, and emailed them to schedule my intro class.

Immediately following my intro class, Coach Kim encouraged (forced) me to join the 9am WOD. Although I was aware CrossFit had many movements I’d never attempted, I assumed I’d crush whatever workout was programmed. Oh, how wrong I was. Fast forward two minutes and I was doing knee push-ups while saying to myself “oh my God I’m such a little b*tch why am I so weak”. Shortly after my pathetic display, Coach G walked in. What really sold me on DBCF was the way G made it a point to greet every member in the gym and how warmly everyone responded to him. I immediately knew that I’d found the place where I would grow roots. I left feeling sore, humbled, and proud to be a new member of DBCF.

0530 was the only class I could fit into my schedule, and I did my best to be a regular. I’ll admit, the learning curve was far steeper than I had anticipated. I thought I’d have this whole CrossFit thing figured out in a few months. It turns out I was wrong, again. After a few months, April was still lifting more than me and Twitch was lapping me on a regular basis. Who am I kidding, the same is still true today. But I had started to feel more comfortable with the new-to-me movements. Once I felt less like a newbie, I really began to enjoy the process and lean into the sport.

While the progress I’ve experienced has been rewarding, the people at Drop Box are what keeps me coming back. My workout partners quickly became my closest friends. The coaches have guided me to countless PR’s and noticeable improvements in my technique. Most importantly, Drop Box introduced me to a fellow long person that loves rowing workouts, Andrea, that I’ve miraculously duped into agreeing to marry me. It would be a monumental understatement to say that Drop Box CrossFit has completely reshaped my life for the better. Thank you DBCF!

Kevin Coyle- September Athlete of the Month!