One could argue that at MTHS, no one fits the mold of an athlete who lives by the saying of “heart over height” more than senior athlete Chase DeAlba.

DeAlba has spent the last four years as a key member and leader of the MTHS football team where he helped MTHS make some noise in the 2015 postseason.

“There were many ups and downs being a part of this team,” DeAlba said.

“The ups would be winning and going to [the state tournament] last year, as well as building the brotherhood that you build from being a part of the team. Nothing beats that.”

In football, the tallest and heaviest players on the field are typically the offensive and defensive linemen. On the Seattle Seahawks for example, all of their linemen are between 6-foot-1 and 6-foot-7.

High school football, while it varies a bit more, tells a similar story.

For DeAlba, who is listed in the football roster at 5 feet 5 inches, goes into every game at a height disadvantage. For him, that has never been too much of a deterrent. Rather, it is the reason why he works as hard as he does.

“I started to work out in seventh grade but I began to take it more seriously when I started playing football my freshman year at MTHS,” DeAlba said. “I like working out. I like staying in shape. It is what allows me to go out there on the field and compete with the bigger guys. Sometimes I got my ass handed to me but it was fun. I enjoyed the whole experience and have no regrets whatsoever.”

After football season was over, DeAlba’s athletic attention shifted to something that he had been introduced to the previous summer.

“[CrossFit] for me started last summer when Stephen Hitt, the owner of CrossFit Industrious, started training with the football team. He introduced all of the team to CrossFit and we did a few workouts here and there,” DeAlba said.

“After the season, I worked out with him a little bit before signing up at Paramount CrossFit.”

DeAlba defines CrossFit as a mixture of strength, conditioning, gymnastics, agility and speed, all combined into one big competition.

According to the official CrossFit website, CrossFit is defined as, “constantly varied functional movements performed at relatively high intensity.

All CrossFit workouts are based on functional movements, and these movements reflect the best aspects of gymnastics, weightlifting, running, rowing and more.”

DeAlba recently competed in his first open competition at Paramount.

“I did OK for a beginner. I’m not at the elite level. It showed me my true level of fitness and what I need to work on,” DeAlba said.

Even though it’s been less than a year, DeAlba has already seen the results.

He said that without a doubt, CrossFit has already changed his life. It’s allowed his body to do so many things that he couldn’t do before when he was just doing standard weight lifting.

Going forward, his goal in CrossFit is simple and reflects the genesis of why he even began working out his body in the first place.

“My goal in CrossFit is to be as fit as possible. Simple as that,” DeAlba said. “I got bored of standard weight lifting and I wanted to change it up a little bit.”

DeAlba’s plans for after high school are to spend a couple years studying at Edmonds Community College before hopefully transferring to a four year university.

Although he said he doesn’t know exactly what university he would like to go to yet, he does want to stay in state and preferably close to home.

“I just want to go to school, get an education, work out a ton, and live life,” DeAlba said.

“I have no idea what I’m going to study but my ultimate dream is to own my own gym in the future.”