Week 1 — Mike Dragich · Thursday, September 10

Mike Dragich — known online as the “Blue Collar Brawler” — is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, mixed martial arts fighter, and licensed Florida alligator trapper. He is also the founder of Project Savior Outdoors, a nonprofit that takes military veterans into the outdoors and confronts the veteran suicide crisis head on.

He went viral for catching an eight-foot alligator barefoot on the side of a Jacksonville road. He was at a hockey game with his family, took the call, made the catch five minutes away, and went back to the game. He has pulled a ten-foot gator out of an elementary school. 

Behind the highlight reels is a life marked by resilience, faith, and a decision to spend it serving other men — especially the ones who came home and could not find their footing.

Watch: Mike on Instagram (@bluecollar_brawler)

Week 2 — Heath Evans · Thursday, September 17

Heath Evans played ten seasons in the NFL as a fullback — the first fullback taken in the 2001 draft, out of Auburn — for the Seahawks, Dolphins, Patriots, and Saints. He blocked for the undefeated 2007 Patriots and won a Super Bowl ring with the 2009 Saints. Then he spent the better part of a decade on television as an analyst for NFL Network and FOX.

And then it was gone. Evans has talked openly about the years after his television career ended — no coaching offers, no broadcast work, no clear sense of where he fit. He describes that stretch honestly, as fear more than faith.

Today he leads BUILTREADY, a program built on one idea: spiritually healthy, physically fit. He spends his days helping men trade delay for discipline — and he is candid that he preaches it to himself first.

Watch: Heath on Instagram (@heathevans44)

What to expect

Sessions run 6:00–7:00 AM at the Barrington Campus Life Center, 150 S Lageschulte St. Come early — 5:45 AM if you can — and bring a friend. Over 100 men gather here every Thursday morning; Iron sharpening iron.