Steve Thomas

I grew up on the mean streets of Chicago and watched the Bulls win all 6 of their championships. Since I was a taller kid, I always thought I was destined greatness as a basketball star.

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Turns out, white man can't jump, so it was that time in my life that I started to swim. Apparently I was aggressively average at swimming, since it got me through high school and somehow a college threw some money my way for my swimming prowess. My aggressively average swimming career took me to NCAAs and making Olympic Trials.

There have been a few turning points in life. My college career was short lived. After 2 semesters as a full time student, I left college with 9 credit hours. Apparently that wasn't great I don't really know, I didn't have purpose or a direction fortunately for me, Uncle Sam took me in and gave me both. After 21 years, there are 3 things that I have held onto.

1. Don't ever quit. If I am leaving, it's on a stretcher or in a body bag.

2. Be a person I would want to be around. Would I want to be my teammate? Would I want to be in charge of me? Would I want to work for me? Would I be on the short list of someone I call at 3am?

3. I am only as good as my word. Growing up, my father told me that my reputation is worth more than gold. 10 year old me had no clue what that meant, but adult me understands that completely. Do what you say you're going to do.

Coaches are a dime a dozen. Anyone can explain a workout, blast music and start a clock. Not everyone can connect with an amazing community, get to see the community grow, get healthier, accomplish incredible things in and out of the gym.

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My purpose for coaching is to give back to a community that unknowingly helped me through the worst times of my life and kept me accountable to continue showing up everyday. There were several days where the best hour of my day was the 60 minutes I spent at the gym surrounded by like minded people. I want to give anyone who walks through our doors the best hour of their day because they are in class.