Kossuth boys and girls powerlifting teams sweep 3A state titles..... Pages

Kossuth High School – 2022 3A Boys Powerlifting State Champions

‘Aggie Strong’: KHS sweeps 2022 state powerlifting titles

By TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

Powerlifting is a sport unlike any other.

While it does require the raw strength that it takes to be able to perform successful lifts, it also requires plenty of math, very much like the student athletes of Kossuth High School’s boys and girls state powerlifting teams have to perform in the classroom.

The difference, though? In the classroom, these boys and girls are doing math for test grades. In powerlifting, however, they’re doing it for rings.

The Aggies did plenty of math this season to accompany their immense total lifts, and it earned both squads a spot atop the 3A powerlifting pyramid for 2022.

Head coach Brian Kelly has brought the boy’s squad into prosperity over the last few years, and if it hadn’t been for COVID-19 resulting in cancellations of previous years’ state tournaments, he would more than likely have enough powerlifting state titles to fill up a whole hand.

“If the COVID year wouldn’t have hit, that would have been one of our strongest years. 2020 was a really good team … the COVID year killed us, we should be three in a row right now,” said Kelly.

The Aggies bounced back in 2021, once again bringing the state 3A powerlifting title back home to Aggieland for the third time. They didn’t stop there, though. They were young, and with plenty of strength returning on the roster, they knew a repeat was in with a shot this year.

“These kids bought into the weight room a long time ago,” Kelly explained, “and that shows with the success on the football field. 90 percent of our guys do play football.”

Kelly then went on to explain the opportunity that powerlifting can provide to a student athlete who might be too undersized for football, but strong enough to compete in classes like the 123 lb. class, where sophomore Aggie lifter Candler Robinson set a state squat record with 400 lbs. just this past season.

Kelly knew that they had a shot at the state title this season, but so did the other side of the squad, the freshly formed Lady Aggie powerlifting team.

The Lady Aggie squad was formed in 2019 and is head coached by Julie Mitchell. Mitchell, fresh on the coaching scene, began building toward the team’s ultimate goal of a state title at the very start.

Mitchell said that with the 3A division finally standing on its own, she knew the girls’ squad had a chance to join the rest of the elite women’s sports at Kossuth in the championship circle and bring home some hardware of their own to fill the trophy case.

“I knew that if ever there was a chance that our girls would be able to win a state championship, this year (2020) certainly was the year,” Mitchell said, “because it was the first year that they separated the 3A and the 4A…I knew that our team had already been established well enough so that we had a good shot at first or second place.”

Typically, in powerlifting, teams must bring in athletes from other sports to fill out the roster. Those athletes are also typically stronger

Kossuth High School – 2022 3A Girls Powerlifting State Champions

due to the simple fact that they’ve had a ball in their hands since they were in diapers. Not this team, though. According to Mitchell, her favorite part about this team is that it is, for the most part, all home-grown powerlifters.

“That’s one of the things I absolutely love about this group of girls,” Mitchell added. “That it’s very unique to those girls who want to be involved in something, but maybe didn’t get into playing softball when they were three years old, or they didn’t start playing travel basketball, or they didn’t enjoy that kind of thing. This is very individualized, but there is still that team aspect to it.”

That team aspect, according to Mitchell, had its foundation laid by those that competed on the first ever Lady Aggie powerlifting team like current Mississippi State cheerleader Annalee Turner and Gracie Glidewell. That tradition was continued by 2021 senior Jayme Hajek, who also won Kossuth’s most beautiful.

Mitchell said that Hajek’s status as a pageant queen and a powerlifter really jumpstarted her program, because it opened doors to those that might have thought powerlifting wasn’t for them – that their place might have only been on stage.

Thankfully for the KHS powerlifting program, that isn’t true, and they’re looking forward to what the future holds as far as championships go. For now, however, they’re going to sit back and enjoy the ride above the rest of the competition – until next year rolls around, that is.

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