Broome finds an ideal community in CrossFit
MINOT, N.D. – Bryce Broome’s ’18 first venture into the world of CrossFit was simply to find a tool to stay in shape.
After being a student-athlete at Minot State University in both football and wrestling, he needed something challenging for a workout. The criminal justice graduate felt CrossFit fit the needs of a rigorous profession — as Broome was a member of the Minot Police Department.
“I was just getting into the CrossFit space as I wasn’t working out with any purpose at that time,” he said. “I was working with the Minot PD and thought CrossFit might be able to help me perform at my job, in case we got into some dangerous situations, which, honestly, it was inevitable because there is some pretty serious crime here now and then.
“It became a self-discovery period for me. I was like, ‘What do I want to do? Who do I want to be?’ I was trying to figure out what impact I want to have on the world, how I want to help this community while I’m here.”
His tipping point ended up being a simple documentary. While dealing with some inner struggles and heavy, big-picture life decisions, he watched Netflix’s “Froning: The Fittest Man in History.”
“Rich Froning is like the Michael Jordan of CrossFit,” he said. “He was very big — still is — very big in the space, and there was an aspect of competitiveness that I still yearned for. I wanted to see if Rich Froning could do it, could I do it? I got my ass handed to me the first time, and the next day my legs were so sore, I was like, ‘what the heck did I just do?’ But part of me loved it, and I started to learn about the methodology.”
His passion for CrossFit may have had humble beginnings, but it has taken off since he opened his own gym.
Fast forward to this summer, Souris Valley CrossFit is a thriving business, and Broome is headed to the CrossFit Games, the pinnacle event in his sport.
“I’ve been trying to make it to the games as an individual for a couple of years now and kept having setback after setback,” Broome said. “My coach mentioned it might be best to do this as a team. You go through the same process, there are semifinals, and you have to make it in the top 20 in the world. I went to Georgia to train and then for the semifinals, and after the final workout, we were refreshing and refreshing (on the website). Then, sure enough, we made it.”
Training Think Tank (TTT) CrossFit qualified for the 2025 CrossFit Games by virtue of finishing 18th in the world rankings after the semifinals. It came down to the last couple of attempts for his team, shaving off precious seconds to move up the list.
Team TTT, featuring Broome, Brynn Kulan, Faith Stewart, and Gustavo Errico, heads into the CrossFit Games Aug. 1-3 in Albany, New York, ranked eighth in the North American East.
“The last day, we were redoing a workout because we thought we could do better on it. You film them, and there are judges there, and then you submit, and we were seeing the other teams, and we thought maybe we need to redo this,” he explained. “So, we did it. It was a long weekend, and you're trying your hardest on these workouts, which involve a wide variety of movements, including squatting, pressing, and cardio.
“I looked at our team and said, let’s punch our ticket. We shaved off 35 seconds and got 18th in the world. If we had been four seconds slower, we wouldn’t have made it.”
Broome made his way to the Magic City on a leap of faith. After being recruited to MSU from then-head coach Paul Rudolph ’88, he decided to join childhood friend Aaron La Deaux ’17 in joining the Beavers sight unseen.
“My buddy, Aaron, and his brother Leon (La Deaux) played sports growing up. Aaron was coming here, and I got a scholarship offer from Rudy,” he said. “Aaron Facetimed me and showed me around, and I was like, yeah, I want to play football. I was 17 years old when I flew here. I came in that summer, worked out, just tried to be a part of the squad, and ended up playing as a true freshman.”
That gamble paid off as Broome was a standout on the football field and eventually joined the wrestling program.
“I walked on the wrestling team,” he said. “I had done that in high school, and that was a super fun team to be a part of. I had missed wrestling and pushing yourself and seeing what your body can do with conditioning and the mental part of it.”
When his playing days were over, Broome joined the Minot PD, seemingly the perfect fit for the criminal justice major. Over time, however, he felt a growing disconnect from the job, much of which stemmed from his upbringing.
“I liked the people I was working with and loved and looked up to many of them as leaders, but at the end of the day, I didn’t know if that’s the man I wanted to be,” he said. “My brother was an addict and eventually, unfortunately, overdosed, and I was bringing in these addicts, and they were getting fined or whatever, and we were getting some of it off the street, but I don’t know if I was mentally able to keep doing that. It really affected me.”
