Spitting Venom in Vegas – Big changes to the Venom in 2025

Before the 2022 Season, Andrew Mattox and Paul Behar started the Daytona Venom. The two coaches built the team from scratch and quickly made their mark in the United Grid League.

But 2024 brought big changes.

The team hit some rough patches last August, and several players left mid-season. The Venom needed to rebuild fast with the Las Vegas event coming up.

That’s when something unexpected happened.

Other teams in the league stepped up to help. They shared posts about the Venom looking for new players. This led them to Alec Smith, a standout athlete who had been to the CrossFit Games four times.

Smith liked what he saw in the team and signed on. He brought fresh energy to the Venom, and the team started clicking again. Smith must have felt at home – he just signed on again for 2025.

Just before the Las Vegas event, there was one more big shift. The founding partners split up, and Mattox left the team.

But in Vegas, things started looking up. Coach Behar felt it right away: “The time we had competing in Vegas was something special—it didn’t just feel like another race weekend, it felt like we truly belonged.”

The team made some great connections in Vegas. They met Dakota J. Shackleton, who owns Camp Rhino and competes in CrossFit. He liked the team so much, he is signed to the Venom for the 2025 Season and ran a player combine at his gym to recruit for the team.

They also met Benjamin Nevares, who founded I.E. Health. He’s now teaming up with Behar to help run the business side of the team

With more and more team members living in Vegas, Behar made a big call – the team is moving to Las Vegas for good. “I’ve always loved Las Vegas,” Behar says. “Making this city our home just feels right. The support from the community has been amazing.”

This change brought the re-design of the logo. It keeps the Venom name but now shows a scorpion to match their new desert home.

 With the announcement of this move and the announcement of the new Houston team, there is now 3 teams outside of Florida representing the national growth of the sport.

The United Grid League will soon be announcing the dates of the 2025 Season planned to start in late Spring. If you are interested in bringing a team to your city, check out this information here.

Have a question? Email us: staff@unitedgridleague.com

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