ESJ powerlifting team makes gains at state
Published 12:02 am Saturday, March 26, 2016
- Members of the East St. John boys powerlifting team who qualified for the state meet in Monroe are coach Shan Williams, from left, Aaron Bacon, Myles Meyer, Falton Holifield, John Gayden, Darius Rixner, Alton Webb, Victor Martinez and coach Reginald Haralson.
RESERVE — Things seem to be picking up for East St. John powerlifting coach Shan Williams.
In only his second year as coach of the Wildcats powerlifting team, Williams had a high of 13 competitors qualify for the Allstate Sugar Bowl/LHSAA State Powerlifting meet held last weekend at Louisiana-Monroe’s Fant-Ewing Coliseum. There, teams competed against other schools in various divisions and individuals competed against others in weight classes. Competitors must execute a squat, bench press and dead lift. The weights are added together to compute a score.
Members of the East St. John girls powerlifting team who qualified for the state meet in Monroe are coach Shan Williams, from left, back row, Dejanne Williams, Ashley Jackson, Kalah Jones, Kenyatta Cannon, coach Reginald Haralson, front row, Taylor Leonard and Emily Bartholomew. (Submitted)
West Monroe won the Division I boys championship while Alexandria won the girls title. The Lutcher girls team won its 10th consecutive state championship in Division III this season.
Although none of his Wildcats finished as champions, Williams considers this season a huge success. Last year he took four competitors to the meet — all boys. This year he took seven boys and six girls.
In the boys competition, Victor Martinez finished ninth in the 181-pound division, Aaron Bacon finished 10th in the 148-pound division, John Gayden finished 12th in the 220-pound division, Falton Holifield finished 14th in the 220 pound division, Alton Webb finished eighth in the Super Heavyweight division and Myles Meyer finished 12th in the Super Heavyweight division.
In the girls competition, Emily Bartholomew finished 10th in the 123-pound division, Taylor Leonard finished eighth in the 148-pound division, Kalah Jones finished ninth in the 148-pound division, Kenyatta Cannon finished 10th in the 165-pound division, Dejanne Williams finished seventh in the 181-pound division and Ashley Jackson finished eighth in the Super Heavyweight division.
“I think we did really well, considering that, just about all of the competitors, this was their first time going to the state meet,” Shan Williams said.
East St. John senior powerlifter Alton Webb was the team’s highest finisher at the state powerlifting meet held last weekend in Monroe. Webb finished eighth in Super Heavyweight.
“I’m really proud of my kids. It’s very hard to get kids to join the powerlifting team because they don’t know what it is. They don’t really know what it’s all about. It’s not a very popular sport at all. Most of them just ended up on the team because they were working out for something else.”
That’s pretty much how Jackson ended up as a member of the powerlifting team.
“I’m actually a softball player, so I was just doing weight lifting to get my muscles up and trying to get stronger,” Jackson said.
“I ended up doing good at it and I liked it.”
Jackson squatted 275 pounds, bench pressed 120 pounds and dead lifted 275 pounds to finish eighth out of 11 competitors in the Super Heavyweight division.
“For me, it was good,” Jackson said.
“It was scary because there were a lot of strong people there that have been doing it for longer than me. But it was fun. It was a good competition. I feel like I did good.”
Webb was East St. John’s highest boys finisher after bench pressing 280 pounds, dead lifting 600 pounds and squatting 575.
He has been a member of the team since his sophomore year and this was his best finish.
“I did pretty good, but I could have done better. I had some back issues,” Webb said. “I like the competition aspect of it.”
Martinez, another senior who played on the football team, also made his first trip to the state meet although he’s been a member of the team since his freshman year.
He was already working out for football when he saw a couple of fellows power lifting.
“I said, ‘What is this? They said, ‘It’s the powerlifting team.’ I thought it looked like fun,” Martinez said.
“You compete against others to see if you can lift more than them.”
Martinez’s personal bests are 405 pounds in the squat, 455 pounds in the dead lift and 275 in the bench press.
He finished second at the regional which was meet held at Woodlawn High School, which qualified him for state, but did not place in the championship event.
“It was a good experience,” he said. “They really had a lot of competitors.”
