S05E110 - In Remembrance of Stephen Rice: Team Master Blaster - An Unexpected CrossFit Duo

There are friendships that defy expectations—bonds between people who, on paper, shouldn't connect. Yet these unexpected relationships often teach us the most profound lessons. My friendship with Stephen Rice was exactly that kind of connection.

Steve passed away on April 8, 2025, after suffering an unexpected stroke. Though we primarily knew each other from CrossFit Bison, rarely seeing each other outside the gym, we shared one extraordinary experience that exemplified who Steve truly was. This remembrance isn't just about grief—it's about celebrating a remarkable human being through the lens of our unlikely friendship.

#InMemoryOfSteve #FriendshipTribute #CrossFitCommunity #LegacyOfLove

#GoneButNotForgotten #CelebrateLife #CherishedMemories #InspirationalStories #FitnessFamily #HeartfeltTribute

@asburyparksummergames #BotoxAndBurpees @crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity #apgames

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S05E110 - In Remembrance of Stephen Rice: Team Master Blaster - An Unexpected CrossFit Duo

TRANSCRIPT

[00:00:00]

Sam Rhee: My name is Sam Rhee, and this is my remembrance of my friend Steven Rice who passed away on April 8th, 2025 after suffering an unexpected stroke.

My condolences to his wife, Christine, his two sons, Connor and Logan, and his close friends and family.

Steve was a friend of mine, a CrossFit bison gym friend. I know there are a lot of people who knew Steve much better than me, who have already paid tribute to him. I rarely saw Steve outside of bison, if ever. In many ways, our lives could not be more different.

But there is one great memory I shared with Stevie one that few know about.

I wanna remember Steve and to share that memory with others and to add it to his legacy.

As I said, outside the gym, I did not know Steve Rice that well. I knew he worked nights for a local water utility company and Steve lived in Midland Park not far from the gym.

I did know he [00:01:00] was all about things Irish, including Notre Dame football.

He was also a Chicago Cubs and Bears fan,

but most importantly, I know he cared deeply about his family, particularly his two sons and their sports.

He coached his sons in their youth sports, and that was something that over the past several years had been taking more and more of his time.

And in the past year or two, he started bringing his older son Connor to the gym and out of the many high school kids who would drop into bison, Connor was always quiet, but smiling and so positive.

I could tell how proud Steve was of his son and how much he loved him and how much Connor loved his dad. There wasn't another father out there that loved his kids more than Steve did.

Now, regarding the more whimsical side of Steve,

I also knew he really enjoyed beer. he knew how to have a good time, and I recently asked a couple of gym people what his favorite beer was, but they couldn't remember.

I think he was pretty non-denominational when it came to brand [00:02:00] preference. But being Irish, I would guess he would never say no to a well poured Guinness ever.

Because he worked nights. Stevie was a midday gym class guy and he was not small over six feet and well over 200 pounds. He played rugby in college and he looked every inch of it.

He started at bison a couple months before I got there in 2014, and he could put up great lift numbers with the barbell. He was surprisingly not bad with the cardio pieces either. Of course, everyone knew how much he hated burpees and given his build, who could blame him and what sane person really loves burpees anyway.

I remember many classes, especially back in the day, he would get there a little early. Wrap his ankles or knees and he would look a little creaky or tired.

I never knew what was going on in his life. If he had troubles, worries, or cares outside of the gym, they might have been a passing shadow on his face as he started to warm up.

But then they would disappear [00:03:00] as he started to focus on the workout. It might take Steve a little while to get going, but once he shifted out of first gear,

he would build up ahead of Steam and he could work his way through many CrossFit wads in a manner you would never have guessed he was capable of.

The most vivid memory of Stevie I have is when we did a CrossFit competition together back when we were both a whole lot younger. This was June of 2017. I don't know who suggested that. Stevie and I team up to do this competition.

We had both started just a couple years ago and had very little CrossFit competition experience.

I think it was Dave Sivertson who suggested we join forces.

This was one of the first big CrossFit comps in the area that had a 40 and over division, and so we wouldn't have to compete against the younger athletes thankfully.

This CrossFit competition Stevie and I did was the first year of the Asbury Park summer games.

Nowadays, this competition is quite the extravaganza with many elite athletes competing.

[00:04:00] it's a huge event, and it's become a signature CrossFit blowout affair every summer. And this year they ran six divisions of athletes. It lasted three whole days, which is unheard of for a quote, local competition.

But back then it was a one day comp and anyone could sign up. There was no qualifying. And a lot of the local OG CrossFit athletes did it, including many from our gym.

Gavin Kya was there.

The Bryson Brawlers had Dan Mina and Mari Ilko.

Aaron and his brother Dave had the awesome and imaginative team name, CrossFit Bison.

Owen Morrissey was part of Bison Strong, which sounded more like hope and less of a statement, Brian DiCarlo was part of the necessary Thickness team,

there were some other competitors there too, who are now part of CrossFit, bison, CrossFit games athlete, Tracy McGee.

She was part of Team Mom and me.

