Important Event Information

With just ONE WEEK to go until the 3rd Annual Heart of America Affiliate Team Competition, I'd like to take a moment to brief you on some of the logistics and amenities for this year's competition. Heats for Friday will be announced by Wednesday next week. Your team's heat placement for Friday will be determined by your registration date (earlier registration = later heat placement). Scaled teams will go first followed by RX teams. Saturday and Sunday's heats will be determined by your team's overall ranking at the end of each day. Each of the HOA3 WODs will be explained one after another as the weekend progresses.

Parking

With 300+ athletes and 100+ event staff you can expect a ton of HOA3 traffic all weekend long. Please be patient and allow our volunteers to direct you to the designated areas of parking (We'll be utilizing the large field directly across from CrossFit Springfield).

Vendors

The following businesses will be in attendance all weekend long with great CrossFit gear, equipment, and products available:

Midwest Fitness Solutions aka The Kettlebell King
Advocare
Progenex
RokFit
Dynamic Earth
The Marines
Classic Rock Cafe
The Jerky Boys

All of these vendors will be on-site and set up directly behind CrossFit Springfield in the back lot.

HOA3 Athlete Village

A 1500 sq ft event tent will be stationed outside of CrossFit Springfield. A warm-up area will be available inside the tent as well as tables and chairs so you can hang with your team and the other competitors in between WODs. HOA3 will have plenty of talented clinicians on hand including sport's massage therapists, chiropractic services and athletic trainers. These services will all be located inside the "HOA3 Athlete Village". Only competing HOA3 athletes will be allowed to utilize this area. In addition to the restrooms available within CrossFit Springfield, there will be 6 port-a-potties and a hand washing unit located outside just in case you're anything like me and you tend to get the "pre-WOD poopies".

Volunteer and Judges

We'll be using the CrossFit Springfield kids room for a volunteer and judges meeting area. Childcare will not be provided at HOA3. On Saturday, November 5th The Grotto will be providing lunch for all HOA3 event staff. They will make 3 food deliveries between 12pm and 1:30pm. Food will be available for all volunteers and judges in the kids room.

Spectators

Admission to HOA3 is free and all are welcome. It'll be a packed house so friends, family, and fans will need to make sure to stay in the designated spectator areas which may change slightly with each WOD. There will be a couple of bleacher stands capable of seating at least 90 people- otherwise it'll be standing room only. If you bring the kiddos, please keep'em on a tight leash so they don't put themselves or others at risk by wandering onto the main floor during the action.

It's been months of planning and preparation but our local CrossFit community is extremely excited and up to the challenge of putting on a phenomenal large-scale team competition. As with any big CrossFit event, we're hoping and praying for everything to run smoothly and for everyone involved to have a great experience. Above all, our hope is that you have FUN at HOA3 and enjoy the opportunity to COMPETE!!! 3..2..1..GO!!!

Allow Me To Show You The Ropes...

Hopefully this HOA3 clue will be more helpful to you than that one time I tried to rescue a drowning man by throwing him both ends of a rope.

Size'N Up A Few HOA3 Teams...

In just TWO weeks...This November 4th, 5th, and 6th, the 2011 Heart of America affiliate team competition will be gathering some of the toughest crossfit athletes in the region to do battle in Springfield, Missouri at CrossFit Springfield. There are going to be some LEGIT heavy hitters competing at HOA3. I'd like to point a few of'em out:
CrossFit Jenks: This team is stacked. Four of CFJ's HOA team members made it to the Finals at the 2011 North Central Regional: Christina Merlo placed 8th at 2011 CFG North Central Regional; Paige Millspaugh (pictured) placed 11th at 2011 CFG North Central Regional; Denver Mcphail placed 6th at 2011 CFG North Central Regional; Breck Berry placed 9th at 2011 CFG North Central Regional. I'd keep your head's on a swivel for CF Jenks.

CrossFit Valley Park: All three female team members (Tonya Charland, Melissa Hurley, and Margaret Junker) from CFVP's team will be competing together at HOA3. Because of work obligations and injuries, none of the men from CFVP's games team will be competing this year at HOA. CrossFit Valley Park's team stormed through the 2011 CF Games season, ultimately finishing 8th place in the world finals at the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games and 1st place in the 2011 CF Games NC Regional. Bottom-line: CFVP has been battle tested and has proven their potency as CrossFit competitors. Expect nothing less from them at HOA3.

