USAWA

By Eric Todd

Abe Smith-Athlete of the Year

Abe Smith earned our Athlete of the year award this past year.  Never is there a meet in which Abe is not one of the favorites.  He competes for Clark’s Championship Gym, and has been a force since he was a teen.  He was the overall men’s national champion in 2021.  He was second in the postal championship, and 3rd in the Schmidt Backbreaker.  Abe has really picked up his participation in the past couple years, and has become a dominant force.  I used to call him microscopic Hercules, due to him being smaller than me, but he is a force, regardless f bodyweight.  I feel good about my lifting (at a much greater bodyweight, mind you) if I have comparable results  to Abe.  Well deserved, and Abe.  congrats!

By Eric Todd

Calling all USAWA lifters! The time is now to get your entry in to the world championship meet being held here in the states by none other than our president, Denny Habecker in Pennsylvania.  The entry deadline is set for September 2nd for anyone who wants to be guaranteed an award or a shirt.  Get those entries in the mail!  This is a great opportunity to make your mark on the world stage.  Hope some of you can get out to PA and represent the great USA.

By Eric Todd

Joe Garcia-Courage Award runner-up

The courage award description reads as follows:

This goes to an individual who shows the courage to overcome an obstacle in order to return to competition. This may be a comeback from an injury, or just having to deal with difficult personal issues but still shows the courage to compete in the USAWA.

As was already announced, first place in this category went to Dean Ross.  I was able to get the runner-up award delivered last weekend at Clark’s Birthday Bash, and it went to Joe Garcia of Clark’s Gym.  Joe is a Hall of Famer from the class of 1997.  He can boast by far the best Hand and Thigh lift in the history of the IAWA and the USAWA.  It was the fighting spirit by which he worked toward these two accolades that allowed him to successfully conquer one of his biggest challenges to date. This past year saw him battle what seemingly could have been a deadly bout of Covid.  It was so bad, that he had to be hospitalized and put on a ventilator, which is often a death sentence in these kinds of cases.  It wasn’t to be in Joe’s case, though.  He got off the ventilator, out of the hospital, and got back to work.  Last time I saw, he was up to completing somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 pushups.  It is clearly a rough thing to have endured but does make him more than worthy of this award.  Way to go, Joe.  Glad you are still kicking, and congrats on the award!

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…