Birth and Growth of PSKC Crossfit
PORTSMOUTH, OH—Captain Dale King was nearing the end of his active duty service with the Army in 2007 when he was introduced to CrossFit by two Special Forces Officers who were also ending their careers with the Army. Dale was hesitant in engaging with this little known fitness activity but, as Dale put it, “after much harassment and insults from my friends” he decided to give it a shot and from that moment “I was hooked”.
Dale had spent the last four years as an Intelligence Officer attached to the 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne), and the comradery, discipline among others, according to Dale, “would shape the way I wanted to live my life”. Additionally, Dale felt that the men of the 10th Group “were incredible, what they did for the people of Iraq was amazing, what they did in service of their country was heroic”. A small group of men armed only with intellect, attitude and teamwork did monumental things. However, after two deployments in as many years Dale knew it was time to move on from the Army.
During 2007 CrossFit was small and pretty much unheard of but was very popular and gained a following with the Special Operations community. CrossFit is a strength and conditioning program with the aim of improving, among other things, cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, power, speed, coordination, agility, balance, and accuracy. It advocates a perpetually varied mix of aerobic exercise, gymnastics (body weight exercises), and Olympic weight lifting.
Dale got out of the Army in the spring of 2007, and as he put it, to join the “real world”. Dale and his wife Tia Hairston King, 3rd great granddaughter of Tate Cornute, were fortunate to find good jobs in their hometown of Portsmouth, Ohio which they still hold today. Tia is a nurse practitioner in the emergency department at Southern Ohio Medical Center and a two-time graduate of The Ohio State University (2002 & 2004). Dale works for the Department of Energy and graduated from Capital University in 2003. As Dale transitioned to civilian life his love for CrossFit really expanded but he quickly realized that “there’s no place in Southern Ohio to do CrossFit”. Dale made the best of what was available and carved out a small space in the local traditional gym where he worked with his kettlebells.
At the end of 2009, a lady approached Dale and mentioned that she was opening a new gym in town and wondered if he would teach a “kettlebell” class there. According to Dale, all she knew was that “I was the crazy bald guy in the corner of the gym swinging kettlebells” and she wanted to offer that at her gym. “Ummm sure, I’d love to” and in January of 2010, on his birthday, he began offering Kettlebell classes at the new gym in town. Initially, Dale was only able to commit to three classes a week, two in the evenings and one on Saturdays because of his full-time job commitment.
Dale was actually shocked that anyone showed up in the beginning but a couple of months later he could count on 3-5 people being there 90% of the time. That was during the winter of 2010 and fast forwarding to early summer of the following year they had 15 people attending classes on a regular basis. They quickly outgrew the 500 sq. ft. “group fitness” space that was allocated and Dale recalls, “we had to improvise by doing workouts outdoors”.
One day a member approached Dale and said that a friend of his had a warehouse that they might be able to use but he had to take pause and think of such a huge commitment. Dale remembers “it was extremely scary and risky for me”, continuing, “it was never my intention to build it and they will come”. After all, in his words, “I had and still have a very comfy job” and never planned to open a gym in Portsmouth. However, during the prior eight months he recalls falling in love with the members, falling in love with watching them achieve things they thought were impossible and he wanted to teach the same lessons he had learned in the military and to provide mental and physical fitness to Southern Ohio. So they went for it and the Portsmouth Spartan Kettlebell Club (PSKC) was born.
Dale and Tia chose the name in honor of Portsmouth’s original NFL team the Portsmouth Spartans, representing a throwback to the times when Portsmouth was a booming river town founded on hard work. Dale recalls, “I wanted that same spirit”. Additionally, the lessons he learned while with the 10th Special Forces would set the foundation for how he wanted to run his new venture.
After a few weeks of cleaning, scrubbing, setting up and scrubbing and cleaning some more, the first official PSKC class was held on August 28, 2010. There was no capital investment or seed money but the risk paid off as they slowly but surely began to grow. They made enough money to cover the rent and every single additional cent of revenue went back into the gym in the form of equipment. Dale called it, “straight boot strapping”.
They began to develop a rhythm and learned via experience while attending as many certifications as possible. They evolved as the days went by, hours upon hours were spent inside the warehouse training members; the spark was lit and the fire grew. Every month or so they would add another barbell, a rower, an Airdyne (exercise bike), a GHD (glute-ham developer sit ups), etc. Notwithstanding, our members are the foundation of our success and passion, so many special memories and bonds have been forged. The gym has also afforded them significant opportunities to participate in many industry events such as the Arnold Tough Mudders, 5K truck pushes, SweatAngels, countless CrossFit competitions and helping our local Marine recruits. They decided to become an official CrossFit affiliate in March of last year and exposure continued to grow.
What once seemed like an enormous space was soon closing in with people, equipment, and memories and once again they were blessed to be outgrowing the warehouse. A decision had to be made on the way forward and in the summer of 2013 they received a call about a downtown building that just came on the market for sale. They never imagined or grasped the MASSIVE amount of work it would take to demo, build it out and get the necessary city approvals. They only saw the vision of what it could become. They had to make the call and remembered asking, “could we do it?” This time it was more serious, much more risk involved but said, “if we wanted to be serious, it was time to get serious”. Using the same words they use to motivate their members they just kept repeating to themselves, “You got this”… and pulled the trigger.
Dale and Tia proclaimed last summer to be insane, operating a full time gym, trying to demo and renovate another building, having full time careers. It was stressful to say the least. However through everything, and as usual it was the members that made it happen. It was a true family effort that pulled that building together. So many people stepped up and donated time, money, and resources.
Membership has grown and they have tremendous support from a growing staff as well. What started with a single coach, himself, has now grown into a staff of seven people equally dedicated to changing people’s lives. They’ve gone from offering 3 classes per week to 3-4 classes per day 6 days per week. Additionally, they have added a PSKC CrossFit Kids program that has really taken off. According to the Kings, “even our mothers have joined the gym!”
PSKC has been in their new space for just over a year and looking back on that seemingly risky decision they are pleased to pass on, “fortunately it was the best thing we could have done”.
Please check out their website at http://www.pskcstrong.com/ and if you’re ever in Portsmouth please stop by and show your love.
