Topic: News: Sjade Robinson Excels for Palatka High School

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Girls Weightlifter of the Year: Robinson Building Strength, Confidence
By Andy Hall

Weightlifting has made Sjade Robinson stronger the last four years -- mentally and physically.

It has been a confidence builder for Robinson, who graduates tonight from Palatka High School with a weighted 4.1 grade-point average and will enroll at the University of Florida barely a month from now to begin studies for a career in physical therapy.

She holds all three PHS records in the heavyweight class — bench press, clean and jerk, total lift — yet despite being one of the most accomplished lifters in the brief history of the program, Robinson had never won in Keystone Heights before taking the platform at the Indians’ 10-team invitational this winter.

It helped, she admitted, that the Keystone lifter who had been her nemesis was sidelined with an injury, but Palatka coach Esley Boykin said there was something different about Robinson that day.

“Even before she found out (her Keystone rival) wasn’t lifting, she had a lot of confidence,” Boykin said. “She was ready to do her best and wherever she finished was fine.”

Boykin and his predecessor, Darrell Polite, came to expect the best over the last four years from Robinson, the Daily News’ first Female Weightlifter of the Year.

In addition to her victory in Keystone Heights, Robinson won the Putnam County heavyweight title and tied for second in sectional competition — the last step before the state meet — only to drop to fourth place because the two lifters with which she tied were both lighter at the weigh-in. An outright second would have given her the chance to pursue Palatka’s first individual title in girls weightlifting.

She leaves records of 200 pounds in the bench press, 140 in the clean and jerk and 340 for total lift for other Panthers to pursue.

Robinson is fine with not having gotten to state, OK with the notion that she may have competed in her last meet. Weightlifting was never about individual recognition for her. Nor was it a means to an end in some other sport, as it is for so many prep weightlifters. She tried the shot put for maybe half a season as a junior, but gave it up.

“This was my stress reliever. I enjoyed doing it and meeting new people,” Robinson said. “If competitive opportunities come (after high school), I’ll do it competitively. If not, I’m working out in the gym at my (Gainesville) apartment complex.”

Ironically, the platform that was her means for reducing stress betrayed her once during her sophomore year and ultimately may have cost Robinson a shot at state.

She was competing in the clean and jerk, said Boykin, when “the platform kind of shuffled and the bar fell right across her knee. She had fluid on the knee after that and she was kind of skittish (about the clean) after that.

“If her clean would have been a little bit better — even five or 10 pounds — I have no doubt she would have made it to state.”

After the injury, Robinson redoubled her efforts to excel on the bench, which places relatively little stress on one’s knee.

“From then on, I dedicated myself to making the bench my best lift,” she said.

Robinson’s level of dedication comes as no surprise to her coach.

“Mainly, I was impressed with her perseverance in being able to letter all four years in that sport,” said Boykin, himself a heavyweight state champion for PHS as a senior in 1993. “Most girls letter three years at most. They get started late and figure it’s something they don’t want to be a part of. But this is mainly what she focused on in high school as far as athletics are concerned.

“She’s a very serious student and I would say a very serious person. Even while she was lifting, she was president of a service club (Archinetts, an affiliate of the Zeta Mu Zeta sorority) and helped raise money for charitable causes. She was able to balance that with her studies and her athletics.”

Robinson practice daily during the season, save the day before meets — pyramid workouts during which one begins by lifting about 75 percent of their full capability and working up to 95 percent.

She pushed herself a little more leading up to the Keystone Invitational.

“I was surprised I won as easily as I did,” said Robinson, crediting both Boykin and Polite for “constantly motivating me, telling me to keep trying and that I could do it.”

She’s done it, and now she’s barely a month from diving into college.

“Not much of a break at all,” she said.

If it becomes stressful, though, she does have an outlet.