USAWA

By Eric Todd

My family has certainly been instrumental in KCSTRONGMAN.  When I was running the “Missouri’s Strongest Man: Gus Lohman Memorial challenge” strongman meet, it could have not gone on without my family.  Mom, dad, sister, brother in law, neices and wife ran the concession stand/raffle at the meet, which brought in huge totals for our charity, Camp Quality.  My brother Leroy (real name is Chris, but he has been Leroy to me for over 25 years) became the official score keeper at the meet, never making a mistake.  My dad did some powerlifting meets with me a number of years ago, and still comes out to lift most Saturdays.  You can imagine my joy when Leroy decided to become a member of the KCSTRONGMAN USAWA club!

Leroy was born in 1979, 4.5 years my junior. I reckon we were somewhat like other sibling pairs, me, being older, the tormentor and he the tormentee.  As I found interest in weights at an early age, I did convince him to come out the the milk barn at times to give it a try.  When I started wrestling at 9, I talked him into trying it at 5.  It seems like all through my life, I have been talking Leroy into coming along with me.  Even when we got older, when I was faced with a crappy social situation (not my forte) I convinced him to come along.  Though probably not fair to him, it certainly created a closeness and a bond between us.

Outside of our jacking about with the concrete set in the milkbarn, Leroy did not start lifting until his Freshman year of high school, where he worked out with the wrestling team and during a weight training class. With my help, he came up with a routine that his football coach agreed to that was based around movements I identified for him that would help him succeed in wrestling. Though a rather late bloomer, he was pretty successful as a high school wrestler.  He won our conference meet, qualified for State, and beat many of the big players around the state at some time or another.

After Leroy graduating from high school, Leroy and I took to working out together during the summers when I was home from college. We took our workouts in an outfit called Camelot Fun and Fitness.  It was OK, but not ideal.  We lifted there for a couple summers, and though it was enjoyable to lift together, the environment was not the best.  It was hard to get as enthusiastic as one would like with Oprah blaring over the set.  We ultimately saved our gym fees and started buying equipmet to add to the set that I had inherited from a friend.  We continued lifting together in my parents basement for a time.

After that time. Leroy took a long pause in his athletic ventures.  18 years later. he took a renewed interest in lifting weights and started working out again.  Though he started back just doing lighter weight repetition movements, he soon increased his poundages and was lifting heavy again.  At the suggestion of his wife, Leroy came out to watch when we lifted at the KCSTRONGMAN Record day/2nd quarter postal in June of 2017.  While there, he played around with a few of the lifts.  Leroy decided that participating in the USAWA would help him stay consistent in his training.  He has been active ever since.

Leroy’s first competition was the 2017 Old Time Strongman meet, where he came in tenth.  He improved on that at this year’s chamionship moving up four places to sixth.  He has competed in every postal since that time along with the KCSTRONGMAN club.  He even lays claim to four national records in just one year of competing.  It has been a blast lifting with my brother again.  And with the progress he has made in a short amount of time, I cannot wait to see what Leroy’s future with the USAWA brings.