It has been another successful winter sports season in Fredericksburg, led by the wrestling and girls basketball programs at Northern Lebanon High School, which have again made their presence felt in the state tournament, as they seem to do on an annual basis.
And this year, they have some company at that level of success in the form of a relative newcomer to the scene – the Northern Lebanon powerlifting team.
The team has steadily increased its numbers to 20 athletes since Josh Thompson came on board as head coach three years ago. It has raised its profile as well, to the point of being able to qualify two lifters for a national powerlifting event next month in Milwaukee.
Originally founded by wrestling coach Rusty Wallace and girls basketball coach Ken Battistelli in 2019, the program has hit its stride since those formative years.
“Three years ago, while running the weight room for the football team I was approached by a group of young athletes who wanted to compete in a powerlifting event at Parkland High School,” Thompson said. “We started out that year with 15 or so lifters, I was very naive to the sport but we got everything off the ground. We ended up going down there and had two kids win and five kids place.”
Buoyed by that success, the team expanded its numbers to 17 last season, and brought home three victories and seven medalists from Parkland.
At the end of February, the program took another giant leap, capturing the Small School boys team title at Parkland, with the help of two more wins and nine total place finishes. They’ll aim to keep the forward momentum going by competing in two even bigger events next month. One is in Jim Thorpe; the other is a national event in Milwaukee, where the Vikings will be represented by Ava Shirk and Luke Bailey, who were both victorious at Parkland.
“What I think we’ve done a good job of is getting the nontraditional athletes to come out,” Thompson said. “Interest has grown. To get 20 kids out is doing something at a small school like this.”
“It was interesting to see how we adapted to a new sport,” said Viking senior lifter Russell Beers, also the 12th-grade class president, of the team’s early days. “I think it’s cool to see how we grew from the first year, when we really had only one coach, and we were all still learning the sport.”
“Now we’re the third year in and we have multiple coaches, we have a much better weight room to be lifting in, with better equipment. It’s cool to see how it evolved and everything.”
Thompson’s son Eli, a senior, echoed Beers’ thoughts.
“I just kinda remember my first year, my 10th-grade year,” Thompson said. The team has improved a lot since then, and gotten used to the routine of competition, he said.
So what makes a successful powerlifter? The answers comes from junior Ava Shirk, who captured the 138-pound title in the 16-17 age group at Parkland.
“I’d say the mindset is the biggest component,” she said. As a female athlete in a male-heavy sport, Shirk finds herself serving both as her own counsel and her own competition.
“It is a team sport but when it comes down to it, it’s individuals, so you’re really only there to beat yourself. You just have to do your best, because that’s all you can do.”
The Northern Lebanon powerlifting team is currently looking for donations to offset the cost of sending Bailey and Shirk to nationals. A donation form can be accessed here (PDF). For more information, send an email to northernlebanonpowerlifting@gmail.com. Checks can be made payable to NL Powerlifting – National Event PO Box 358, Jonestown, PA 17038.
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