Thomas Kelly High School
Weight Lifting Club
  
Season 1999-2000


 

 

Winners of the City and Suburban Wide Power Lifting Contest, March 12, 2000, North Park University
Weightlifting Results 2000
  • The Kelly H.S. Weightlifting club held their 9th annual strength contest on Monday 8th, 2000. The contest consisted of three categories:
      • top five by body weight
      • strongest over all, and
      • the most repetitions by body weight.
      The lifts consisted of the Bench Press, the Dead Lift, and the Squat. The winner of the strongest over all award was Gerry Poncedeleon with
       
      • a bench press of 330 lbs.
      • a squat of 435 lbs. and
      • a dead lift of 405 lbs. for a total of 1,170 lbs.
    Season 2000 in photographs 

     
     
     

    The Winners in the top five by body weight were

    • Gerardo Godines 1st. place with 5.7916 times his weight
    • Richard Ramirez 2nd place with 5.4722 times his weight
    • Nicolas Guerrero 3rd. place with 5.2287 times his weight
    • Hector Nino 4th place with 5. 0689 times his weight
    • Ramiro Leos 5th place with 4.3 times his weight.

      •  

       
       
       

      The winner of the most repetitions contest was Gerardo Malero who benched 50% of his body weight 14 times, squatted 75% 17 times, and curled 25% 77 times, for a total of 108 reps.

      Coach Vincent White
    Congratulations to the Kelly High School Weight Lifting team
    for their outstanding results
    during the Illinois State High school Power Lifting Championships held on Sunday March 12th at North Park University.

    The team went home with 10 medals
    and the third place team
    over all
    on the varsity level.

    The winners of the third place Varsity team in the state of Illinois were:
    Tarcisio Hernandez,
    Lorenzo Leos,
    Angel Mejia,
    Frank Ortega,
    Gerardo Poncedeleon,
    Richard Ramirez,
    Steve Smith,
    and Rene Vazquez,
    The combined efforts got them this award.
     

    Coming home with the medals

    • Sophomore Gerardo Godinez 1st. place 123 lb. 
    • Freshman Jaime Gonzalez 1st. place 242 lb.
    • Senior Gerardo Poncedeleon 1st. place super heavy weight class,
    • Sophomore Vicente Rico 2nd. place 132 lb. class,
    • Senior Steve Smith 2nd. place super heavy weight,
    • Sophomore Gerardo Corral 3rd. place 123 lb. 
    • Sophomore Kevin Loeza 3rd. place 198 lb.
    • Sophomore Ismael Garcia 3rd. place super heavy weight class,
    • Senior Richard Ramirez 4th. place 181 lb., and
    • Senior Frank Ortega 4th. place 220 lb.

     
     

     
    Coach Vincent White Remembers...

    I played football for Kelly high school from l979 until 1982. In August of 1986, I started working at Thomas Kelly High School as a volunteer coach and founded the Kelly High School's Weightlifting Club in 1991.

    I always dreamed about having a weight room here at Kelly. From the time when I was a student athlete, until the time when I became an assistant coach, I always wondered just how good we could be if we had a decent weight room to develop our strength.

    Weight lifting room -
    Coach White's pride and joy 
    With the help of a friend Al Fontana, owner of Al's Gym (a graduate of Kelly High - 1984), and supported by our Principal
    Dr. J. Gelsomino, and the head coach Al Pretkelis, I realized my dream. The club started with just 14 participants in the first year. As time went on, along with the size of the weight room the club grew too.

    During the last five years, we had on the average 40 participants in the club. Thanks to the club, our football team's record has improved dramatically in the last seven years, with our best record in the school's history of 8 wins & 0 loses in 1997.
    With that kind of success the weightlifting club has attracted kids from not only football, but also from the soccer, basketball, baseball, swimming, and track teams. Both, boys and girls, have joined this outstanding club.


    Gina BENCHING

    Like any other athletic program, we have followed very strict rules. The students must maintain passing grades, and they cannot be affiliated with any gangs.They must behave as gentlemen and ladies when they are in or out of school.

    The club is rewarding to the children. They not only improve their game, build strength, but they also compete for trophies at the end of the year.
    Season 2000 in photographs 
    The weight lifting club has a strength contest to see just who the strongest kids really are.

    The contest consists of three categories:

    • The top five lifters by body weight, which consist of doing three lifts, the dead lift, the bench press, and the squat. Then the three lifts are added up and divided by the lifters body weight. The ones with the highest percentage points win.
    • The most repetitions. This consists of the lifter doing the bench press with 50% of their body weight, the squat with 75%, and barbell curls with 25% of their weight. The one with most reps wins.
    • The strongest over all. Whoever lifts the most weight total in the bench, squat and dead lift, wins.

    Hector doing LAT PULLS

     
    There are also clubs within the weightlifting club

    They exist for a special recognition of the students’ efforts. 
    We have the top 10 weightlifters in order for combined lift totals of the Bench Press, Squat and Dead Lift.

    There is also the 1,000.00 lb. club which was developed for the football players specifically to recognize their hard work. They do a total of four lifts: the Bench Press, Squat, dead lift, and the Power clean. The lifts must total a thousand pounds or more.
     
    This year we are trying something I've always wanted to do - compete against other high schools.

    We did compete
    on Sunday March 12,2000 in the
    City and Suburban Wide Power Lifting Contest.

    I feel that our Kelly weightlifting Club has come a long way since the beginning. I look forward to what the future holds for us.
    Coach Vincent White
    BACK
    Useful Links:
    Season 2000
    Weightlifting Club Home Page
    Back to the Kelly High Home Page