Tom Tom Sports Friday, February 28, 2014 9

Chieftain powerlifting makes improvements

Desiree Wilsonfeatures editor

alyssa robinsonreporter

Chieftain powerlifters are making prog-ress in their goals despite a short season. With only one more meet left, which takes place on March 8, the lifters are training hard to make this last meet their best. Ju-nior Joe Sullivan participates in powerlift-ing and said “a lot of new people did well and we have a strong team, and hopefully we can just keep getting better and recruit-ing people, and hopefully we’ll do good at state.”

Powerlifting is unique sport, because lifters are scored individually. Their points then get tallied up into their team’s total, and if a school’s teams get enough points, the school is able to place. As State ap-proaches, lifters are working to improve even more since the last meet.

“It’s going to be tough; very competi-tive,” powerlifting coach Toby Higgs said. “Our girls kind of have a vendetta, because we’d been state champions for the past 10 years straight; but we lost last year to Central, so hopefully we’re kind of hungry again to get our streak going again. The guys did much better this last meet, so I hope that continues where we can push Creighton Prep a little bit, because they bring a lot of guys and they’re usually pretty good, so it’s very competitive.”

At their most recent meet on Feb. 15 in Fremont, the girls’ team took first place, and the boys’ team took second. Sullivan has been a dedicated member of powerlift-ing and said his best lift (out of deadlift, bench press, and squat, which are judged at

meets) is squat. “I would say my favorite thing about

powerlifting is being around people that like to do the same thing I do, which is just lift and have a good mentality about work-ing hard and just getting better physically and with friends and get better as a person and stuff like that,” Sullivan said.

Female powerlifter Dre Betts enjoys squat as well, because “it works different areas of your body.” Looking forward to State, Betts is training in all three lifts.

“Honestly, my goal for state is to just figure out how much I can do; not where I push myself too much, but just so I know where I stand,” Betts said.

Although the focus can seem directed at simply how much a person can lift, there is more to it. Coach Higgs mainly wants to see his lifters better themselves.

“Obviously medals are nice and hav-

ing team trophies, but realistically we just want to see people improve meet-to-meet,” Higgs said.

Despite a rather short season, powerlift-ing involves goal-setting and heavy train-ing. Practices can be intense as students work individually to lift the highest weight they can.

Students get to work one-on-one with coaches to train their hardest. However, Higgs warned that looks can be deceiving when it comes to what powerlifting is all about.

“It’s a fun sport; a lot of people get intimidated when they hear about powerlift-ing. It’s usually not what you think,” Higgs said. “A lot of times, you end up being a lot more competitive than you think and defi-nitely improve. We try to encourage people to try it; usually our best lifters aren’t nec-essarily athletes or people that you’d think.”

Once in a Blue Moon

Controversy stirs in Sochi Olympics

jake carsonreporter

The 2014 Winter Olympics were held in Sochi, Russia on Feb. 7 to 22. There are many events in the Winter Olympics such as curling, ski jumping, biatholons, and many more ice and snow based competi-tive events. However, in the 2014 Winter Olympics, Russia did not allow gay ath-letes to openly share their sexuality. This rule caused a commotion throughout the world. People around the globe have been standing up for what they believe in, and what they think is right and just.

“Gays are still people, just because they’re gay does not mean they should not do what other people do,” Gay Straight Al-liance (GSA) President Brea Brandquist said.

Protests of the games have been banned throughout the entire country of Russia. The laws in effect in Russia have made people all over the world upset. Judges all over have put this law into effect and have handed out fines to law breakers. There have been a large number of occa-sions where people have been summoned to court or fined because for their actions. Many have been turned in for being an activist, protesting, and even using social media. It is the law to not protest in the

country of Russia or at the Olympics.“To intervene can cause violence or un-

necessary damage that could be caused in their country as well as our own,” GSA Vice President Cayla Vinal said.

Many people, despite the laws that were made, felt the need to go out and stand up for what they believe in. Actions taken by people consist of non-violent protesting in many different ways. Some ways people

protested were holding up signs, dressing in the rainbow, or simply shouting beliefs. However, some feel that there may be a bet-ter time and place to speak up rather than doing it at the Olympics. The law made by Russia must be followed according to their government. It is expected of people to rec-ognize and abide by these laws by just stay-ing quiet and not speaking out much.

“To sit their and try to push a country who is in control and very strong in their beliefs would not help much, but only cause problems,” Vinal said.

