ANSONIA – On Saturday, Ansonia High School held its first Powerlifting Invitational, with seven schools competing.
“This is our third year having a powerlifting team,” said Ansonia athletic director Clay George. “Right now, we treat it as a club sport. We are starting to gain a lot of interest.”
Ansonia alum Kurt Moneysmith coaches the powerlifting program. Moneysmith served Ansonia for 12 years as the school’s athletic trainer before getting his RN nursing degree.
“Kurt has helped grow the powerlifting program,” George stated. “Seeing some of the established programs in the area like Bradford and Tri-Village, some of those schools have big numbers in power lifting and his goal is to get to that size as well.”
Many Ansonia coaches, former athletes, parents, Elementary Principal Ashlee Fourman, Jr/Sr High School Principal Dan Marnes, and School Superintendent PJ Burgett volunteered, making the day a big success.
“We’ve had a lot of help, which is greatly appreciated,” said George. “With our first meet, we wanted to run it the best as we can and take some notes and continue to try and improve and keep having it.”
“We have many football players out here,” said Ansonia football coach Adam Hall. “It’s good because there are a lot of students that may not be in any sports out here competing. Our weightlifting numbers have been huge so far this offseason.”
Coach Moneysmith played football for the Ansonia Tigers before playing at the college level; he talked about Ansonia sports and his history with the school while now coaching the powerlifting program.
“We wanted to bring a powerlifting meet to Ansonia,” Moneysmith said. “We wouldn’t have been able to do it without all the volunteers. PJ Burgett and Clay George helped spearhead this, with our other teams and parents helping and the volunteer judges. We wouldn’t be able to do it without them. Bradford let us borrow some of their equipment, so it helps it run a lot smoother.”
“I was an athletic trainer for 12 years, and then I went back to get my nursing degree, became an RN, and the position opened up. Mr. Burgett contacted me about a possible position. After looking into it and talking to my family – my kids go to school here, so it worked out. I’m in my first year. I am glad to be back as a Tiger.”
“Playing sports in high school, I’ve been into weightlifting my whole life. Going to college and playing football there, I got introduced to it and as an athletic trainer. When Coach Macy was here, he had me run the weight room. Now, Coach Hall is here, and he and Mr. Grilliot run the weight room. I wanted to be still involved in the weight room, so we started a powerlifting team three years ago when Coach Hall came just to give them kids that don’t play a winter sport something to work towards and it has helped out with our sports programs.”
“Coach Hall and Coach Grilliot do a wonderful job. We have lifting in the morning and after school, and then I have powerlifting after elementary school gets out. We also have classes after school throughout the day, so there are multiple opportunities for kids to come and work out. They don’t have to be just from a specific sports team, they don’t have to be just a football player. We have females and males; they can come to anything. We want Ansonia kids to grow whatever sport they choose because getting stronger will only benefit them in their sports.”
“We limit powerlifting to the high schoolers,” Moneysmith added. “Other schools do have junior high kids, but with our junior high kids, we’re trying to work more on form and development and that is a lot of what Coach Grilliot does with the junior high kids. They’ll do the same workouts, but we are focusing in on form; that way, when they do get to high school, we can focus on adding weight and just little techniques, because once you get that base with the student, it’s a lot easier to gain weight. They understand more about high school and how it might relate to their sport.”
