Coe sets lifting record at EHS Invitational
Ken Easthouse
Monday, February 12, 2007
Heather Coe believed her mother was watching her on Saturday.
The senior at Emporia High was competing in the EHS Invitational Power Lifting meet, a sport Coe’s mother got her interested in several years ago.
“She always supported me in weight lifting,” Coe said. “I do it mostly for her.”
Coe’s mother died just more than a year ago, succumbing to breast cancer. Heather said she still feels the pain of her mother’s death.
“Not being able to touch her or hold her or give her a hug, that kind of sucks for me,” Coe said. “Most people say it gets better with time, but I think that’s crap.”
If her mother was looking over her on Saturday, she surely would have been smiling. Coe broke one school lifting record for the 123-pound female weight class, tied another and tied a personal record in a third.
Most impressive, perhaps, was her bench press, where she broke her own school record of 135 pounds by lifting 160 pounds into the air above her chest.
“I’m a beast, I guess,” Coe said, laughing. “I’m a senior, and this is my last meet I’m going to lift in, and I wanted that record.”
The lift
Every competitor is allowed three lifts for each event: bench press, clean and squat. Coe tied her personal best on the bench press with her second lift at 135.
After consulting her father and teammates, she bumped the weight on her final lift to 145 pounds. She also decided to use arm wraps, which help control blood flow in the arms during lifts.
Coe hadn’t used arm wraps since her freshman year, when her mother watched her lift.
“My vein popped out and my arms turned purple because I left them on too long,” Coe said. “(My mom) started crying because she was so worried about me.”
The wraps made a clear difference. Coe easily cleared 145 pounds, and was given one more lift, since she had just broke both a school and a meet record. After talking with a teammate, she decided to increase the weight to 160 pounds.
“What girl in her right mind does 160?” she asked to no one in particular moments before making her final attempt.
While she did struggle with the weight, letting her left arm sag slightly as she pushed the bar up, she did complete the lift, smashing the record for the school at her weight class.
“When someone says ‘You should do 160’ I’m not going to say ‘I don’t think I should,’” Coe said. “I’m going to take that challenge.”
Lifting with the boys
Coe works out five days a week, according to her track coach, Randy Wells.
“She’s the kind of kid you love having around because of her tough, competitive spirit,” Wells said. “If you’re in a foxhole, you want her there.”
Three of those days she’s in the weight room, working out with guys double her size. She said those guys sometimes tease her about being a woman in the weight room.
“I get so much crap from guys for having a male (sport),” Coe said. “How many girls do you know that really lift that much?”
She said she likes to think the guys are intimidated by her ability to lift so much weight, despite being what they might call “petite.”
“It’s like I’m threatening them,” Coe said. “That’s how I have to look at it, otherwise it would crush me.
“No girl wants to be told they’re manly.”
Part of her workout is balancing building weight-lifting ability without gaining too much muscle mass, she said. After all, she doesn’t want to scare away too many boys.
“The only way to get really big is if you take a supplement, Creatine or steroids, and I don’t do any of that,” she said. “I don’t want to get real big, but I want to stay toned.”
Wells said he’s glad she works so hard, both in the weight room and in other practices. He said other athletes feed off her intensity.
“The other kids feed off that fiery, competitive spirit,” Wells said. “They may not be the best athlete, but they’re going to show up and compete.”
The ‘other’ records
In addition to the impressive bench press, Coe also tied a meet record with a clean lift of 170 pounds.
“It’s easier for most girls to get a good squat, so I focus on my upper body,” Coe said.
She said her solid clean lift comes from track preparations, where she runs the 400 and the 800 and also triple jumps.
“It’s all fast-twitch muscle,” Coe said.
Coe said she wished she had one more chance at the clean lift, because she felt she could have lifted more.
“I wish I had gotten my second lift at 170 so I could have moved it up to 175,” Coe said. “It was the only thing I wish would have gone different, but I’m not complaining.”
Despite not working on her leg muscles as much, she also increased her personal best on the squat up to 200 pounds. The school record for her weight class is 210 pounds.
“To be a weightlifter, you do have to be a little crazy, but you have to be excited about it,” Coe said. “You can’t be scared to go to the next level.”
Her mom would have been just as excited.
i_am_the_batman (anonymous) says...
I need to start training her in martial arts and she would be the best Batgirl Emporia has to offer.
You have some great quotes Heather, I like the fact that you speak your mind directly and don't beat around the bush. Great work.
The Batman has spoken.
February 12, 2007 at 2:34 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
4_Emporia (anonymous) says...
Nice job Heather!! But Batman is an idiot and shouldn't be allowed to make any sort of comment. The Batman Hater has spoken!
February 12, 2007 at 3:09 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )