NEWS

Putnam: Greece woman tries for 'American Ninja Warrior'

Caurie Putnam
West Extra columnist

Last June, while on vacation in Napa Valley, Calif., Kristy DeVincentis' phone began exploding with text messages from students and friends in Rochester.

Nothing was wrong, but the tone was urgent: DeVincentis needed to apply for the hit NBC fitness, reality-TV show American Ninja Warrior, which until the spring of 2014 had been predominately dominated by male competitors.

"This past season, when females started showing up, my phone started blowing up," said DeVincentis, about the show's sixth season when several women competitors completed the formidable obstacle course for the first time.

"I was teaching an intense boot camp at the time and my students were texting, saying 'Kristy, you have to do this! You can do this!"

A lifelong athlete and fan of the show since it premiered in 2009, DeVincentis, a certified personal trainer, hadn't considered applying until urged by students, friends and family.

"From the minute I decided to start training, it's been head down and going strong," said DeVincentis, who committed herself to training for the show in August 2014 and applied earlier this month.

She is preparing for the show's Season 7 regional qualifying round in Pittsburgh in May by training at least 13 hours a week.

Her weekly regimen includes personal training with Lamonte Hudson Jr. in Rochester; training with Charles Moreland at Rochester Parkour; classes at Aerial Arts of Rochester; indoor rock climbing at Rock Ventures; and training with Patrick Hall, a former American Ninja Warrior competitor who owns Hybrid Fitness in Buffalo.

Parkour, by the way, is the holistic, physical discipline of enhancing the human body, without using equipment, to overcome obstacles (think tree climbing, jumping over boxes, vaulting over a guard rail, etc.)

DeVincentis also walks about seven miles a day for her job. She owns and operates Must Luv Dogs, a dog walking and pet sitting business.

In mid-March DeVincentis will travel to Maryland to train at Alternate Routes, a gym dedicated to parkour, martial arts tricking, and ninja warrior training.

In addition to her full training and work schedule, she is the wife of Rochester Police Department Sgt. Adam DeVincentis and mother of two active boys, Gavin, 12, and Henry, 5.

The entire DeVincentis family, members of their first responder family, and extended family and friends are featured on Kristy's application video, which was shot, in part, on the track at Greece Athena High School.

"The theme of the video is that it takes a community to raise a ninja," DeVincentis said. "You need a whole community behind you, helping you, and I'm lucky to have that."

Until next Thursday, may your own west-side stories be great ones...

Contact Caurie Putnam at caurie@urgrad.rochester.edu with news from west-side towns. On Facebook as West Extra of the Democrat and Chronicle and Twitter @CauriePutnam. See more community news at DemocratandChronicle.com/communities.


You can help

Cheer on DeVincentis by watching her YouTube video.

Follow her on Twitter @ninjakristy and on Instagram #MightyKristy.