ROBERTSDALE, Alabama — Power to the lifters. The home powerlifting team of Baldwin County held a combination pep-rally and practice meet Friday at ARC of Baldwin in Robertsdale in preparation for the team’s appearance in the Alabama State Powerlifting Championships Feb, 22-23 in Mobile.

The mini meet helps the athletes get used to a crowd as well as simulate the competitive environment of official meets, said ARC of Baldwin County head powerlifting coach Daryl Haskew, a retired special education professional who has worked with intellectually disabled athletes for 30 years.

"It helps get them all used to competition with people watching and cheering. And of course this is our favorite crowd because this is their team. But crowds can be intimidating or encouraging and the athletes need to get used to it. Especially for some new lifters we have this year who have never been in a situation with judges and an audience like they will see. And it also reinforces the idea of following the rules for competing in the state championships coming up. That’s important. We don’t cut any corners, there are no gimme’s or mulligans. They have to follow the same rules of powerlifting as everybody else and I think that discipline is good, especially for our people who compete in the open division. They have to follow the USA PL rules which are the same as international rules so it is a big deal.

“This was also an opportunity for some of our lifters to set new personal records and quite a few did. And it’s also good for the folks here (ARCBC) and the staff to get to cheer for their team because we will be representing them and all of Baldwin County at state. ”

The state championship will take place at Fort Whiting Auditorium at 1630 South Broad Street. Ten members of the BC team will lift on Friday night and five mixed in with the open division on Saturday.

ARC of Baldwin operations manager and Adult Special Olympics coordinator Paul Bishop has been working in both fields with Haskew for more than 25 years. He agrees the power lifting program, going on it’s fifth year in conjunction with ARCBC, is full of heavy-weight positives.

“We really like to host things like this here because it benefits so many,” he said. “The ones in the lifting program get to perform in front of their peers and friends and it has helped the group (team) to grow. After seeing this, we will probably have a few more come up and say they want to try that, too. And the health benefits are great. Just getting involved is good for physical fitness and better health in general everyday. This was Daryl’s brainchild and it’s going great. They really respond to him and his style and Claudette (Baker-Steele, fitness coach), too. They make a good team.”

Veteran teammates and state record holders Michael Cline, Alan Hall and Tony Madaris are hoping to break their existing personal records at state. “I’ve been training hard to get ready,” Hall said. “Get a little nervous, sometimes, it's hard, not easy, to break a record. But I believe I can do it. Just go hard and heavy.”

“Me, too,” Madaris added. “If I work hard I can do more. It’s exciting to get to show off for everybody.”

Cline added that he enjoyed the challenge as well. “It makes me work harder and get stronger when they say ‘challenge’ to me. Makes me try harder. It’s fun like winning and I’m going to try to win a state title again.”

The youngest member of the team is 21 year-old David Hall who is looking forward to the state meet.

“I do have fun doing powerlifting. And with my friends doing workouts, it’s good,” he said. “We workout, help each other, we want to break a record.”

The team owns 13 state records.

“Of course they have to do it right or it doesn’t count,” Haskew said. “But that’s why we practice. It went real well today, but we’ll get back to work to get ready for the big one coming up. We hope we get a bunch of folks to come over there and cheer these athletes on. It means a lot and they appreciate it.”

Haskew is also the state meet director.

For more information, including sponsorship and Fundraiser information for powerlifting or other Special Olympics ARC Baldwin County programs, contact him at: Phone: 251-928-6987 or visit: http://usaplalabama.com/