At this point, he was not just doing CrossFit workouts but helping teach. He returned to school to earn a second degree in corporate fitness and wellness management and subsequently left the Minot PD to work full-time at Northern Plains CrossFit at the YMCA.
“The guy who was managing it left, and so I took a pay cut and changed jobs after three years of being a cop,” Broome said. “I would coach every day and then train every day, and the community was so important, there was so much joy in that, I don’t know how to explain it.”
After two years, it was time to open his own gym.
“There were so many different athletes from so many different walks of life, from people who wanted to compete to someone who just wanted to be healthier. Everyone there wanted to be the best version of themselves, and I think that is powerful. That was my calling, I wanted to create something like that,” he said.
Broome didn’t follow the path of opening a gym in his garage with one or two clients, like many budding entrepreneurs. Instead, he went to work figuring out the business side, diving headfirst into mentorships and learning the correct systems for creating the ideal experience for his customers.
“I really had no idea what the business side looked like,” Broome admits. “What’s an LLC, how do you start one vs. a sole proprietorship, what are the tax benefits, etc.? I knew I needed more knowledge. I loved the methodology of CrossFit and what’s behind it; it’s up to the right coach to use that methodology to best fit their clients.
“Studying corporate fitness & wellness at MSU helped catapult me, and from there, I started to look into mentorships. I specifically used Two-Brain Business. If you look at any successful person, they are going to have influential mentors of some sort.”
He credits much of his business success to mentorship with Two-Brain Business and local entrepreneurs who used the same products to build their own businesses.
“I had some silent investors, and I had a very detailed business plan and brought it to the bank,” he recalls. “I feel like I was doing the steps because of the success of others who had used Two-Brain Business. There are quite a few entrepreneurs in Minot who are all successful because they are doing the little things right.”
While he could have opened a gym nearly anywhere in the country, Broome felt that the Minot community and the people he had surrounded himself with since first arriving at MSU made the decision to stay the correct choice.
“Don’t get me wrong, I like warm weather and there aren’t any mountains here,” he joked. “But, as cliché as it sounds, it was the people and the people you surround yourself with that make a place beautiful or not. I’ve just had so many good influences here.
He found faith, friendship, mentorship, and love — he is engaged to former MSU women’s soccer standout Sofia Lewis ’21. He was baptized in Minot, affectionately calling his local church mentor his “godmother,” and found a surrogate family in Minot, including former coaches, advisors, teammates, business partners, and the Lewis family.
“I know my parents and my family support me, but I’ve had the most support in my life here in Minot,” he said. “I don’t think the people I grew up with would recognize me now.
“I had great teammates and professors and friends here and eventually met Sofia and Sofia’s family. She deserves so much credit for who I’ve become because she sees the best version of Bryce, even when Bryce doesn’t see it at all. She helped me get therapy and welcomed me into their home. They are such a tight-knit family. There is just so much love. They helped heal me.”
His mental health journey is also interwoven in his business as he feels CrossFit is a conduit for mental health and personal development.
“I’ve taken a lot of pride in my personal growth, and I can be confident that I’m proud of who I am today,” Broome said. “It’s rare to get to that point, especially for men. Men’s mental health is a huge issue, and I hope I can bridge that gap as part of a bigger mission.”
While he enjoys success at a national level, he makes it clear that anyone can incorporate CrossFit into their workout routine, and the main focus of Souris Valley CrossFit is to help everyday people.
“We want to have people who want to join our gym to be competitive and push themselves as hard as possible, but we also want to have clients who have a goal of being able to play with their kids in their 60s,” Broome said. “We can scale our programs for all ages and levels.
“We want to help people live stronger and live longer physically and mentally by helping them achieve things they never thought they could.”
As Broome looks to the future, he sees Souris Valley CrossFit as a comprehensive wellness center looking to expand into youth programs, nutrition, physical therapy, and family-focused health initiatives.
“We’ve built a great team already and have created something beautiful,” he said. “Now, how can we make it bigger and better for the community?”
For more information on Souris Valley CrossFit, see the company’s WEBSITE and Facebook PAGE. The 2025 CrossFit Games information can be accessed ONLINE. To follow along with the action, view free videos on CrossFit Games YOUTUBE.
About Minot State University
Minot State University is a public university dedicated to excellence in education, scholarship, and community engagement achieved through
rigorous academic experiences, active learning environments, commitment to public service, and a vibrant campus life.
Published: 07/24/25
