Tallahassee, FL - Do you see a similarity between this sport and this one? If not, you should because everywhere you looked at Maclay's sectional weightlifting meet, you could see either a football player or a coach involved with the weightlifting.
Rickards head football coach Rudy Hubbard says, "It's a very strong tie. Every one of our guys is on the football team except one, We got one young man I recruited out of my physical education classes."
Godby defensive tackle/ weightlifter Jerricho Lee adds, "There's a lot of guys coming in to compete. As you can see, we have a lot of guys here today. The sport seems to be steadily growing."
Hubbard says, "No question about it. I think guys are getting stronger, getting faster, and spending a whole lot more time getting stringer and faster so the weightlifting team is a good place to be."
It's a goood place to be because more and more kids are seeing the benefits of lifting result in better numbers on the gridiron. On the football field, there is no "i" in team, but that's a littel different when on the spot with the bench press.
Lee says, "It's a one-on-one thing out here. Every man for himself. We compete, of course it's a team overasll, but it's different in that we're trying to move on to state ourselves as a singulare competitior."
The chance to be an individual champion happens on April 23 and 24 when the FHSAA weightlifting finals take place.