TEENS

Ask CrossFit Eunice Coach Jason Young what his all-time favorite lift is, and he will smile and say his big brother, Christopher. That’s because Jason didn’t always use kettlebells for his Farmers Carry; growing up, he carried Chris wherever his wheelchair couldn’t take him.
Chris was born with a degenerative muscular disease that robbed him of the use of his legs, so for most of his life, he borrowed Jason’s.
“I carried him on my back, everywhere” Jason said. “It’s not something I ever thought about. It’s just something I always did. He was my brother. It didn’t matter where I would go, I wanted him with me.”
Chris was never physically strong, but he was able to stand and walk some before the disease eventually stole the use of every muscle.
“He had to start using braces on his legs,” Jason recalled, “and then crutches. Then a wheelchair.”
At age 7, Christopher was completely wheelchair bound; yet that didn’t slow the Young boys down.
“We rode the streets on a lawn mower together,” Jason smiled. “We would go frogging, and a buddy and I would take turns carrying Chris on our backs – one would carry him and the other would shine the light. We would go to Astro World and I would get on all of the rides with him. Then for high school graduation, I was able to wheel him onto the stage to get his diploma.”
A smaller stature didn’t keep Chris from chasing bigger dreams – dreams he shared with his baby brother. Obsessed with antique tractors, Chris had his heart set on becoming a farmer.
“When we were kids, a farmer plowing near our home would always stop and load us up,” Jason remembered. “We would ride all day on that tractor. When I started working for that same farmer, I would still pick up Chris every day and he’d ride around with me.”
With an unbreakable bond and the desire to farm together, Jason decided to make the dream team official.
“I opened up a business bank account and named it Young Brothers, so Chris knew it was legit,” Jason said. “We were partners. Equals.”
Jason said the entire community joined forces to make sure Chris’ dreams became reality, as well.
“The Eunice newspaper interviewed him about his antique toy tractor collection,” Jason said, “and when they asked if he could have anything he wanted, he told them it would be a real Model D tractor like our grandfather had. Tom Klumpp, who had a salvage company, read the article and gave him a real Model D.”
“I’ll never forget it,” Jason said of his brother's reaction to the gift, “those big blue eyes of his, wide open, and the grin on his face from his wheelchair.”
Chris spent most of his remaining days sitting on his tractor instead of in his chair, sharing a front row seat to fresh air, blue skies and greener pastures.
Then Chris rode off into the sunset at the age of 26.
For his funeral, Jason drove their tractor alone for the very first time, parking it at the cemetery for one last ride.
Twenty years later, Jason still carries Chris with him every time he picks up a barbell in the gym, but he doesn’t just build muscle in honor of the brother he lost to a muscular disease. When he is not farming, Jason serves as the Head Coach of the CrossFit Eunice Teens Program. He wants his kids to feel strong; but more importantly, he wants them to feel included.
“I have a young man in my class who couldn’t do much when he first started with us,” Jason said, “but just this week, his lift was better than everyone else’s. And I have a young lady in my class who was so shy at first. I feel like her self-esteem gets better every day and she doesn’t seem so shy anymore.”
Kristen Pate can testify to the difference Jason makes. He has coached four of her teenaged sons.
“He just always finds a way to be there for them in the moment they need it the most,” Kristen claimed. “In fact, every Father’s Day, I send Jason a text saying, ‘Thank you for being another dad to my boys.’”
To anyone wondering if Jason’s Teens Program is the right fit for their teen, Jason has a simple response.
“If a kid wants to learn, wants to be better, then I want to help,” he summed up. “No one picks on each other here. No one puts each other down. We are here to lift each other up.”
As the owner of CrossFit Eunice, this poem comes to mind when I think of Jason Young and his impact on our Fit Fam:
“My precious child, I love you and would never leave you.
The times when you have seen only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you.”