USAWA

By Eric Todd

Club of the year: Clark’s Gym. Pictured: Joe Caron, Abe Smith, Dave DeForest, Randy Smith, Bill Clark, and Tony Lupo. Not pictured: a host of lifters

I was finally able to award the Club of the Year awards over the past 2 weekend.  The first place finisher was none other than Clark’s Gym. Clark’s is our oldest and longest running club having been officially recognized as a club in the USAWA since 1993.  I can only assume that is when they started recognizing clubs, as I know Clark’s Gym had lifters lifting in the USAWA since its inception. Clark’s had not been exceptionally active for a few years, but made an absolute resurgence over the past couple.  Bill and company have seen old members who have been away for a time return to their all-round roots, as well as drawing in a slew of new lifters into the fold, bring new blood to our organization.  They were the top club at 2021 nationals.  At that same national championships, they took down the top 3 spots in the men’s division, and 4 of the top ten.  They had seven of the top ten in the postal championship.  Two of the top three in the Heavy Lift were Clark’s Gym members, and they had a representative of the gym at Worlds who came in 5th. They had 20 members in 2021, and 22 as of the writing of this article.  I don’t know how the points came out, but I cannot imagine it was close.

KCSTRONGMAN is Runner-Up. Pictured: Lilly Todd, Eric Todd, Everett Todd, John Strangeway, Leroy Todd, Stacy Todd, and Chris Todd. Not Pictured: Lance Foster

Coming in second was my own KCSTRONGMAN club.  Talk about new blood, I think we have collectively reduced the mean age of the USAWA by like 40 years.  We were the runner-up club at 2021 nationals, having  three lifters in the top ten (2 in the men’s division and one in the women’s).  We also had two in the top five at the heavy lift. We had 10 lifters in 2021, and 9 members as of the writing of this article.

I truly believe that one of the means by which we can grow is through the club system.  So find some like-minded people and start up a club if you are flying solo.  Maybe next year your club will be the recipient of one of these plaques!

By Eric Todd

John McKean executing a one dumbbell deadlift

It is with a sad heart that I bring you this news. I got an email today from Marilyn McKean informing me that on Monday, August 15, her husband John passed away unexpectedly. John is a hall of famer (class of 1999), a century club member coming in at number 6 with 329 records, and an overall class act.  He worked the mic for meets, wrote articles for the website (usually quite entertaining, mind you), and was just an overall wealth of knowledge in the strength world.  I recently came across a series of articles he wrote for the kettlebell company “Dragon Door.”  Just a month or two ago, I enjoyed an email chain John and I had going about all round lifting and the USAWA in general.  Our hearts go out to Marilyn and the rest of John’s family.  John, you will be missed, old buddy.  Train in peace…

By Eric Todd

Receiving the Prechtel Contribution Award from Denny Habecker

In the article I wrote about receiving the Ciavattone Courage award from Big Frank, I mentioned that I had a couple surprises.  Well, the Ciavattone award was one of them.  The second was being the recipient of the Prechtel Contribution Award.  This is an award that is in memory of former USAWA president and great, Howard Prechtel, and is to recognize significant contribution to the organizer.  It is a traveling award, and is passed from member to member. The first recipient was Frank Ciavattone, and he was presented the award by Howard’s good friend and Hall of Famer, Bob Geib.  Frank then passed it on to Al Myers, who was the current Secretary/Treasurer at the time.  Al then passed it on to Denny and Judy Habecker for their significant contribution.  They then passed the award on to me.  It is another huge honor, and one I look passing on to the next recipient in the next couple years.