Which 3 El Pasoans Fought Hard To Be On American Ninja Warrior

One of the most popular realty tv shows today is NBC's American Ninja Warrior. But it's not hard to see why. I actually started watching the show when it first appeared on the G4 network. But I'm glad to see not only did the show survive, but it's thriving a TON now. There's even a fan website called American Ninja Warrior Nation, where you can see all the highlights you might have missed from the show.

Since 2009, the show currently has 14 seasons & while there isn't an exact number of just how MANY constants tried out for the show, according to the Game Show wiki page (a fan made website), literally THOUSANDS of people try out for the show. And yes there have been people from El Paso who have tried to get on the show:

During the tryouts for Season 4 in 2012, the first contestant to represent El Paso was Christian. He was attempting to get on the show while trying out in Dallas where he unfortunately fell at the 5th obstacle. Veronica wrote about him back in 2017 & you can see the photos of him posing with the American Ninja Warrior sign.

Bernie Maese was the next contestant to try out. According to Ninja Guide, the official website in charge of Ninja Gyms & workouts, his official page says that Bernie tried out twice in Dallas:

Season 6 in 2014
and in Season 10 in 2018.

He had an old YouTube channel & you can even find his seasons 6-10 submission videos for the show. He's currently working on video production & has made some commercials; mainly for El Paso Fashion Week.

Tawnee Leonardo was the latest contestant to try out. She currently lives in San Antonio but she was an elementary PE teacher that did work in El Paso. According to her Ninja Guide page, she actually tried out of the show 3 times:

Season 9 in 2017 during the San Antonio tryouts
Season 10 in 2018 during the Dallas tryouts
and Season 11 in 2019 during Oklahoma tryouts

She's posted a couple of videos for The Ninjababes YouTube channel that are still up today.

So far we have YET to see someone make onto to the show but I know we have truly dedicated athletes in El Paso. Maybe one day we WILL see someone make it on American Ninja Warrior but regardless, we are very proud of Christian, Bernie & Tawnee for making us proud!