St. Petersburg resident Sedona Townsend has had a passion for sports since she was a child. A physical therapist by trade, she’s also a professional athlete.
Townsend, 27, helped make history last month when she competed in the United Grid League championship match in Lakeland. Her team, the Southwest (SW) Florida Sharks, has become the organization’s first back-to-back champion.
The most recent season marked Townsend’s fourth in the sport.
The United Grid League features coed teams. Men and women compete head-to-head in functional fitness and weightlifting races. Activities include deadlifts, bench presses, handstand walking and backflips.
For Townsend, it all started with soccer. Originally from Fort Myers, she played the sport at Southeastern University in Lakeland and Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri.
Eventually, she would explore CrossFit fitness training, which focuses on strength, conditioning and functional movements. This experience would ultimately lead her to the United Grid League.
“I did CrossFit for a while before I was, what we call, recruited into the Grid League,” she explained. “The Grid League itself is definitely a team sport whereas CrossFit is definitely more individualized. You can kind of find a gym, work out for 60 minutes a day and leave.”
Townsend is a utility player. She focuses on functional activities such as box jumps, burpees and pull-ups.
“We have local competitions that you can sign up for and compete in,” she continued. “So, I was competing in a local competition and that’s when my coach found me and recruited me just based off of my athletic capabilities, and kind of saw something that I had that the team needed. So, it wasn’t necessarily like I was even seeking it out. It kind of found me.”
To explain exactly what the sport is, Townsend compared it to football.
“The team has a coach, manager and a full roster,” she said. “Each person on the roster holds a different position.”
The athletes are placed into three main categories: utility, bodyweight and strength. Each team in the United Grid League competes in a series of matches during a season. Every match has 11 different races.
Townsend is a utility player. She focuses on functional activities such as box jumps, burpees (according to Nike, the exercise combines bodyweight planks, push-ups and squats) and pull-ups.
For Townsend, the back-to-back championships demonstrate team consistency. She said that the victories “mean a lot.”
“We have a group chat,” Townsend explained. “We have meetings and we hop on Zoom calls. It’s like, even outside of your daily life, you’re committing to this one thing for the people around you, which is really cool.”
Her dream is a three-peat.
“My goal for life in general is to have fun,” Townsend added. “As long as I’m having fun doing it, I’m going to stick with it. This past year was a lot of fun. Obviously, you make a lot of new friends and make memories when you’re traveling.”