Topic: college weightlifting

[glennpendlay]

At the request of Jon Janz, I will describe the collegiate weightlifting program at MSU.

We are an official club sport here, but treated somewhat like a varsity sport.  Participants take a class called "varsity weightlifting" and get 3 credit hours a semester for attending practice.  The school supplies limited scholarship money.  We participate in the student senate like other campus organizations.  The school sometimes provides free transportation to competitions, and supplies a training facility on campus, while the Kinesiology department supplies 8 York elite competition sets and platforms for us to use in that facility in return for our cooperation in various KIN studies and things.

We get good publicity in the school newspaper, access to the training room and athletic trainers, and other things which the school supplies to student-athletes like sauna, etc.

We raise the bulk of our scholarship money and money to pay other expenses thru private means in the community.  There are some people here in Wichita Falls that have been very, very generous to the MSU weightlifting team.

[Craig Cheek]

Are there crossover athletes or are you all strictly weightlifters?

If there is that separation then I can definately see the possibilities for it becoming an "official" collegiate sport. I think it would be difficult to train people if you had other athletes wanting to take part.

[glennpendlay]

all of our athletes are strictly weightlifters.  I wouldnt rule out taking on a basketball or football player as a weightlifter, but it would be just as hard and require just as unique an individual to do well in weightlifting and another sport as a person playing say, both basketball and football on the collegiate level.  its been done i think, but dont think its common.