With a deep breath, they position themselves under the bar, muscles tense, the bar is lifted into the air. Heavy breathing, slowly the bar rises and as soon as it reaches its peak, it slams loudly onto the ground, a new personal record has just been set.
The development of the Bowie’s athletic building marked the start of the Powerlifting Club’s launch. It is student led and is overseen by Coach Lee Hipp who has been the sponsor of the Powerlifting Club for 3 years.
“The Powerlifting club is a student-run organization,” Hipp said. “With the building of the weightroom we now have a place for students to lift and by creating a club, we were able to accomplish this task and now students can learn more about weightlifting.”
The Powerlifting Club welcomes everyone and is a place for students of all grade levels. Last year’s leadership graduated so a group of 3 friends that are passionate about lifting took on the opportunity to become presidents.
“Typically the leaders have been seniors so when they graduate, new leaders have to take over and the 3 people who stepped forward this year are Brendan Binford, Tyler Krogstad, and Christian Heywood,” Coach Hipp said.
The new presidents are determined to make an impact by continuing to grow the club. Although, the new presidents are taking the club down a different path.
“We want to take the club in the direction that people who may be socially anxious know where to start with lifting and we want the club to enable them to be more comfortable being around people who may be interested in things that they aren’t,” Binford said.
Students have expressed gratitude towards the Powerlifting Club. Current member Cameron Tishgart describes what Powerlifting Club means to her.
“The club is relatively new, we have tried having it in the past but I feel like there hasn’t been enough people to do it or anyone to coach it,” Tishgart said. “Coach Hipp asked me if I wanted to be in the club and I was excited to join because I do a lot of lifting outside of school so I thought that it would be cool to do it for a club.”
As of right now, Powerlifting Club doesn’t compete in competitions. The Club is mostly focused on weightlifting and making sure students have someone to help them along their weightlifting journey.
“Right now with the current status of the club we are leaning more towards weightlifting because I know a lot of people don’t want to necessarily compete when they are brand new to lifting weights,” Binford said. “So kind of what we have been trying to do is to introduce people to weightlifting and make sure they are doing it in a safe environment.”
The club is leaning in the direction of just being a place where people can learn how to weight lift and not a super competitive environment. Although membership is small at the moment, the club is looking to grow and develop.
“There are around 5 current members, we are still growing,” Heywood said. “It’s brand new because we took over leadership from last year so the word is still getting out but we are going to get on the morning announcements and we are handing out flyers.”
Once Powerlifting Club increases membership, the Club will be able to help more students learn how to lift weights cautiously. The change in leadership allows the club to focus more on their individual members.
“Powerlifting club is a club set up to improve people’s physical health and build a sense of community by bringing people closer together,” President Tyler Krogstad said.
Powerlifting club creates a community for students to be able to express themselves without the fear of feeling judged. As the club grows, the possibility of competitions in the future is possible.
“Maybe we will start to lean more towards powerlifting and competition and stuff like that but for the time being we are kind of leaning more towards weightlifting itself,” Binford said.
Powerlifting Club is all inclusive and a safe place for students to learn how to safely lift weights. Any students are welcome to join even if they haven’t lifted weights before.
“Definitely most of the people in the club have not been lifting weights for that long or they have never lifted weights before,” Heywood said. “So a big part of it is teaching them proper technique and how to move forward and get stronger without us.”