Quad City CrossFit: These folks are no strangers to CrossFit competition or HOA competition having taken home the first place trophy last year at HOA 2010. Josiah Lorentzen qualified and competed at the CF Games regional level in 2010 placing 29th. In 2011, Josiah finished 53rd in the NC Region during the Open Sectional. Josiah's wife, D'Ann Lorentzen, finished 56th in the NC Region for the 2011 CFG Open. Sinan Gocmen has demonstrated his ability and aptitude as a crossfitter in 2011 by finishing 9th in the NC Region for the Open Sectional and 20th at the 2011 CF Games NC Regional.

CrossFit Ice: Last year's HOA host affiliate also took home the 2010 HOA Scaled Division championship. This year, CrossFit Ice's team will be competing in the RX division and will be led by Karen Wilson who placed 46th in the NC Region for the 2011 CF Games Open and Nick Johnson who finished and 56th in the NC Region for the 2011 CF Games Open. Nick also finished 26th at the 2011 CF Games NC Regional.

CrossFit 515: Bobby Noyce finished 12th in the NC Region for the 2011 CF Games Open Sectionals and 22nd at Regionals Last May in Chicago. Bobby's sisters, Jamie and Lindsay finished up the 2011 CFG Open Sectionals ranked 27th and 30th in the NC Region, respectively.

CrossFit SoMo: After placing 10th at the SW Regionals in 2009, Rodney Hamby missed the cut to qualify for regional competition in 2010. In 2011, Rodney stepped back up his game and qualified for the 2011 CF Games NC Regionals where he finished 17th.

CrossFit Springfield: Almost all of CrossFit Springfield's 3rd place NC Regional team (Macy Mitchell, Andy Koch, Brian Llewellyn, Melissa Wistrom, Kara Wallace-Racz, and Kristin Anderson) and 34th place 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games World Finals team will be competing at HOA 2011. There's a whole host of athletes from CFS who competed at a very high level during the 2011 CFG season. Out of the Open Sectional, CFS qualified 8 athletes for individual competition at the 2011 CFG North Central Regional. This year, CrossFit Springfield's members have come out in full force seeking to defend their home turf as the 3-day Springfield, MO competition has a total of 18 CFS teams registered to compete!

Ya best bring your "A" game-faces, folks! Cuz, you can be sure these guys and gals will have theirs on!!!

2011 HOA Scoring Format Announced

This year, at the 2011 Heart of America Affiliate Team Competition, we're unashamed to announce that we'll be completely ripping off the scoring format used in this years 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games World Finals. Yeah, yeah, imitation is the highest form of flattery and all that noise...the biggest reason for utilizing this points based format? I like it. I think it is fair and did an excellent job of objectively and appropriately rewarding each team with a point total based on their WOD performance/placment. Below is a table listing the points earned for each place in each of the 8 scored 2011 HOA team WODs. Both Scaled and RX divisions of HOA3 will adhere to this scoring system:

Place	Points Received
1st	100
2nd	95
3rd	90
4th	85
5th	80
6th	75
7th	73
8th	71
9th	69
10th	67
11th	65
12th	63
13th	61
14th	59
15th	57
16th	55
17th	53
18th	51
19th	49
20th	47
21st	45
22nd	43
23rd	41
24th	39
25th	37
26th	35
27th	33
28th	31
29th	29
30th	27
31st	26
32nd	25
33rd	24
34th	23
35th	22
36th	21
37th	20
38th	19
39th	18
40th	17
41st	16
42nd	15
43rd	14
44th	13
45th	12
46th	11
47th	10
48th	9
49th	8

At the end of the 3 day competition, the team with the highest point total will be crowned the 2011 Heart Of America CrossFit Team Competition Champions!

HOA3 Equipment Pre-Sale By The KB King!!!

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The Kettlebell King.com is bringing in two full box trucks of CrossFit equipment for the 2011 Heart of America Competition this Nov 4th-6th. Now is a great time to stake your claim to some of the solid equipment that will be used at this year’s event for super low rates! Don’t wait too long- these deals are gonna make this equipment go FAST! Look through the following products and order directly through Bert Thornton at: 417.814.8198 or via email online at: bert@thekettlebellking.com

(click on flier to enlarge)

Thanks to Bert and his hard workin’ crew at the Kettlebell King for helping us make this the biggest and baddest CrossFit Competition in the Midwest. PERIOD.

2011 HOA Event Shirts by LifeAsRX

Awesome apparel plays a huge role in CrossFit culture. Life AsRX specializes in making awesome apparel!!! HOA is pleased to present to you the shirt designs for our 2011 affiliate team competition this November 4th-6th! Competitors will each be issued green shirts, judges will receive yellow, volunteers blue, and the red designs will be available at the event all weekend to purchase. Thanks to Gene Doney (Life AsRX lead designer) and CFS members Cory Ostroski and Eric Baker for their collaboration on the design of these sweet t-shirts for HOA3!!!