SHREVEPORT – LSUS graduate student Kela Kauha’aha’a remembers what it’s like at the National University Weightlifting Championships.
It hasn’t been “that” long since the 24-year-old weightlifter, and now assistant coach, competed as an unattached individual (2022).
But the last time Kauha’aha’a had an LSUS team compete with her? That was in February of 2020, right before the COVID-19 Pandemic closed the world down.
Kauha’aha’a will lift for the final time as a collegiate athlete at the college championships, but she’ll be bringing a lot of fresh faces with her as 10 total LSUS lifters qualified for the national event.
The national championships run from Feb. 27-March 2 in Columbus, Ohio, at The Arnold, a national strength event that features weightlifting, powerlifting and arm wrestling among other events.
“To go back with a team this time, that’s really cool,” said Kauha’aha’a, who was an integral part of the resurrection of the LSUS college weightlifting program, which started competing again this fall. “Even after all this time in weightlifting, to experience this again with a team and to see the kind of growth happening here – a few years ago it was unthinkable.
“It’s not unfamiliar for me to compete and help coach because I’ve always helped whoever was around me. (Head coach Aaron Adams) always says that a rising tide lifts all ships, and I bring that with me, whether I’m training, motivating from within, or giving technical advice or encouragement.”
Adams started rebuilding the college portion of the weightlifting program about 18 months ago, and his first recruiting class yielded 12 student-athletes with another star-studded class lined up for this coming year.
Of the 10 lifters that qualified for nationals, eight are freshmen and one is a sophomore.
Because of LSUS’s history built by Olympic weightlifting coach Dr. Kyle Pierce, the college weightlifting world is taking note of LSUS’s return to the platform.
“We’ve made a ton of progress, but it’s something that takes time,” said Adams, who set four national records in the 136-pound weight class as an LSUS lifter in his time. “These lifters had it together from Day 1, and they’ve grown not just as lifters but as people – handling stuff and reaching out if they do need help.
“A lot of our lifters have been in big competitions with their local or high school teams, but this will be on the college stage now. I’m very proud already, and I’m excited to see what we do.”
In LSUS’s only competition against college opponents this season, the women placed second and the men fifth at the Southwest Regional University Championships in a field that included schools like Texas, Texas A&M, TCU, Texas State and Rice.
Kauha’aha’a and freshmen Hannah St. Gerard, Enyjai Tyson and Savannah Bolden each won their respective weight classes.
On the men’s side, freshmen Luke Bland and Dylan Satkunam placed second in their weight classes.
Adams said “everyone shocked me” in that October meet, but now LSUS will measure itself against the nation’s best and isn’t waiting to age.
An attribute of the new generation of college students – they want it now.
“I call them ‘our little freshmen,’” Kauha’aha’a said. “It’s fun to see how you stack up against them because they are fresh 18-year-olds, and well, I’m not.
“Clearly we’re doing something right if all these kids qualified as freshmen. Whether we’re doing something right in recruiting or what we’re doing to develop them when they get here, there’s a strain of competitiveness within them and they are taking the ball and running with it. Other schools will see these lifters for the next four years, but they might as well start now.”
Aside from Pierce’s and LSUS’s legacy in the college weightlifting world, Adams and the program have effectively used Instagram to market themselves to their more than 3,000 hardcore weightlifting followers.
Pensacola, Fla., native Kieven Fischer had heard of LSUS, but it’s the engagement through Instagram that kept him connected to the program.
Fischer enrolled in January and qualified for nationals at a local meet despite dealing with a knee injury.
“I didn’t even plan on going to college, and I was working at a restaurant and lifting,” said Fischer, who thought maybe coaching was his path. “Then I thought that I’d come next fall, but I tore up my knee at a meet and left my coach.
“(Adams) said that I needed to come to LSUS now because I think he was scared of the path I could go down if I stayed. This a great environment with everybody having the same mindset. It’s been a chaotic start to my college journey, but I’m adjusting better than I expected. Weightlifting keeps me centered.”