There is a lot of controversy over this topic of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic

games, mainly because people are used to more freedom of speech in their own re-spective nations. It is a significant change in freedom going from a country like the Unit-ed states to a country like Russia. There is a significant change in rights and beliefs. Some may say it is disappointing that there is still discrimination toward a culture, re-ligion, or, in this case, sexual orientation.

“The Olympic’s board should have said the laws will be lifted until the Olympics are done to protect the athletes and people who are visiting for the Olympics,” GSA sponsor Jessica Holz said.

Now that the Olympic games have passed, there may be more speaking up against the laws in Russia. People can use the Olympics as an example to show how they think the world should change. People may not agree with the actions taken by the Russian government. This possibly can im-prove equality amongst everyone in many different areas of the world.

“It’s upsetting and a little frightening that this still exists in the world today; how-ever, it is also eye opening to some who are going over there to see this is still an issue,” Holz said.

It is obvious to many that a lot of people do not quite agree with the laws Russia has made. On multiple occasions there have been people speaking out during the Olym-pics. By doing this they broke the law that was enforced by Russia. Some feel there is plenty of time after the Olympics to bring up and protest against this situation, if they choose.

Blue Moon Fitness opened a new gym on Harlan Drive in Bellevue, Nebraska. Their gyms around the state are very popular and well known. They have three other locations in Omaha and one location in Lincoln.

One thing people like is that Monday through Thursday they are opened from 5:00 a.m. until midnight, which gives people plenty of time to workout. Their phi-losophy, equipment, and programs always change to fit the needs of their members. They also offer classes taught by trainers on certain days of the week like zumba, body combat, body pump, body flow, and body step. If a member is under the age of 18 years old, they have to be with a parent or guardian to workout. With a VIP member-ship, you can access the movie room and massage chairs. Members can also bring one guest along. Blue Moon Fitness has a vision of the culture and clubs they want to serve and said that establishing the culture and addressing all the details will be a prog-ress, not an event.

“There’s a lot of fun activities to do there. There is a movie theater, a tanning room, massage chairs, and an all women’s room,” sophomore Alyssa Campbell said. “In the movie theater room you zone into the movie and don’t worry about anything else.”

Along with the gym membership, which only costs $10 a month for a basic membership and $19.99 for a VIP member-ship, comes rules and responsibility. Stated on their website, if a member complains about the price, they will add $5 onto the enrollment fee of $49 for a basic member-ship and $99 for a VIP membership.

If someone breaks the rules or disre-spects an employee or a fellow member, they use their “Cement Head Alarm,” to en-courage people to follow their rules by em-barrassing them in front of all the other gym members. The first time they use the alarm against a member is a warning and will be recorded in the computer system. After the next two times, the person who breaks the rule will no longer have a membership at the gym. Some of the rules include no jeans, no open-toed shoes, no foul language, no dropping weights, no grunting and groan-ing, no bullying or making people feel unwelcome, and don’t leave your equip-ment without wiping it down which can be generalized to treat everything and every-one with complete respect. At Blue Moon Fitness, they do not believe the customer is always right, but that the customer is always served.

“Everyone starts out welcome in my gym. Whether they wear out their welcome or not is up to them. Please be nice to oth-ers so that we may have the opportunity to serve your and their fitness needs for many years to come,” Chief Enlightenment Of-ficer Joel Potter said.

Despite the many rules and expecta-tions, the gym is meant to accept people of all different sizes, races, ages, and sexes. Their main goal is to help people become healthier and to provide simple solutions to lifestyle choices and to create a inexpensive and comfortable environment for people to work out in.

“You can tan, have a woman’s room, and they [the workers] are very friendly,” junior Leeza Benak said, “It’s the most affordable. gym and my best friend goes there.”

Junior Matthew Brodersen is at the Central meet on. At this meet he was deadlifting 305 pounds as his opening lift. At the end of the meet, he had his maximum lift up to 350 pounds. “It wasn’t much of a struggle but I am hop-ing I will do 100 pounds more,” Brodersen said. Photo by Erin Mather

“Gays are still people; just because they’re gay does not mean they should not do what other people do,” Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) President Brea Brandquist said.

vGays are not allowed to openly share their sexuality at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

vThis season, the Chieftain powerlifting team has made strides of improvment com-pared to last year.

v The Blue Moon, in Bel-levue, Nebraska is a fitness center anyone can go to.

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