Ginger Schweiss

Ginger was born in Nebraska on a small family farm, but from a young age always dreamed of studying the ocean. As an avid runner, she was offered a scholarship to run cross country and track at the collegiate level at Northwest Missouri State, which just happened to have a marine biology program. As part of the program
requirements, she spent a summer taking classes on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and fell in love with the area and the kindness of the people. She graduated in 2012 with a double major in Marine Biology and Biological Psychology, and decided to pursue graduate school at the University of Georgia. After one year in the graduate program,
her heart was calling her back to Mississippi so she transferred to the University of Southern Mississippi to study oyster reef restoration and graduated with her Ph.D. in
Coastal Sciences in 2017. In 2014, while in graduate school, her best friend introduced her to CrossFit as something new to try. After being plagued with multiple fractures from running so many miles a week as a collegiate athlete she was anxious to try something new but scared about stepping out of her comfort zone. It was a very humbling experience because she was the weakest person in the box and almost quit because she was so used to being a natural at running, but she is so glad she stuck it out. CrossFit completely transformed the way she viewed herself and her capabilities. Instead of just being the injury-prone runner, she was able to challenge herself to be the girl who was “sneaky strong.” Going from being unable to bench press the training bar to an athlete that competed in CrossFit competitions built up her confidence. Now as a coach she is able to identify with the challenges of starting CrossFit for the first time, and she loves watching athletes make progress and seeing their confidence in their abilities grow over time. Ginger is married to a retired Air Force cyber officer, Erik, and they have two amazing children, Charlie who is 6 and Gwen who is 3 years old. She works as an online professor for the University of Hawaii-West Oahu teaching marine biology, environmental biology, and human anatomy and physiology courses. In her spare time she is also the chief scientist for the Callie Mae Sea Foundation, a non-profit she and her husband started while living in Hawaii. The foundation now has branches in Hawaii, Mississippi, and Virginia, and focuses on living shorelines and rebuilding oyster reefs. After taking a break from CrossFit while moving around and raising children, Ginger is so happy to have found a new home box at CrossFit 271 where the coaches and athletes are like family instead of just acquaintances. She has always wanted to coach or be a personal trainer so being a coach at CrossFit 271 seems like a dream come true, and she is so excited to continue to see everyone at the box make progress and be a small part of their fitness journey.

‍