Local Catholic trying out for American Ninja Warrior

Friday, Feb. 12, 2016

SALT LAKE CITY — Matt Boerke is hanging by his fingertips, waiting for the call to come in.

The St. Ambrose parishioner has applied for a spot on the eighth season of  television series “American Ninja Warrior,” which requires competitors to race through courses that include such things as rope swings, rolling logs and peg boards. 

Grip strength is key to many of these obstacles, so Boerke is working to increase the strength in his hands.

“I’ve been literally just hanging on a bar and holding on as long as I can,” he said.

Meanwhile, he hopes his phone will ring with the news that his application, submitted in January, has been accepted.

Although he has competed in triathlons and Spartan races, Boerke doesn’t consider himself a shoo-in as a Ninja competitor – other applicants have more compelling life stories that make for good television, he said. For example, among the previous contestants were a Hollywood stuntman and two Olympic gymnasts. 

“I looked at my life and said, ‘I’m just an average person. I’m not any more handsome or strong or athletically gifted than anybody else, really, so what can I do that can be unique, that the viewers on the show might like?’” Boerke said.

His answer lay in his work as a volunteer: After college he joined the Peace Corps; and while earning his MBA at the University of Utah he wrote a business plan for Choice Humanitarian, a nongovernmental agency begun by two Salt Lake City residents in the early 1980s that works to end extreme poverty in five countries.

When Boerke decided to try out for American Ninja Warrior, he began a fundraiser for Choice Humanitarian, raising more than $2,000; contributions are still being accepted at https://campaigns.choicehumanitarian.org/fundraise?fcid=569843. 

“My real dream is to get on the show and to launch what I’m calling a ninja-thon, which will be kind of like a walkathon, where people can pledge a certain amount of money for every obstacle that I complete on the show,” he said. “I think if that went out nationally on the show we could really do some serious damage to end poverty.”

Boerke, who was the director of the Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministry for the Diocese of Salt Lake City from 2006 to 2012, typically rises at 4:30 a.m. for a two-hour workout. He returns home for breakfast and to watch his 2-year-old daughter while his wife goes for her exercise, then he heads off to work at O.C. Tanner, where he is a purchasing manager.

His family takes priority, he said, but even while playing with his daughter he’ll sneak in some exercise by swinging her like a kettlebell or having her sit on his back while he does pushups.

Boerke decided to try for a spot on the American Ninja Warrior show when his triathlon training became stale, he said. Also, at age 38, “I could still be pretty competitive, but a lot of younger athletes are coming in that are better, faster and stronger. This is keeping me young and healthy; it’s challenging me in a different way.”

As an endurance athlete he can run, swim or bike long distances without tiring, but on his first trip to the Ninja Warehouse in Ogden, the salmon ladder and peg board obstacles, which require upper body and grip strength, defeated him. After training, he returned at the end of January and successfully completed all the obstacles, he said.

Boerke expects to hear by the end of February whether he has been accepted to the show. If so, he will compete in the qualifying events in April and May with hopes to reach the finals in Las Vegas later in the year.