It’s not a surprise to anyone that I love building things; my favourite toy as a child was Lego. The concept of building things from the ground up has always fascinated me. Whether it’s building a business, developing athletes, or creating winning teams in business or sport, I love the concept of developing things from inception to maturity.
My wife and I built CrossFit 306 from the ground up; It now stands as a terrific business, community, and for many the best one hour of their day.
In July 2012 we took three athletes to our first weightlifting meet. An outdoor meet in Moose Jaw. That day Courtney Bowman, one of my first coaches and athletes would break three provincial records. From that moment on, I knew that a weightlifting program would be a terrific complement to our CrossFit business. However, access to qualified coaches was slim in Saskatchewan and I knew I couldn’t do it on my own. I reached out to my original weightlifting coach, Steve Sandor in Toronto to fly out and run clinics. He declined, I guess the Saskatchewan Winter was a bit of deterrent. Not to be denied, I asked his number one lifter at the time, Richard Gonsalves to see if he would be interested in coming in monthly to help build our program, he accepted, and it was an immediate success. His clinics filled up quickly as everyone including myself had a thirst to learn as much as they about the sport of weightlifting.
2012 In Moose Jaw - our very first weightlifting meet
We started running regular lifting classes in the evening and I soon realized that to truly build a club that would be competitive we would need a space for them to call their own. Thus, in 2014 I spent $100,000 to add an extension to the gym and build out a fully equipped space dedicated to weightlifting.
2014 - Inside our newly built space, Jeff Woo, Mike Rogers, Luke Gordon, Jason Joyal, and myself.
As interest grew and our athletes developed, I knew we had to develop more coaches to continue to grow our club. By 2018 we added Nick Korchinski to our staff as our weightlifting coach. Nick might be the most passionate man in the sport of weightlifting I have ever met. It was his passion took our club to new heights.
Adding Nick and Jack to our coaching staff was instrumental to the continued growth of our club.
In 2019 our club helped team Saskatchewan win men’s title at the Canadian Western Championships for the first time in over a decade, and the ladies were a close second. Graham Unruh and I would feature on the men’s side with, Kathee Le, Kelsey Rhode, Polina Bespolava helping the ladies’ side with incredible performances. A few months later, another first for our club. I would win our first World Championship medal taking Silver at the IWF World Masters.
IWF World Masters 2019!
In 2020 another breakthrough for our club, Polina Bespalova would win the Canadian Jr Championships, the first for a Saskatchewan female in over a decade, and I believe only the third female ever to accomplish this feat.
Polina wins the Canadian Jr Championships!
Though the pandemic slowed us down a little, the club continued to grow and with it we added Jack Nash to our coaching staff. Jack started his CrossFit career with us at the age of 16 and completely immersed himself in the world of weightlifting.
2022 would bring us another big milestone, Bella Thompson-Hill would follow in Polina’s footsteps and win the Canadian Jr Championships. Bella’s accomplishments were even more impressive when considering that she had only touched a barbell for the first time 20 months prior to standing on top of the podium at the Canadian Championships!
Bella Thompson- Hill Canadian Jr Champion in 2020!
This past weekend, as we enter our 12 years of building our club, our strength in numbers and lifting totals were on display. We had our greatest number of registered lifters ready to compete. We qualified two more athletes to the Canadian Sr Championships, bringing our total to three for this year. We broke 12 provincial records in this meet alone! The last session of the meet included all our top lifters with three of our females closing out an epic day hitting the following lifts in succession in the clean and jerk:
Laura Carruthers 103 kgs
Angela McDadede 104kgs
Bella Thompson-Hill 105kgs
Angela McDade 106kgs!
Few ladies have ever lifted 100kilo clean and jerk in the history of SK weightlifting. Yet in the span of 10 minutes three of 306 W.C.’s finest were hitting in excess of 100kilos!
So, what does the future hold for 306 W.C…
With our strong community, culture, and ridiculously passionate coaches I can guarantee the following: More records will be broken, more champions will be crowned, and a ton of fun will be had!
If you would like the learn to more about the sport of weightlifting, please email us at jason@crossfit306.ca . We welcome new lifters from Saskatoon and beyond on a regular basis.
Until next time, lift big!
Jason Cain
Owner and Athletic Director
CrossFit 306 home of 306 W.C.
2023 edition of our 306 W.C.