Delaware business owners wed in the gym they opened together
A chance meeting in Puerto Rico, a shared love of basketball and fitness training through Spain, France and Belgium and a quick stint in Pennsylvania: It’s a Delaware love story for the ages!
Lovell Kosh and Raychel Shannon, co-owners of 3&D Sports Performance strength training gym in Wilmington, tied the knot in their place of business after over a decade of knowing one another and pandemic-related delays to their original wedding plans.
A post-workout nuptials celebration might not be everyone’s vision of their dream wedding. But for a couple whose passion for health and fitness not only brought them but also their community together, it couldn’t have been done any differently.
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Kosh and Shannon met in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in 2011. Shannon was playing basketball professionally while Kosh was working as a student coach.
“I always like to say I was recruiting Raychel when I was coaching,” Kosh said.
The two kept in touch through school and professional ventures that eventually landed both of them in Europe. Shannon played professional ball in France and Spain, while Kosh worked as a strength and conditioning coach around Spain and Belgium.
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The couple talked aspirationally about opening their own gym, where they would move and how they could employ their own strengths as athletes and coaches.
In 2019, Kosh and Shannon got engaged on the same beach in San Juan where they first met. The COVID-19 pandemic halted their initial wedding plans, but it turns out there was still more change to come.
Becoming business partners
Kosh and Shannon both worked at Perkiomen School in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania, where Kosh worked with the Team Finals AAU youth league as a strength and conditioning coach and Shannon worked at the admissions desk and providing nutritional support to the school’s athletes.
In 2021, Kosh got an offer to take over the Grail Sports Complex in Wilmington at 904 New Road to open his own gym.
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Kosh, a Christiana High School alum and former state champion, still had family living in the Newark area and some connections from high school who he knew would help boost his dream of owning his own community-centered gym.
Three years later, 3&D Sports Performance is still expanding. Kosh runs the day-to-day operations while Shannon works as the director of operations. The gym has four full-time coaches and runs an internship program that brings in about five interns per semester, teaching them about coaching and rehabilitation.
To Kosh, being business and life partners with the same person requires patience and humility. Getting comfortable with hearing hard truths and setting boundaries are the most important things the two have learned in their early years of business together.
Another rule? No business talk during pillow talk sessions.
“I’ll ask myself, ‘Does this have to be said right now?’” Kosh said. “We set time away where we’re only a couple and not business partners.”
A workout and a wedding
Shannon and Kosh plan on having a wedding ceremony in Mexico at the beginning of March. But, being American citizens, the two needed to be legally married in the U.S. before their ceremony.
In the 50 days leading up to the couple’s Mexican wedding ceremony, they wanted to include the members of their gym in the celebrations, so they began their own version of the viral “75 Hard Challenge.”
For 50 days, there are five daily rules they’re abiding by: drink half a gallon of water, read five pages of any book, be active for at least half an hour, no alcohol during weekdays and no takeout food or fast food.
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When deciding what they wanted their American wedding to look like, the couple did what they always do when they have a big decision to make – they took a walk and they came up with their plan.
The two host a special workout session for their family at the end of every year. With the desire of heading into the new year as a team, they decided to work out with their family and become officially married all in the same morning.
With their family as witnesses, Kosh’s sister as an ordained minister, the post-workout dopamine rush and their finest workout clothes, Kosh and Shannon were officially married in the business they started together on New Year’s Eve.
“As weird as it sounds, it really just felt natural,” Kosh said.
What's next?
Other than their (second) wedding coming up, the couple and relatively new business owners want to keep good on their promise to strengthen the Wilmington community.
On social media, the gym promotes other small businesses nearby — from the coffee shops to the pilates studios. To Kosh, Delaware’s small size comes at an advantage business-wise.
“You can’t be a jerk in Delaware and have your own business,” Kosh said. “The Delaware small-business community is amazing.”
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Shannon has spearheaded the business’s goal to make the gym a more welcoming place for female athletes of all ages. 3&D has a goal of training 1,000 women and girls who may otherwise feel out of place in the male-dominated field.
“We’re just really excited to be a part of that and also try to improve the health of the community overall,” Shannon said. “We work to not only increase their athleticism and performance in their sport, but just to make them more confident. Teach them how to commit and stick to their goals.”
Shannon and Kosh already have another opportunity ahead of them: Dancing with the Delaware Stars at the Wilmington Public Library. The two have had weekly rehearsals with a choreographer, and plan on putting their newfound dance skills to the test for their first dance at their wedding.
Until then, the couple remains committed to their business as much as their personal life. After their wedding, they plan on fulfilling another full circle moment and returning to Europe for their honeymoon.
“It reminds me of my favorite saying,” Kosh said. “If you want to go fast, go alone; but if you want to go far, go together.”
Molly McVety covers community and environmental issues around Delaware. Contact her at mmcvety@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @mollymcvety.
This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Wilmington business owners wed in the gym they opened together
