With the weightlifting trend on the rise, kids in the offseason seem to have nothing better to do than lift plates of iron. With all the avid lifters at Benilde-St. Margaret’s, a competitive weightlifting team seems nothing out of the ordinary. As a weightlifting team has been attempted to be made multiple times in the past decade, it has never gone through the full process of being made. These issues arose because of a lack of members, loss of interest, and lack of funding.

The gym teachers would like to be the ones to help coach the weightlifting team during the season. “Yeah I would love to do that and set up some sort of after school program for kids to come in and learn how to lift and get set up for events,” gym teacher Mike Johnston said.

Some students think there should be a team for kids who are interested in it. “So I do think there should be a weightlifting team because it gives more opportunity to people who are interested in it and I think there’s a lot of people at Benilde that enjoy going to gyms, but being able to all come together and kind of use the Benilde gym every once in awhile would be cool,” senior Henry Muehlhausen said.

There are a few students that want there to be a team and would try to get there to be enough students that would want to join the team. “I mean, yeah if I was in it I would try to get people to join by telling them about the team,” Muehlhausen said.

A new weightlifting team at BSM would be quite a shock for the first season, and difficulty with finding kids right away would be prevalent. As many BSM students have sports that can go year round, many won’t be able to participate in the weightlifting team. Before setting up the team, the question of what season weightlifting should be addressed. “Um, I probably want to be in the spring, because I feel like it’s a good spring sport. Do cross country in fall and then wrestling. So it would be a good spring thing,” junior Matthew Litchy said.

There would be competitions throughout the season instead of just having practice everyday of the week. “I think that, you know, there are lifting competitions in high school, they’ve been going on for at least 20 years. I think you would have kids that were motivated enough to do that also you’d have a lot of kids that just want to learn how to do olympic, overall lifts and just become a little better at lifting,” Johnston said.

As most students at BSM have prior lifting experience whether it was due to sports or recreational lifting, the weightlifting team would have a good base to start with. “I’ve been lifting since seventh grade or around that time,” Litchy said.

If you wonder why there isn’t a weightlifting team then here’s a teacher/coach perspective on why there isn’t one here’s a great explanation. “So we just haven’t had enough students stick with the idea long enough to make it turn into a club. So we are waiting for the right mix of students to make it happen,” Johnston said.

Another question that would likely arise is the inclusion of girls in the weightlifting team. With weightlifting being made for everyone, this topic brings no concern or difficulty in making a weightlifting team. A weightlifting team at BSM would include everyone, as both boys and girls can train and compete in the sport.

Some students would join if it was a certain kind of lifting when it comes to the competitions. “I would join if there was like, actual powerlifting competitions or weightlifting but I wouldn’t join if it was just like a general lifting,” senior Bryce Commerford said.

Another problem that could come up would be the location for training. Most BSM students train at Lifetime, LA Fitness, or the school gym. This brings up the problem of which training location would be best. Commercial gyms/health clubs seem to be packed no matter what time, and getting approval for our school to train within its facility would be an even harder task to overcome. The BSM school gym however has periods of time where football isn’t training and it’s empty. “Um, personally, I think that the BSM weight room can be improved, and it could be there. But at the moment, I wouldn’t want it there because I don’t really like that they don’t have some of the stuff that I’d like for powerlifting. So more machines, maybe I’d like it to be bigger because it’s pretty small right now,” Litchy said.

There should be a weightlifting team at BSM so kids that are interested in lifting could have a club to join when they aren’t in season of their main sport.