HAMILTON COUNTY

Pair of Hoosiers relish shot on NBC's 'American Ninja Warrior'

Olivia Lewis, and Wei-Huan Chen
Fishers High School Stagecraft teacher Andrew Smith flies up a homemade wooden ramp with help from neighbor and coach Dave Steenberg as he demonstrates how he trains to be an American Ninja Warrior.

"American Ninja Warrior," NBC's spinoff of the silly-yet-serious Japanese sports entertainment contest "Sasuke," puts big hearts and bigger dreams on the television screen.

Competitors, cheered on by friends and family from the stands, are profiled but only briefly. With winners and losers to be revealed each episode, "Who wins" often overshadows the oftentimes more pertinent, more human "Why?"

Why train so hard? Why put yourself out before a nation of viewers to draw their praise at the risk of their mockery? Why make such a commitment?

For Andy Smith of Noblesville, the show served as motivation to free himself from living in pain in a shadow of fear.

For Dean Mosier of Fishers, the show brought a chance to realize an ambition once lost.

The two appear on the July 6 episode recorded earlier this year in San Pedro, Calif.

Here are their stories:

Conquering the pain

Andy Smith was having a stroke. Once he made it to the hospital, the second stroke hit.

The strokes led to Smith's second heart surgery, speech therapy and never-ending worries from his wife and children. "Dad, be careful," they would say. "Dad, don't get hurt."

The strokes followed a broken neck, a foot injury and myriad surgeries.

A hole in your heart and bad luck with accidents can do that.

It wasn't the life he wanted to live. After seven years of injuries and health problems, the Fishers High School teacher said he didn't want his family to live in fear. He set a goal and announced it to his family.

He was going to become the A+ ninja.

Fishers High School teacher Andrew Smith, 45, sprints up a wooden wall as he practices for “American Ninja Warrior.”

Smith, now 45 years old and 130 pounds, wanted to compete on "American Ninja Warrior." He had watched the show with his children for years and said it was the ultimate challenge to show them, and his students in the classroom, not to live in fear.

He had overcome health issues in the past, and he was going to prove he was healthy and unafraid of living life day-to-day by auditioning for the show.

"I was super excited," his 11-year-old son Mac said when he heard the news. "I couldn't believe it because we've been watching it for like six years."

Smith, who teaches stagecraft to ninth- through12th-graders, knew how to build, and his neighbor, Dave Steenberg, knew how to train. About a year ago the two of them built an obstacle course in Steenberg's basement and backyard, including a rock wall, monkey bars and an unstable bridge.

The July 6 episode of "American Ninja Warrior" is a special veterans edition. Smith, a former Guardsman, is representing the Indiana National Guard.

The show prohibits Smith from revealing whether he advanced to the next round. But to him, being on the show was more than just fun competition. It helped his family overcome psychological woes.

They always worried about his health.

"I would text him or call him, and if he didn't text back or call right away, I was getting anxious just because of all the medical things we had gone through," Smith's wife, Kris Devereaux, said.

She said she was worried he would have another stroke but no one would be there to help him.

Alli, Smith's 15-year-old daughter, said she and Mac had concerns about their dad.

"It was an emotional roller coaster every time it happened," Alli said. "It would be like an up and down sort of thing, and we didn't want to feel like that anymore."

The more Smith trained, the less the family worried. He was getting stronger every day. Devereaux said she stopped checking to see if her husband was still breathing in the middle of the night. She stopped panicking if he didn't call or text her back.

"When you are faced with losing your partner or the father of your kids, it changes the mindset about every little thing," she said.

Smith said he didn't want to live in fear of not being able to do something. He tried to push himself mentally while training, telling himself to do five more push-ups, six more pull-ups. He set goals and held himself accountable.

Fishers High School teacher Andrew Smith, 45, practices for “American Ninja Warrior.”

When time came to tell his students that he was auditioning for the show, there was no backing out.

"Telling my students was a big hurdle. ... Teenagers can be pretty brutal," he said.

They were supportive, and Smith was able to put them in his audition tape. He used his experience of trying something new and pushing himself to his physical limits as a lesson in the classroom.

His students weren't the only ones to benefit from the experience. Smith and Devereaux said they saw changes in their children. They stopped worrying about their dad and became inspired to make changes in their lives.

Alli volunteered for public speaking opportunities, did well in her classes and was more confident on the volleyball court.

"He kind of represents that even if you have all these bad things happen to you, you can still do things that you want to do and you don't have to be scared to try new things," she said.

The experience has allowed Smith and his family to let go of fear, and he hopes it encourages others to do the same.

"I teach the kids: Live like you're going to be a success, charge into tomorrow," Smith said. "Don't just roll out of bed and come to school in the rigors of the day and go through the motions. Ramp it up, every day, try hard."

A dream recaptured

Modoc native Dean Mosier can tell you about big hearts and big dreams. He can tell you about how his dreams grew and grew, then one day shattered. He can tell you how he eventually began to rebuild what he lost. The story starts with the Navy SEALs.

In Mosier's mind, a Navy SEAL was part ninja (versatile) and part samurai (honorable), everything a dazed art student working a dead-end job wanted to be.

He quit college and told the recruiter his one stipulation: "I don't want to be on a ship."

Noblesville resident Dean Mosier, who trained to be a Navy SEAL, will compete on “American Ninja Warrior.”

Mosier's grandfather had died, his long-term relationship had ended and his church had essentially disbanded, all within a short period of time. The SEALs represented redemption and renewal — a chance to become someone better. It wasn't just for the uniform.

He tried out for an elite military force in 2005. Training chewed him up and spit him out. When he couldn't carry on doing lunges with a telephone pole on his back, the instructors learned his name. "If they see a weak link, they will try to get on that weak link and make it break," Mosier said.

Just days before "Hell Week" — 96 hours running while carrying a boat, two hours of sleep, 24 hours of more punishment, two hours of sleep, then a final 24 hours — he rang a bell to signal he had had enough. In the eyes of the other soldiers, he was a quitter.

"My roommate ended up making it," Mosier, now 31, said. "It's hard to look back and see that I abandoned him. Some days you wake up, and you think, what if?"

"What if?" turned into "What else?" as in what else except to meet life's ups and downs head on and to look for passion in places beyond dreams.

He filled out the rest of his five-year contract on a Naval ship, with promotions, then found new life back in Indiana. Mosier is now married, lives in Fishers and works as a digital artist for the Indianapolis-based ad agency The Basement. He's everything but a quitter.

And yet that ninja-samurai dream beckoned, if only faintly, and "American Ninja Warrior" seemed to be an answer of sorts. Mosier has always kept in tip-top shape. So he no doubt jumped, climbed and crawled his way to some form of victory, official or not, while supporters made a sign with the hashtag "#Deanomite."

Aspiring “American Ninja Warrior” Dean Mosier had his own group of local supporters when he competed July 6.

Call it his inner SEAL or ninja, but it lives on within him.

When Mosier trained for the SEALs, he was among a couple of hundred out of a pool of 1,500 who got a shot. The odds for top ninja are stacked even more against his favor, but it's not really about the win or lose, not this time.

"You're competing against each other, but you're also supportive of one another," he said. "I met Andy Smith. We're going to get together and train together."

Call Star reporter Olivia Lewis at (317) 444-6126. Follow her on Twitter: @TheWrittenPeace. Call Star reporter Wei-Huan Chen at (317) 444-6249. Follow him on Twitter: @weihuanchen.