The origins of CrossFit in State College

So even though we were the original CrossFit affiliate in State College, PA affiliating in March of 2011 (and central Pennsylvania for that matter) our ties to CrossFit actually started much further back during my time in Arizona. I was a partial owner of personal training studio in Tempe, Arizona in 2003 after living there for a year and brought some trainers along with me from my days workign at a 24hour Fitness location a few miles up the street. As an upscale PT studio with all 1 on 1 and semi-private 1:4 groups we became known for our exceptional knowledge and experience in functional training or what later became the component parts that would eventually be rebranded as CrossFit by Greg Glassman. At that time CrossFit was mostly a single gym in Santa Cruz, CA with a website and a really well written newsletter.

After about a year in the PT studio and with our own interest in a more suitable "functional training environment" my former manager from 24hour Fitness, Ken Urakawa, and I leased an old vacant warehouse space. We would train all of our current clients at the personal training studio in Tempe and then spend the off hours reimagining our new warehouse space. Then in December of 2023 a friend of ours in Naturopathic Medicine school nearby went to a CrossFit training in Tucson and Ken went to one the next weekend in Flagstaff, AZ where the 7th CrossFit affiliate was located. We didn't have a name for our new space so we decided to call it "CrossFit Southwest" and affiliated in 2004 as the 23rd affiliate ever. We picked that name as the first affiliate in the Phoenix metropolitan area and just in case this thing catches on maybe we'll be the main spot for the Southwestern part of the US. Wow, if we had only known!! Ken is now a PhD in Psychology living in CO and that gym was purchased by CrossFit Tempe some time just before the pandemic.

So fast forward to 2009 after I finished grad school at ASU and the housing crash had hit Phoenix hard, I moved to northern CA to live closer to my younger brother and his new family. While I was there I made plans to open what would have been the 5th CrossFit in metropolitan Oakland but after some deliberation I decided to move back east to where I grew up and open the first affiliate for 100 miles. That was the beginning of State College Strength doing business as CrossFit Nittany.

I initially worked for Wells Fargo as a Loan Officer during the day and would hold training sessions before work and after work from November of 2010 through March of 2011. It was then that I stepped away and went full time with the gym, as I had amassed a following of about 30-40 initial members. We rented Suite 101 at 143 Hawbaker Industrial Drive shown in the picture above (taken with about an iphone 6 camera). Ever since that time I've crossed paths with so many great people over the years because of that decision that CFN will always be a part of who I am. I've had my differences with CrossFit over the years stemming from a variety of issues that go all the way back to my days with Ken in that dusty old warehouse in Tempe, AZ with no air conditioning! One thing will always remain true though, CrossFit has advanced fitness and training more than any other methodology in the past 100 years proving years of hypothesis wrong in terms of what is possible within the scope of human performance.

Out of that little 1400 square foot gym not only have the two other CrossFit's arisen in town, but dozens of coaches who have worked for me have gone on to open their own training businesses, gyms, CrossFit affiliates or still are coaching online today in some capacity. And more importantly so, so many friendships and families have been created by the gym and community with 1000's of families that have benefitted from this space. That is what I'll always be most thankful for from the 14 years I've been at this in SC... including my own and my son Finley.

So thank you Greg Glassman and CrossFit for putting a name to this fun style of training and offering up the building blocks for anyone with enough courage to open a gym the opportunity to make such a difference in people's lives.