Team Travis family hones resiliency through sports

Photo By Senior Airman Jonathon Carnell | Jordan Kreider, 7, son of U.S. Air Force Master Sgt. Jay Kreider, 60th Security Forces Squadron chief of standardization and evaluation, glides across an alpha warrior obstacle June 17, 2019, at Stone Core Ninja Fitness gym in Vacaville, California. Jordan and his brother, Jeremiah, 11, compete in Ultimate Ninja Athlete Association contests with their parents' support because it teaches them core values and resiliency.  

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, CA, UNITED STATES

06.24.2019

Courtesy Story

60th Air Mobility Wing

If there are obstacles ahead for members of the Kreider family at Travis AFB, California, they seem poised to avoid them.

Or run around them. Or jump over them. Or swing across trapeze bars onto a ledge 50 feet away from them.

That's because three sons of Master Sgt. Jay Kreider, 60th Security Forces Squadron chief of standardization and evaluation, and his wife, Angela Kreider, have received national recognition for their athletic feats.

Two children — Jeremiah, 11, and Jordan, 7 — compete in the sort of multifaceted, parkour-style obstacle courses popularized by the NBC TV show "American Ninja Warrior." Both have qualified for this year's Ultimate Ninja Athlete Association World Finals, taking place July 26-28 in Prior Lake, Minnesota.

Jaykob, 9, is the baseball player, competed in the Disney Memorial Day Baseball Classic at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Orlando, Florida, with his Baseball Youth Elite Team. Earlier this year, he played in the All-American Games in Irvine, California.

Making it to these levels of their respective sports comes with a lot of practice, hard work and miles on the odometer, Jay said.

"Me and my wife joke that we're Uber drivers for our kids," he said with a laugh. "At the end of the day, whatever they want to do, it's worth getting them there."

Angela said the children aren't just building strength and skills on the obstacle course or the baseball diamond, but cultivating mental, emotional and moral traits.

Part of the ninja training borrows from the five tenets of taekwondo: courtesy, integirty, perseverance, self-control and indomitable spirit. Working to make sure the children are living by those values has inspired Angela to make sure she's doing the same.

"We try to practice every day. I try to instill it at home as well," she said. "'Don't let it break you, let it make you' is one of their things. For me, when they get frustrated, I can't be mad that they're frustrated as well and be like, 'There's nothing I can do for you.' Instead, I have to show my patience because if I don't show patience, how are they going to learn when they're out there learning the obstacles?"

Jay said after a recent ninja competition, one of his children was disappointed, but he saw it as an opportunity to teach resilence.

"Your failures should not define who you are," he said. "It's OK to fail. We're going to learn from our failures."

Jay Kreider helps coach Jaykob's baseball team, a sport in which the best players make the Hall of Fame for being successful at the plate one-third of the time.

"You're going to fail most of the time in baseball," he said. "It's hard to hit a baseball."

Helping the Kreiders practically and emotionally are their long-standing ties to the Bay Area and Northern California. Jay was born in Oakland, California, while Angela hails from Vallejo, California. The two went to the same school in Napa, California. They have helping hands nearby when needed for games, practices, competitions and more.

It's a busy, demanding schedule, but Jay said the most valuable thing is that his children try their best.

"These boys are doing work," Jay said. "All we ask them to do is give 100 percent. That's all I want. I tell them, 'If you can tell me you did that, that makes me and your mom happy.'"

• Date Taken: 06.24.2019
• Date Posted: 06.24.2019 16:33
• Story ID: 328939
• Location: TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, CA, US
• Hometown: OAKLAND, CA, US
• Hometown: VALLEJO, CA, US