The term “athletic” is defined by dictionary.com as, “physically active or strong; good at athletics or sports”. Using these criteria we are going to evaluate and compare the athleticism of members of the University of Florida’s Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, Josh Kaiser and Ben Mitchel. We broke it down by who is more active, who is stronger, and who is better at certain sports.
Before we get into analyzing this extremely important and relevant question, we must conduct a background check on both of these athletes before we continue. Ben Mitchel and Josh Kaiser both attended Cypress Bay High School. They were not friends at all, and some people will even say that their groups of friends had beef with each other. Extremely competitive in nature, Ben Mitchel played point guard for the Cypress Bay High School basketball squad. Although never claiming a permanent starting spot, he assures everyone who asks that he was the clear vocal and locker room leader while barely contributing anything on the court.
Josh Kaiser, on the other hand, played for the Cypress Bay High School football squad. Although he started at fullback and had a pretty successful career for a Jewish white kid who didn’t start playing football until high school, he made it very clear that he wasn’t the star, at all. Take a look at this interview after Kaiser scored the game-winning touchdown run against Flanagan High School.
Before Josh even started at the University of Florida, Ben Mitchel (a year older than Kaiser) marked off in Zeta Beta Tau’s email thread as “The most athletic kid in the entire fraternity”. This caused a huge stir and created controversy amongst the members of ZBT. Josh and Ben became best friends last fall, even though they did not like each other in high school. Once Josh rushed ZBT and was initiated into our chapter, he heard about this outrageous comment by Ben and immediately dubbed himself more athletic, thus indirectly titling himself as the most athletic in ZBT.
The winner of the “more active” category has to be Ben Mitchel. Mitchel’s projected 40 yard dash time is 4.5 seconds, where the 40 yard dash time of Josh Kaiser is an average 4.8 seconds. This 0.3-second difference is one that eats Kaiser away on the inside, day in and day out. As the ever-confident Mitchel puts it, “I make fast people look…not that fast”. On top of being outright faster than Kaiser, Mitchel also has the advantage in the ups category. Ben Mitchel’s projected vertical leap is around 37.5 inches, where Kaiser’s is again an average 28 inches. Without a doubt, Ben Mitchel is more physically active than Josh Kaiser.
The winner of the “stronger” category is clearly Josh Kaiser. After being introduced to weight training as a 2nd grader, Kaiser has taken his lifting through the roof. He often lifts three and four times a day, just to keep those huge muscles in tact. He can currently max out at 300 lbs on the bench press, while the scrawnier Mitchel can only put up 220 on a good day. Kaiser currently has an open challenge to any single member of Florida Greek life to out bench him on any given day. As the confident Kaiser puts it, “I can lift way more than any of these guys. I have been lifting my whole life, and if anyone in Florida Greek life thinks they can bench more they are foolish”. However, benching is not even Kaiser’s best exercise in the weight room. Along with Jen Selter, his favorite thing to do in the gym is squat. He recently put up 375 lbs squatting, while the most Ben has ever put up is 250. The most surprising of all strength categories, is the difference in leg press between the two. Kaiser can max out at 1000 lbs on the leg press (!), while Mitchel can only reach 500 lbs on a gallon’s worth of pre-workout powder. This was another no-brainer, as Josh Kaiser is much much stronger in every category you can think of in the gym.
The last category of our debate is who is better at sports. While Kaiser clearly has the upper edge in football, and Ben in basketball, we realized we had to take a look at the sports that neither had focused on in high school. Here is how they compare:
Baseball: Josh Kaiser
Although neither has played baseball in the past five years, the difference between them back then was quite evident. While Kaiser played short stop and batted fourth in the lineup, Mitchel often played right field (the worst position), and batted last. In a recent pickup game of baseball played on a field with 40-foot bases, Ben Mitchel batted 7th (out of 8) and grounded into a double play which happened to be the first double play in pick-up baseball history.
Golf: Josh Kaiser
Now don’t get us wrong, Josh Kaiser is bad at golf. However, Ben Mitchel is Charles Barkley-esque.
Swimming: Ben Mitchel
Kaiser outweighs Mitchel by about 30 pounds, so we reluctantly give Ben the edge on this one.
Volleyball: Josh Kaiser
Kaiser played volleyball for one year in middle school. He just has the skills that Ben doesn’t.
Hockey: Ben Mitchel
Neither have ever played a single organized game of hockey before. Since Hockey is a sport of speed and finesse, we think Ben takes the cake here.
Track: Ben Mitchel
Jumps higher, runs faster. Easy choice here.
Soccer: Josh Kaiser
Despite Mitchel’s superior speed, recent pick-up games have proven that Kaiser’s great strength and instincts make him a better player.
Final Verdict
We have had a first hand look at who is the better athlete over the past few years. Countless arguments have taken place between the two on what seems to be a nightly basis. After taking in all of this information, we have come to the conclusion that neither Josh Kaiser nor Ben Mitchel is a better athlete. They are both way too cocky to ever be considered the better anything, and this article should be the conclusion to the debate forever. At the end of the day you are both just a couple of Jewish kids from South Florida who happened to play sparingly in their best sports in high school.
