A letter from Coach Charlie
Back in January, I walked into EVF looking for a place to train. I had just retired from playing hockey and everyone I was close to was peppering me with the “well what are you going to do for the rest of your life?” question. I had about as many answers for them as James would have for you if you asked him what the square root of 64 is. Zero answers. I trained a couple of times and not long after, Eric had to come over to me and say “put 315 on that bar and then we can start the real workout” (still waiting to see that number come off the ground, coach).
But, more so, Eric and I started to talk and he offered to help me land on my feet, something that I will be forever grateful for. In all reality, i just sort of hung around all the time until Eric asked me “don’t you have a job?” But I continued to come back and I chose to hang around all the time because I just couldn’t get enough. EVF is a place where the uncomfortable becomes comfortable and that, in itself, is a gift, and a gift we get to share with each other.
How anyone in their right mind can do 50 burpees and then laugh and slap hands about is demented–but we choose to do it and we choose to do it repeatedly. We do it because it is fulfilling. It makes us better, both physically and mentally, than we were before we walked down those stairs. Get a piece of paper and write down the other places in your life that do the same for you. I think you will be hard pressed to come up with many others. I can’t tell you how thankful I am to all of you for creating that environment and maintaining it through everything the community has been through.
I was recently approached with an opportunity to get back into hockey and will be starting that next week. A quick turnaround, for sure, but an opportunity that is simply too good to pass up. I will be around Friday andSaturday, possibly Monday and would like to see as many of you as possible. Do not hesitate to keep in touch (I’m an occasional Facebooker, but an avid texter) and again, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Best,
Charlie
Lets all wish Charlie a BIG AWESOME Congrats and good luck. People like Charlie walk into your life because there meant to make it better. As a community we were made that much stronger, closer and better because we always had that big red engine to make us go.
Working with Charlie was like working with Ghandi himself, you never knew what he was going to do or say next, to be honest I don’t even think he knew. No one can say for sure why Charlie was actually sent us to us by the gods of ginger awesomness, in fact the few facts we do know are that, he is transulent in sun light, he is a bad ass Crossfitter, he secretly wrestles under the name Heath Slater, he can eat donuts for breakfast lunch and dinner and still be in total shred mode, his hockey player card sells on ebay for $2, loves kittens and hopes to one day joust on a red maine stallion against those who present evil to our world.
We will all miss Charlie and everything he brought to our community and team. I can personally say that my days were better when Chuck was in the building. He will truly be missed and we all love him dearly. Thanks for the memories Chuck!
Please feel free to send your congrats and well wishes to Charlie below in the comment box or email/text him directly.
2013 09 06
Good luck Charlie!
You’re a rock star, Charlie! We’re cheering for you, coach!
Chaloots! I didn’t know you could write.
What a nice note. Not at all surprised to learn you’re a hockey player — quintessentially good, honest, hard-working, resilient, practical guys. (Wish I had the stuff.) Best of luck to you in the next level. Please keep us posted — it would be fun to go to a game and watch you and your teammates play.
Best of luck Charlie!!! Will miss seeing your name on the schedule. Nice way to exit by sticking a bunch of burpees into the WOD – that was just mean!!!