Topic: News: Prep boys weightlifter of the year: Douglas gets a lift out of weight room

[Chris Ⓐ LeRoux]

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Prep boys weightlifter of the year: Douglas gets a lift out of weight room
By Andy Hall

He's a weightlifter who plays football.

It is not the other way around for Dustin Douglas, the class 1A state champion in the 154-pound weight class and as such, the 2009 Putnam County Weightlifter of the Year.

"Football just gets me through until weightlifting (season) comes around," said Douglas, who just completed his junior year at Interlachen High. "Weightlifting is my primary (sport). Don't get me wrong, strength helps me play football and I do love to play football..."

It's just that he's a lifter first and foremost. His father, Kenneth Douglas, IHS class of 1989, lifted for the Rams under Jack Williams and got his sons into the sport. Brandon Douglas was third at state in the 139-pound class as a senior in 2008.

"Ever since we were little, at my old house, we did push-up competition," Dustin Douglas said. "As soon as the doctor told him we were old enough to lift, he bought two weight benches - one for me and one for my brother - and 300 pounds of weights for each."

Dustin was in the seventh grade at the time. In addition to working out at home, he went daily from Price Middle School next door to the weight room at Interlachen High to work out with older kids.

It is a place he has come to love.

"When I'm in the weight room, working out with a bunch of buddies - I love the atmosphere," Douglas said. "If I've had a bad day at school, I can go in the weight room, work out and calm myself down.

"I just love the way weightlifting makes me feel. It has to do with self-drive."

There's little question that Douglas is driven. After competing in the 139-pound class as a freshman, he moved to 154 as a sophomore and was sixth in the state, benching 280 pounds and cleaning 230 for a 510-pound total. A St. Augustine lifter also totaled 510, but at 145 pounds, Douglas was eight pounds less at weigh-in and got the tiebreaker.

He was disappointed, though. Douglas missed on his third and final attempt at the clean and wound up five pounds out of third place.

It was only natural to aim higher this season, given the strength and maturity that comes with another year. But it would take more than that to go from sixth in the state to first.

"At the beginning of the year, my bench was fluctuating around 305. I was in a valley," Douglas said. "The hardest thing was coming out of that valley. Coach Cameron Porch taught me a new technique with bench pressing."

"Basically, we teach all our lifters to tighten up and use their whole body to bench instead of just their arms, which is a common misconception," said Porch, assistant to Wes Lackey, who took over from Williams in 2008. "He was very raw at first and he got away with it for a while, but to be a state champion, we were going to have to work out the kinks."

"I didn't have any technique. I just muscled (the weight) up," Douglas admitted. "I didn't want to change at first. I'm stubborn."

But there was no arguing the results in the class 1A state meet April 28 at New Port Richey River Ridge. Douglas comfortably benched 310 pounds "and I could have done 315."

His impulse was to open at 240 pounds in the clean and jerk. Douglas, however, already led by five pounds and coaches counseled him to try 225 on the first of three lifts rather than run the risk of scratching at 240 and being unable to try something lighter.

"I've been doing 250 all year, easy," said Douglas, who easily progressed from 225 to 235 to 240 at state. "On all my lifts, I got white lights."

The 550-pound total was 10 pounds better than Fort White's Tyler Howard and Douglas became the Rams' first state champion since Travis Davis at 129 pounds in 2006.

"The first thing is genetics," said Lackey when asked the key to Douglas' success. "Other than that, he spends the right amount of time in the weight room. He has a very good work ethic and he's a polite and well-mannered student-athlete.

"When you end up with that combination, you should end up as a state champion."

For Douglas, the gold medal was a promise fulfilled.

"At the beginning of the year, I made a promise to my dad I was going to win state. And I won state," he said. "Now I've got this medal on my wall along with my other trophies."