St. Ed’s hosted a girls weightlifting meet last month that included teams from Vero Beach High, Port St. Lucie High and Fort Pierce Westwood. The visitors packed the middle school gymnasium to the rafters with large contingents of participants and supporters.
St. Ed’s countered with one experienced holdover and two seventh-graders brand new to the sport. Head coach Les Rogers has been here before and remains undaunted. He is among the best weight training instructors around and will work with anyone willing to try. There have been lean times before; not too long ago he had only one girl on the team.
“We have a lot of programs here at St. Edward’s,” Rogers said. “We don’t have the huge population that you will find at larger private or public schools. With relatively few kids and so many programs, it’s tough to field a team in some years, especially if you don’t have kids particularly interested in weightlifting.”
This is not an activity with a natural gravitational pull for preteen or teenage girls. Rogers must have been pleased when he was graced with the appearance of the two young newcomers.
“These two seventh-graders (Grace Rodriguez and Grace Kennedy) actually came to me. They knew there was a weightlifting program because their PE teacher promoted it in her classes. When the season came and it was time to sign up, they both showed up and said they wanted to do it. I was excited to work with them.
“What we are doing is teaching them the basics. You have heard me talk about technique and that’s all I work on with them. I had a conversation with one of them because she wanted to put more weight on the bar. I told her no, first you have to work on technique.
“If they focus on that and develop the proper technique, hopefully in the future that hard work will pay off.”
What Rogers would really like to see is the youngsters gaining a true appreciation for the sport and sticking with it. There is always a certain rate of attrition in the girls weightlifting program, especially with that tug-and-pull from a variety of programs and distractions.
Junior Fiona Zimmerman is the lone veteran in the program this season. She said, “I originally joined the team because my older brother lifted for a year and seemed to have a lot of fun. After giving it a go, I realized how much I really enjoyed it. This is now my fourth year on the team.
“Weight training has been really good for me personally. It has helped me mentally because I’m the happiest when I’m the most active. Lifting is also very good for my health. Keeping my fitness up is really important to me.
“At the beginning of this year we started with seven or eight girls, but now we are down to three. I’ve always been able to form great relationships with those younger than me. Being a leader is very important not only to the team, but to me.
“I have a love-hate relationship with meets. I love them because I can push myself to lift heavier weights, especially at the end of the season when I’m stronger. I also appreciate the time we get to spend together as a team. The only bad part is how long they usually run. But overall, it’s worth it.”
The trio of St. Ed’s weightlifters will participate in separate weight classes – Rodriguez at 101, Kennedy at 110 and Zimmerman at 129. Competition against other schools will not be the main thrust, however. Instead, the primary concern is keeping the girls interested, having them recognize the value of weight training, and moving the program forward.
“With the girls in three different weight classes, we will actually be able to pull some points along the way,” Rogers said. “But my main focus is just to help these girls get better themselves. I want to teach them the sport, and then along the way teach them how to be kind and respectful to their peers, teachers and coaches.
“My big thing is to impart a sense of responsibility to the lifters that I have. They have to know that other people are relying on them and that they have to be responsible in terms of sportsmanship.
“Our program has had its ups and downs. I’m sure at some point we will have girls dedicated enough to try to accomplish something like making it to the state level, but we didn’t always have that either. It’s always nice to have kids who want to improve in the sport itself, and maybe use it (as cross training) to improve in other sports.”
