Pulling their weight

Starr's Mill and Sandy Creek perform well at weightlifting competiton

There were a lot of ups and downs Saturday at the third annual Gold's Gym Panther Invitational at Starr's Mill High School, but Starr's Mill and Sandy Creek weight lifters came out on top.

The noise level, chests, arms and weights rose and fell regularly during the five-hour-plus event.

Students, parents and friends from eight metro Atlanta high schools, including over 60 student athletes from Starr's Mill, plus many from Sandy Creek High, participated. Starr's Mill and Sandy Creek took top honors, winning first and second place.

Coach Glen Griffin and Coach Mike Earwood from Starr's Mill were instrumental in putting the event together, with assistance from sponsor Gold's Gym, the school's Booster Club and others.

Participants were judged within their weight class in three weight lifting events, bench press, squats and power clean. Competitors got three lifts in each event. Judges took the highest one-rep maximum for each of the events, added the totals from the three lifts to arrive at a "score." This year there were seven weight classes; next year there will be nine, Griffin said.

Medals were awarded to the top three in each of the seven weight categories. Trophies were awarded to the outstanding lifters per weight class, the overall Outstanding Lifter and the top three teams.

While waiting for weight tallies, Hugh Kirby, youth minister at New Hope Baptist Church, past All-American power lifting champion and college football player, spoke to the participants and guests filling the stands. His "Power Team" demonstrated the best way to get rid of old automobile car tags hand them to a body builder and ask him to rip them in half for you.

Old bats? They can break them for you also.

A fun competition pitted coaches and students against each other to see who could bend steel rods, break bats and rip license tags the fastest. Three to eight seconds was the norm.

Then, the crowd was treated to a visit from eight-time Mr. Olympia, Gold's Gym member and Fayette resident Lee Haney. Haney showed off his award-winning physique and shared words of encouragement.

Next year, Griffin hopes to attract even more schools to the event. Winners will go on next year to compete in the state qualifiers.

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