This year’s event featured Southlake vs. Keller vs. Coppell and had residents competing for the title of the Most Fit City. More than 1,600 competitors from the three cities took part in the challenge. The challengers did physical activities as well as mental challenges to increase mental health and well-being, according to a news release. The event ran from April 15 to May 15 this year and on May 16, Southlake was declared the winner.
The background
Keller Mayor Armin Mizani and then-Southlake Mayor John Huffman created the activity-centric challenge in 2022 to improve the physical and mental well-being of activities for residents.
Huffman recalls the start of the challenge was a conversation between himself and Mizani that turned into an idea. From there, staff members from both cities got involved and Fit City was created.
The competition aspect was not new to either.
There had been friendly wagers between the two mayors in the past, which resulted in Mizani wearing Carroll Dragon apparel to a council meeting, while Huffman once donned a Keller baseball jersey in a Southlake meeting.
“It is great to win and anytime you have bragging rights over Keller is fun,” Huffman said. “But you are able to cheer your successes but able to cheer their success too. It is really special to have that competition but it is really about engaging the communities to be able to inspire people to achieve fitness goals and learn more about the cool facilities like the Champions Club and Keller Pointe.”
The details
The highest average point total between the three cities won a traveling trophy, and points were tracked through an app, with each activity weighted to help level the playing field.
Keller took home the crown in 2022, while Southlake has now won two years in a row.
This year, Southlake residents had 145 points, followed by Keller in second with 136 points and Coppell had 97 points.
Each of the events had a weighted value worth 1 point for each mile or time frame. For instance playing a two-hour baseball game would net someone six points for their city.
- Cycling: 1.86 miles
- Hiking: 0.53 miles
- Running: 0.59 miles
- Swimming: 0.15 miles
- Walking: 0.62 miles
- Golf: 30 minutes
- Gymnastics: 7.5 minutes
- Baseball: 20 minutes
- Basketball: 6.67 minutes
- Boxing: 6.67 minutes
- Cardio: 12 minutes
- Pickleball: 8.57 minutes
- Pilates: 10 minutes
- Tennis: 6.67 minutes
- Yoga: 10 minutes
Colleyville joined the competition last year, and this year Coppell became the latest city to compete in the event, replacing Colleyville. Colleyville officials said they were focused on other projects this spring.
“Mayor Wes Ways thought it would be a great way to engage our city, encouraging and celebrating their physical and mental well-being,” said Ethan Kerr, recreation supervisor at The CORE recreation center in Coppell. “I was able to engage with cities who had competed in previous years and agreed that it would be a fun challenge to engage our community.”
Kerr said the most popular activities in Coppell were walking/running, strength training, pickleball and dancing.
Competitors in the challenge could participate in local events for points. The Run4Elise 5K run and 1-mile walk was held May 11 in Southlake, an event that provided a chance to bring a lot of points for the cities. Event organizer Lori Cerami said 600 walkers and runners competed, while the field also featured people who had signed up for the Southlake Foundation Color run. Weather canceled that event on April 20 and it turned into a merged event with between 200 and 300 running in the color run.
Quote of note
“This is something we look forward to every year,” The Keller Pointe Manager Michael Beaver said. “It gives us an opportunity to have a friendly rivalry with the other cities. Even though we're different, we can come together for one goal. At the end of the day, there might be a winning city, but if you look at all the people who participated, it's pretty remarkable. All these folks are working out, doing stuff together to get themselves out and about within the community. And I think that's probably the biggest thing."
Sorting out the details
The top three individual point earners were Jamie Wooldridge from Southlake, Blake Bullard from Southlake, and Chrissie Cooper Hintz from Keller.
The rankings also included the top three individuals each town. Along with Wooldridge and Bullard, Cristina Schulz made the top three in Southlake. For Keller, Jeff Mathers Sr. and Jose Guzman were the next top two point-earners. In Coppell, Fernando Iniestra, Todd Storch, and Jamie Levine were the top three.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional information.