Coach Bobby Wallum, who competed with Joe Piero. Their team name was Big and little, which [00:05:00] interestingly enough does not actually reference their different heights and weights.

By the way, if you're watching this episode on YouTube, you'll see a lot of the photographs from the competition, from professional photographer and friend Jose Fernandez of JAFZ photography.

So thank you Jose for those amazing photographs. They bring back so many special memories.

Anyway, we were excited for months before the comp actually started.

Stevie came up with our team name, bison Master Blaster.

It's from an eighties movie, mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, starring Mel Gibson in a post apocalyptic wasteland where there was a pair of characters who were always together.

One was this little person who sat on the shoulders of this giant, hence the name, master and Blaster. One was supposedly the Brains and the other, the Braun. Well, in this case, Stevie was probably the smart one too, but based on our physical sizes, it wasn't hard to figure out which one of us was the master and which one of us was the blaster.

in fact, Steve even [00:06:00] had T-shirts made up for us for the comp with Master Blaster on the back. I wish I still had this t-shirt, but unfortunately it's gone the way of so many of my old beat up CrossFit shirts.

We didn't really train too much. I think we got together once or twice on the weekends before the comp, but it wasn't anything formal and we weren't elite athletes or anything. We just wanted to have fun and we work out down near the beach with our friends.

We met up that morning of the competition down in Asbury Park and we were amazed by the setup.

We had never seen anything like this at a comp before.

Huge indoor arena, neon lights, a professional DJ that kept the music going. We felt like we were at the CrossFit games themselves.

It was so fancy. And then we started feeling the nerves. There was a large enclosed arena with circular seating all around it.

It felt like the coliseum straight from the movie Gladiator, and we just needed Russell Crowe to yell out, are you not entertained?

We didn't have much time to sightsee with a comps tight schedule. [00:07:00] So Steve and I got right to work on wad. One eight minutes to establish the following partner. A one rep, max snatch partner, B one rep max. Clean and jerk

Weight could not be decreased once it had been loaded onto the bar, which means if you failed, you couldn't go back down to a lighter weight. You either made it or you didn't.

And I remember discussing this with Stevie and it was an obvious master blaster situation where my master weight and the snatch would have to be carried by his blaster clean number.

I managed 1 25, which was a PR for me at the time, and Steve hit two 60 for his clean for a total number of 3 85. So for Team Master Blaster, that number was good enough for us to take fourth place in the event, and that was a pleasant surprise.

Maybe we didn't completely stink at this.

The second wad was a 10 minute amrap for which the 40 plus men's division had an assault bike for 10 cows, 10 burpees over bar.

Then 10 thrusters. [00:08:00] Each round of this, the thruster weight would go up. So it started with 75 pounds. Then the next round, the thrusters were at 95 pounds. The third round was at one 15, then 1 35 and then 1 55.

I don't remember exactly how we split the reps, but I think for each round, one of us would do the entire 10 cals of the bike. Then I'd do most of the burpees over bar, and then we would split the lighter thrusters at 75, 95 and one 15.

I did more of the lighter 75 and 95 pound thrusters, and then Stevie took over completely at the 1 35 and 1 55.

We got through all five rounds, which was the entire thruster ladder, including 10 at 1 55, and then six more assault bite cows on top of that, which was good enough for third place.

So this Master Blaster combo seemed to be working for us.

The third and fourth wads went simultaneously. Partner one would do a deadlift and knee raise rep ladder for three [00:09:00] minutes,

two deadlifts, two knee raises, then four deadlifts, four knee raises.

Then six and so on for three minutes while partner one was doing this. Partner two would be doing max calorie row for three minutes at the same time.

After three minutes the partners would switch and partner one would start rowing and partner two would switch from the rower and continue the deadlift knee raises ladder.

Now, I don't remember, but I have a feeling that Stevie rode the first three minutes while I did the ladder, and then I rode second. And somehow we crushed the first three minutes and got 192 reps, which was first place.

Uh, and then for the second three minutes, Stevie and I fell back down to Earth and got 111 reps. But that was still good enough for fourth place in our division.

So all of these wads were a blur, and I don't really remember that much except that it was under the bright lights.

The adrenaline really got us juiced up, and Steve and I really poured our hearts out into each [00:10:00] wad. Like I said, neither of us were elite athletes.

Not even close. But there's something to be said for pushing yourself to your limits in a competitive situation that strengthens the mind and body.

It's a feeling unlike any other. Cheering everyone else from bison watching everyone give their max effort. It's always a special feeling.

And this one was even more so because of how big the event was and how many of our friends were there to cheer us on.

So after these four wads, we were sitting in fourth place for our division, and Steve and I were happy to have had a respectable showing and it had been a long day.

So Stevie and I hugged, we high fived. We were ready to make our drive back to Midland Park. Stevie packed up his wheelie cooler, started making his way outta the arena.

And then someone stopped me, I think it was Dave, and he told me that there was a playoff wad.

A playoff wad? Yes. Four top teams of each division would continue in one more workout, and then the top three [00:11:00] would podium. And this was something we didn't know about.

