Celina CrossFit Gym Coaches Incarcerated Ohio Youth Twice a Week Through Expanding Horizons

• A CrossFit gym in Celina, Ohio, sends coaches into Circleville Juvenile Correctional Facility to lead a class that meets twice a week.
• The program started eight years ago with teens on probation in Mercer County and reached Ohio’s state youth prisons three years ago.
• Staff find each participant a gym near home before release, and the state pays for a membership when he attends twice a week.

Probation Officers Sweat Beside the Teens They Supervise, and the State Took Notice

A young man at Circleville Juvenile Correctional Facility in central Ohio has trained with the same CrossFit class for six months, and he now squats 315 pounds. State protocol keeps his name out of print, so the Ohio Newsroom, the public media collaborative that reported the story, did not use it. He told its reporter the work feels good after you put in the effort to earn it.

His class holds about a dozen older teens and young men and meets twice a week. A session opens with jump rope and stretching, then moves into pushups, jumping jacks, squats and burpees. Coaches Austin Haines and Kyle Hanigosky lead the floor, and recreation coordinator Christian Smalley handles the schedule. Superintendent Bill Stout says strife runs through the community outside the walls, yet inside the class every participant belongs to one team.

The coaches finish trauma-informed training before they step inside, and they coach attitude as much as technique. Hanigosky tells the class that anyone who can handle hard work in the facility can carry that mental toughness home. The team has also beaten other facilities in CrossFit competitions. Smalley says the group has a trophy to show for it.

How a Gym in Celina Got the Call

The story starts in Mercer County, a rural corner of western Ohio. In 2018, chief probation officer Angie Gehle and probation officer Jen Contreras invited Matt Shindeldecker and Debbie Wagner, co-owners of CrossFit Crave in Celina, the county seat, to join a court-ordered program called Expanding Horizons. The county had run a running program for youth before and wanted a partner that could build a hard-work mentality and reach past the gym walls. Both owners said yes.

The first participants were teens on probation. They worked out four days a week and attended counseling with their probation officers. The program removed small barriers that keep teens from showing up, supplying shoes and workout clothes and arranging rides to and from class. A psychologist consults with the team. Probation officers train on the clock beside the teens, which Shindeldecker says creates equality on the floor.

Guest speakers added another layer. CrossFit Games athlete Chandler Smith spoke with participants over Zoom, and the gym hosted a CrossFit Level 1 scholarship course so participants could see coaching as a possible career. Gehle and Contreras reported fewer repeat offenses after the partnership started, and the Ohio Newsroom put the drop in Mercer County juvenile recidivism at more than 30 percent in the first year. Some participants have found jobs. Others changed in quieter ways: one young woman who first stood silent in a corner now takes a full part in class.

Shindeldecker described what the coaches give these teens in one line: “Most of these kids have never had somebody beside them going through something difficult.”

From a County Program to the State’s Youth Prisons

The Ohio Department of Youth Services (ODYS) brought the model into its facilities three years ago. Ohio runs three juvenile corrections facilities that house about 500 youth. The Health Policy Institute of Ohio reports that more than three-fourths of the young people in those facilities carry a diagnosed mental or behavioral condition, which explains why the coaches complete trauma-informed training before they lead a single rep.

The model keeps spreading. A program began at the Juvenile Residential Center of Northwest Ohio in February 2025. That July, ODYS hosted the first Unity CrossFit Games at its Indian River facility in Massillon. Mixed teams paired justice-involved youth with local, state and federal law enforcement officers and other first responders, who trained and competed side by side. More than 30 youth took part and nearly 100 people watched. State officials said at the time that more than 100 young people had joined the program and dozens were enrolled.

Wagner described the goal at that event as using fitness, mentorship and trauma-informed coaching to help youth grow. Public Safety Director Andy Wilson said Ohio law enforcement stands for unity and teamwork, and ODYS Director Amy Ast said she was in awe of how the partner agencies worked together.

What Happens After Release

A class inside a facility only helps if the habit survives the front gate, so the program plans for the day a participant goes home. Staff find a gym near each person’s home, help arrange transportation, and the state funds a membership if the young person attends twice a week. Some probation officers train alongside them at those gyms. Graduates of the Mercer County program sometimes return as ambassadors and talk with the next group of teens who walk into class.

Wagner says a young person who changes inside a facility goes home different from the one who arrived. The coaches build the class around that homecoming.

What Other Gym Owners and Newcomers Can Take From It

CrossFit is a training method built on constantly varied functional movements, such as squats, pushups, rope work and carries, scaled to the person in front of the coach. The company reported about 12,000 affiliate gyms in more than 140 countries in 2024. A teen needs no special shoes, no gym membership and no competitive background to start, which suits a facility where those things are in short supply.

The Crave team offers a short list of advice to any owner who wants to try something similar. Secure judicial approval and funding first. Have probation officers work out on the clock. Add counseling, and start with a separate class before you mix groups. The Expanding Horizons website invites gym owners to get in touch about building a program or to find an existing gym in their area.

For readers who are curious about CrossFit but nervous about walking into a box, the Ohio story shows a good class in its simplest form. It has a warm-up, a few basic movements, a coach who knows your name, and a team that cheers when someone finally reaches a lift he chased for six months. Any affiliate in the United States can offer the same ingredients. A program that began in a county probation office eight years ago has now spread to Ohio’s state youth prisons, with a full class and a trophy on the shelf.