A former state champion weightlifter is guiding Southwest Florida Christian Academy to an unexpected debut season in the sport.
Coached by Matt Davidson, the King’s are headed to compete at the Class 1A state meet in Lakeland on Friday after racking up milestones in the program’s inaugural season.
“It was the kids and Matt really buying into all of it is what made it successful,” SFCA athletic director Bill Moore said.
SFCA hosted the Class 1A-District 14 meet in early April and came out on top in both Traditional and Olympic categories.
Eighth grader Jack Wooley won a district title in the Olympic category in the 139-pound weight class and senior Noah Zuchengo won in Traditional in the 183-pound weight class.
Lifting in the lightest weight class at 119 pounds, junior Johnny Scott won district titles in both categories.
The team qualified 18 lifters for regionals, where they won the title in Olympic and came in second in Traditional. Scott again won both categories and was the meet’s top individual lifter in Traditional.
Zuchengo was a regional runner up in both categories, and senior Connor Watermeier came in second in Olympic in the 199-pound weight class.
At states, Scott will have the chance to become the King’s first individual state champion in any sport.
“He was, I would say, the predominant reason that we pushed so hard to get the sport going,” Davidson said.
Building a championship weightlifting program at SFCA
Davidson brought plenty of experience as a coach and an athlete himself. He previously coached football and weightlifting at LaBelle High School.
The 2006 LaBelle graduate is the football team’s all-time leading rusher and went on to play at Navy and Weber International.
In 2006, he also became the Cowboys’ first state champion in weightlifting.
“It was a traditional sport only,” Davidson said. “It’s kind of a different sport now with having the snatch and Olympic stuff involved.”
An assistant coach on the football team, Davidson was already playing a role in training athletes at SFCA.
“The kids here at our school love Matt, so he came to me and said, ‘What do you think about putting a team together?’ and kind of had a blueprint for already and I was like, ‘Man it sounds great,’” Moore said.
They knew Scott, whowent viral in the fall for a video of his bench press,would have enormous potential in the sport.
“He was just a weight room junkie, so this was kind of giving him an opportunity to compete,” Moore said.
It wasn’t difficult to get the resources together to start the team.
Advertisement
“It’s a low barrier of entry as far as getting into the sport – just got to gather up some singlets and schedule some meets,” Davidson said. “We already had the weight room.”
However, whether students would participate was the biggest question.
SFCA hosted a meet early in the season, which paved the way for the team to gain numbers.
“We built some interest around the sport,” Davidson said. “Then it just kind of kept growing from there, each and every time.”
It helped that the SFCA athletes already had a solid foundation for the sport.
“The snatch and clean and jerk were movements we did within the weight training program,” Davison said. “Our strength coach, Brandon Davis, has been doing with him with him for years, so they were good at the more technical lifts, and then we just kind of had to really work on their bench presses.”
Scott’s top lifts of the season include benching 240 pounds and a 190-pound clean-and-jerk.
Heading into states, he has the top recorded bench press in Class 1A.
“For his size, he’s a powerhouse,” Davidson said. “He’s had to work a little harder for the technique of the Olympic movements, but he’s just extremely strong. He’s kind of unorthodox in some of his technique and form with his movements, but he’s able to do it just with his raw power.”
One last meet in SFCA weightlifting's debut season
Davidson explained that, in starting this program, he wanted to treat it like a real sport and not like a hangout where athletes come and lift.
“We actually had practice every afternoon,” he said. “We got the guys together. We had a little bit of strategy of how we approached the lifts and trying to put our best total together each and every meet and understanding you’re not necessarily going to hit your max, your best lift, every single time but just paying attention to the guys ahead of you and making sure you’re putting yourself in a good position to give the team points.”
Davidson’s leadership paid dividends in establishing the sport quickly at SFCA.
“With his experience – he’s been coaching for a while now, and he really is just a magnet to kids,” Moore said. “I’ve had a couple of my own sons personally play for him and they love him. He’s just an invaluable resource.”
Having earned several significant achievements in their first season, the King’s will have one more chance to add to list at the Class 1A state meet on May 8.
“It just takes that bit of early success to get kids to buy in and get excited for what they can potentially do and then you win a district championship and then everyone knew that someone like Johnny was going to do really, really well at regionals,” Moore said. “It’s just been neat to see all that evolve.”
If you go
Where:RP Funding Center in Lakeland
Schedule:Class 2A competes on May 6, Class 3A competes on May 7 and Class 1A competes on May 8.
Admission:$11 in advance, $14 day of
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press:SFCA weightlifting team heads to FHSAA state meet in debut season
A former state champion weightlifter is guiding Southwest Florida Christian Academy to an unexpected debut season in the sport. Co...
