UPDATED POST 5/19.2025
PETE AND COURTNEY ARE HITCHED! Yes, the trip to Tennessee was a ruse!! I was duped! LOL.
These two pulled off a great plan on Sunday. Below is the summary of our gym/community party for them. But in the meantime…wanted y’all to see this gorgeous couple, now officially “Mr. and Mrs.”
THESE TWO!
Quick backstory if you missed the party:
Coach Sam here. Ed and I had the pleasure of meeting and subsequently training Pete and Courtney in …around 2016 or 2017 (I can’t remember what I had for breakfast, let alone dates, but pretty sure this is what Court said Saturday). They came to us from another CF gym with experience and, as you could expect, “good they were”! (It’s “May the 4th be with you” day – had to pull Yoda-style phrase out!) So while we’ve only known this couple for 8-ish years, they’ve become very important to us. And not only to us (although FIRST to us), but also to our program. Pete did coach the young folk with us in the later years of Rebels, and Courtney coached in our CrossFit Kids program…we began building a history with them. The better we got to know them, their history and their aspirations, the more we loved them (as with all our fitness fam)…but they were special.
Fast forward to 2020 as we moved our Legends/GrandMasters program to a “safer space”, Pete joined us to coach. And with aspirations to go to PT school at the time, it was a great fit. Little did we know this old soul would not only fit in, but as we great the program and began re-writing the standards for senior fitness, Pete became the conduit between modern scholastic science and modern empirical practice. I think Pete’s coaching time with us and our demographic will help him in his future endeavors as he weighs the efficacy of getting his hands on so many seniors in an aggressively programmed fitness center against modern standards for seniors. It’s pretty darn cool. All the while, Courtney has graduated and is climbing the corporate ladder with the aspiration to conquer it – as we’re certain she will. Together, between their professional aspirations, their personal commitments to health, and now that we can see these two young people have very old souls, we’re certain they’ll be the couple to follow.
Pete and Courtney will get married in the middle of May, spend some time in the mountains (they love the mountains!), and cruise off to Europe to celebrate their nuptials. Preceding their life-long journey together, our little gym of very “life-experienced” adults hosted a small gathering to wish them well before the big day.
And yes, we’re silly. We planned a simple but fun event. We played the shoe game, which simply let us know that neither of them agreed on about 1/4 of the questions we posed from who is the best driver to who’s the biggest baby when they are sick. It was hilarious! Here’s our game:
Then, we just couldn’t help it. This was a Rebel tradition. We played Chubby Bunny! They each got a bag of marshmallows (no, not the healthy kind), and each time they shoved one marshmallow in their mouths, they had to say “Chubby Bunny”. I’m sorry, but their laughter and fun with this was almost my fave! If you missed it – it’s the ONE THING I made sure to record!
Oh, I forgot – WE ATE! So much food – and we forgot to take a picture of that (of course!)
I think the thing we’re most excited about is what our community conveyed to Pete and Courtney. We had 70-ish members of our community in attendance (we expected 30, so kudos to us for that pivot and accommodation! LOL!). Many of them wrote out their thoughts on the secrets to a long, happy marriage. Think about it: our athletes have a combined average age of 74. Some of these people have been married longer than Pete and Courtney have been alive! What perspective they must be able to shed on life, marriage, and relationships! I do hope this provides some valuable guidance to the newlyweds as they begin their “formal” life together.
Finally, it did take a village to pull this off!
Huge thanks to Coach Trish, who quarterbacked the tables, chairs, decor, kids’ contribution to the whiteboards (with Ed’s help), and just about everything else! Thanks to the decorating and set-up committee of Trish and Bob, Andy, Mickey, Sybil, Laurie, Ed, and Donna. Thanks to Scott for the ice! (Gosh I hope I didn’t miss anyone!). Thanks to Marcia who ALWAYS picks up the camera – without her, we wouldn’t have a single picture! We have a few and they can be found HERE. It was wonderful to have Courtney’s daughters, Jas and Erica with us too. Such beautiful girls.
And another huge thank you to all the GrandMasters athletes who attended and showed their support and love to Courtney and Pete. ❤️