After competing in a USA Powerlifting (USAPL) competition on Aug. 17 at Spanaway Fitness, seven Tornados punched their tickets to the national powerlifting competition next year from March 20 through March 23 in Appleton, Wisconsin.
YHS students Liberty Manley, Mason Embrey, Andrei Bubon, Luke Brown, Sam DeJiacomo, Tucker Barber and Tootsie Barger all qualified for the national competition next year after posting the required numbers during the Spanaway Fitness competition.
“David Morley, who's the owner of Spanaway Fitness, is a Yelm High School alumni. He helped us out a lot with this process,” YHS powerlifting coach Thomas Hoghaug said. “It’s great working with David. Having an alumni help us out, getting kids to qualify for nationals, has been a big help. Last year at high school nationals, there were only four kids from Washington State that competed. Myself, the Olympia High School coach, and the Shelton High School head coach got together and decided we needed more kids there.”
He added that between the three mentioned area programs, coaches hope to send 20 or more student-athletes to compete in Appleton. Hoghaug believes it says a lot about the YHS powerlifting program to already have seven athletes qualify for the national USAPL competition in March.
“It shows how awesome our in-school and out-of-school lifting program is,” Hoghaug said. “It’s interesting how some people have programs and they just lift to powerlift. I feel like our program is awesome and great in the area, as far as Washington state goes, and the by-product is we have really great powerlifters and a really great powerlifting program that goes before and after school.”
Since the reintroduction of a powerlifting team at YHS last year, several athletes have received collegiate offers to continue at the next level. Dallas Mitchell, a YHS graduate from the class of 2023, is currently attending Greenville University in Illinois to further his education and continue his powerlifting career.
“It’s been great to see. It definitely spreads the awareness of how awesome our kids are. The sport is growing at the high school and collegiate level. Tucker, Mason and Andrei all have offers, and Dallas Mitchell is in college right now on the powerlifting team getting after it,” Hoghaug said. “I think Mason and Andrei will both be really sought after because of their weight class and how they’re really strong.”
The YHS powerlifting season will resume in January, but the Tornados will host a fundraising powerlifting meet in December to raise money to send the seven Tornados who qualified for nationals. Hoghaug has invited YHS staff, YHS alumni and family members of the powerlifters to come and compete.
“You can donate at the door. We want all staff and family members who want to lift and compete to come out for this event,” Hoghaug said. “We’ll host that in December to fundraise and compete. Right now, the seven kids going to nationals is about $2,000 per kid. We need to raise some money for that.”
