Powerlifting season set to begin next weekend for Howard County schools
It is the beginning of a new year and that means a new season of high school sports is setting up to begin. It also means the beginning of a new era in Big Spring Powerlifting.
After an extremely successful and record-breaking performance last year, the Big Spring Powerlifting team has a new coach and will be beginning their 2021 season this weekend inside the Big Spring Junior High Gym.
“I’m just looking forward to keep improving as a team,” Head Coach Sawyer Roberts said. “The last couple years we’ve won a lot of meets and I just want to continue that. I also want to continue to take a lot more kids to Regionals. Last year we broke a record and I just want to continue breaking those records.”
Roberts will be taking over the head coaching duties and has two new assistant coaches in Danelle Baughman and Walker Hargrove that have been a great addition to the coaching staff. Following a year where they had just shy of 20 Regional Qualifiers, Roberts is looking to maintain the standard that has been set in the past and will not be changing the training regiment too much.
“Just trying to take the standard that we had last year and raising the bar. From an organizational level, we’ll be more organized and have things more well thought out. I’ve just been preaching to the kids that every day is an opportunity that they need to grasp. There is a standard. Something I preach is that the standard is the standard and bring the juice every day.”
Last spring, Big Spring’s powerlifting team had a large portion of the team that qualified for Regionals and they all put together strong performances at Regionals.
Here are the results from the boys’ performance:
HERALD File Photo
Mattox Evans was 5th in the 114 lb. class Cruz Martinez was 4th in the 123 lb. class Kenny Richardson was 6th in the 132 lb. class Leroy Johnson was 9th in the 132 lb. class Connor Andrae was 10th in the 132 lb. class Josh Lopez was 4th in the 148 lb. class Shawn Mendoza was 7th in the 148 lb. class Rogelio Cervantes was 8th in the 181 lb. class
Isaiah Rodriguez was 8th in the 220 lb. class
Andrew Roberts was 4th in the 275 lb. class
Daniel Roberts was 6th in the Superheavyweight class
The Steer coaching staff knows that the hard work that those athletes put in during their team training sessions translated to a very strong collective showing at the biggest meet of the season. Because of the coronavirus and the rules that it has set on athletics, the Steers practice early in the mornings before school so that Roberts has a chance to see his whole team. Many lifters play other sports, and with basketball season in full swing and baseball/softball season coming up it has made scheduling tough on the firstyear coach.
“We practice Monday through Thursday at 6:00 a.m. in the ATC,” Roberts said. “We’ve been hitting it hard and it’s the only time I can get all of my athletes together at the same time.”
Out of the five regular season meets that the Steers attended last season, the boys won three of the meets and finished second in the other two meets. The Big Spring boys’ team tied the school record of 11 lifters qualifying for the Regional Meet.
The Big Spring girl’s also put together a string of consistent strong performances at the meets throughout the season and added a school-record 11 more Regional qualifiers to the ranks.
Jocelyn Gonzales came extremely close to firstplace in the Region and she finished higher than any other Steer lifter.