SHREVEPORT – Four Hawaiian weightlifters set foot in LSUS’s USA Weightlifting Development Center on Wednesday just a few days before competing in the USA Junior National Championships in Colorado Springs, Colo.
What are these high school weightlifters doing on the LSUS campus?
Aside from taking a campus tour and deciding whether LSUS is where he wants to go to school, Hanale Kauha’aha’a and his parents are visiting his sister Kela, an LSUS alumna who is currently a volunteer on the LSUS weightlifting staff.
The Kauha’aha’a family connection started with older brother Joseph, who attended LSUS on a weightlifting scholarship. Joseph now works in Colorado Springs at the Team USA facility, assisting Paralympic athletes.
On top of the workout opportunities in the weightlifting development center, Hanale and fellow lifters Michael Rayray, Kuola Watson and Kailah Caballero participated in movement analysis and lab testing in the LSUS Human Performance Lab.
“The movement analysis helps us refine our technique and allows us to make small adjustments before nationals,” said Hanale, a former member of Team USA Youth Weightlifting who is seeking a spot on the Juniors team. “Our dad coaches and teaches gym back in Hawaii, and he got us into weightlifting. I started lifting when I was 7.”
Lab testing includes measuring metabolic rates and determining the optimal nutrition intake for their specific bodies as well as balance testing to predetermine the likelihood of a knee injury among other tests.
All four Hawaiian weightlifters are juniors or seniors in high school and will be competing in the national juniors competition starting Tuesday.
Dr. Kyle Pierce, who founded the USA Weightlifting Development Center at LSUS and has been instrumental in advancing weightlifting worldwide, has coached the USA, Ghana and Seychelles at the World Championships.
The USA Weightlifting Hall of Famer tutored three-time Olympian and Shreveport native Kendrick Farris in the center.
