ATHLETE OF THE MONTH

February 2023 – James Romero

1. Tell us about yourself:

Well, I’m a single dad first and foremost. My 12 year old daughter is truly amazing. I live on the Strand, I’m an old beach bum at heart, and I live a pretty simple life. Surrounding myself with only good people is the key to that.

2. What do you do for a job?

I’m a loan officer, a Reverse Mortgage specialist at Capital Mortgage in Ventura. I like working with seniors, they’re brutally honest, funny, and have some very interesting stories.

3. Tell us something people might not know about you:

I spend a lot of time coaching youth sports. I’m in my 8th year of girls fastpitch (my daughters main sport), 3 years in Little League, and 3 years girls volleyball. A lot of time and work goes into well run youth sports leagues and what you get out of it is a lot of great memories – The championships, the hard losses, the travel tournaments, the friendships, the season ending injuries, and all those life lessons that are a part of building character in our children. That old phrase “All the blood, sweat, and tears” is a very literal saying.

4. What brought you to CrossFit in the first place?

First Marty did. He’d been going for a while and was getting very into it. What really caught my attention was when he told me how much there was to learn from coaches and others in the gym. Then Frank (Nathan’s dad) convinced me I’m not too old, he’d also been going for a while. And finally there were already several others from our office going, we were 11 in total all going at noon from work. It really created a comradery both in the gym and in the office.

5. What was your first impression? How has that changed?

This isn’t a gym, it’s a cult! That hasn’t changed, I drank the Kool-Aid.

6. What was your first “bright spot”?

Strict handstand pushups. I had no idea I could do them, I’d never attempted.

7. What are you working on now?

Ok, here’s where I show my age — Sustaining. When you’re over a half a century you HAVE to eat clean AND work your ass off just to stay in the shape you’re in.

8. What’s your favorite Beachside Crossfit memory?

The dodgeball tournament! We played hard and drank way too much. Then we played more rounds and killed the keg. Then we sent someone for more beer and played the playoff rounds. Long fun night with lots of laughs.

 

 

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