So I caught up with Steve and I told him the news. And if I wasn't thrilled about hearing this information, Stevie was really not happy to hear it. He didn't wanna do it.

He said it didn't matter, we should just call it a day. There were a bunch of beers in his cooler that were calling out to him. It was definitely Miller time

and he was particularly unhappy because this playoff Watt involved a lot of pull-ups.

There's no actual record of the playoff Watt itself, and I even checked with. The competition runners themselves and they can't even remember what they programmed.

But from asking the other competitors, they do remember the wad having sets of pull-ups. RX competitors had chest to bar and bar muscle ups.

Um, there were deadlifts or maybe deadlift, high pulls, more pull-ups paired with front squats, and then even more pull-ups with overhead squats.

Whatever it really was. There was definitely a ton of pull-ups for our division, and as soon as Stevie heard that, he said, forget it. There's [00:12:00] no way he was going to do more pull-ups.

I begged Stevie to just give it a try. I said, let's just see what we could do, and it didn't matter if we did well or not and it wouldn't take that long. I told him I would do the pull-ups, he could do the other movements.

And I don't remember what else I said, but somehow I managed to convince Steve to come back to the arena and get ready for the workout.

The only actual memories I have of that final workout is that I did more pull-ups than I've ever done in my life. Our judge was pretty strict about getting that chin over the bar,

and I remember that I could tell she felt bad when she had to start no repping me when I started failing, and I am positive. I looked like a floppy half dead duck trying to pull myself up onto that bar.

I also remember that early in the wad, Stevie actually did more pull-ups than either he or I expected. I'd be sitting there resting and he'd come over and do a couple and help me out, and I don't think I did any of the dead lifts.

Maybe I helped out on the front squats or overhead squats, but I just can't remember. [00:13:00] I just remember that when we ran to the end of the finish line, I felt like complete death and that was pretty much it.

We high-fived, we were happy we got through it. It was a tremendous moral victory. I. While we sat there on the sidelines, after the wad all crumpled up, they started announcing the podium winners and then they got to our division in first place was Atomic gangsta mast from Shrewsbury CrossFit. And in second place from CrossFit 9 0 8 was Maverick and Goose.

And to Steve and Me's complete and utter surprise, we somehow took third place Bison Master Blaster from CrossFit Bison. You will not find a more surprise team at podium than we were that day.

How we beat these other tremendous and famous, well-known CrossFit teams such as Masters of the Universe, Starsky and Hutch, and Ageless Pecs is completely beyond me. That is what made that day [00:14:00] so special. The two of us could not be more different in so many ways. Our physical differences, how we grew up, what we did, who we were, Steve and I were about as different as chalk and cheese as the saying goes.

We were truly the oddest master and blaster duo, and yet we managed to team up and find a way to hang on and grit our way to the award platform. And no one was more proud than Steven Rice that day. He was absolutely giddy when we took that stage.

I think the reason he was so happy is that it really showed we could hang with some great athletes, and more importantly, he brought everything he had that day, and the fact that it resulted in an award that reflected that effort, validated everything we did, it was really special for both him and me.

Afterwards, everyone headed over to the post comp party at Sue Walsh's Place, which was at the cutest little cottage [00:15:00] nearby at Avon by the sea.

We broke open all the alcohol and drank and drank and drank. My arms and upper back were already starting to really ache, and I honestly believe I had rhabdo, and if I didn't have Rhabdo is probably the closest I've ever been to getting it

after a full day of working out five bajillion extra pull-ups, no hydration, then just trying to keep up with Stevie's liquid consumption. Afterwards. I was very lucky. I did not sustain permanent bodily harm, and even so my arm, shoulders and back were like puffy wood for two weeks.

But ever since that comp, anytime Steve and I would see each other at the gym, we'd high five called each other partner. It was really special. Now we never competed again after that. I did a couple more comps, but that comp was, Stevie was the best.

I also believe it will remain as the most special athletic experience in my life. It was simply a pure [00:16:00] experience of two guys, no sporting ambitions. Just showed up, gave everything they had , and surprised themselves with what they could do. I could not have asked for anything more with my partner.

I'm now 55, soon to be 56 years old. Like a lot of people as they go through life,

our thoughts and focus turn more to not just the daily tasks at hand, but trying to uncover and discover what makes life meaningful for us.

What are the things most important to us now? What lessons can I learn from Steven Rice and his life lived?

I think a lot about Steve, how special he was and how short our time on Earth really is.

Steve was a good human being, which means he was a transcendent and great human being.

And for one day, Steve and I elevated ourselves and became more than what we expected, and that was a powerful lesson.

I want to thank Steve for making me a better person. And now every time I have a drink, even if these days it's a [00:17:00] non-alcoholic beer, which I know Stevie would probably say, what the fuck? If he saw me, I toast the big man silently and think of him.

I was given the gift of more time on Earth than what Steve got. It means I had better make sure I don't waste it.

Thank you, Steve. I love you and I won't forget you partner.