Seven Albert Lea High School students recently took part in the first weightlifting program designed to reward athletes with a letter for their participation and the majority of the participants saw gains from their hard work.

Albert Lea weight room supervisor Jerry Bizjak launched the program during the winter sports season with the goal of generating more interest in athletes taking advantage of the weight room to get stronger.

Building stronger athletes has been a goal for a number of coaches and the results of the first group showed the benefits of working out on a consistent basis.

The seven athletes worked on the Olympic lifts, the bench press, the squat, and the clean and jerk, from November to March. They were tested three different times during the winter and required to make 10 percent gains.

The gains in the bench press ranged from 10 pounds to 45 pounds for the athletes while the squat improvements went from 15 to 65 pounds and clean totals ranged from 20 to 30 pounds.

Bizjak and the athletes were impressed by the gains they were able to make and Bizjak says the first program has sparked more interest. For the spring season Bizjak said he has 10 to 12 new athletes signed up to try the program. He would like to see those numbers continue to rise.

During the winter the seven athletes worked out three to four days a week an hour and 15 minutes each day on a variety of exercises and some of the athletes competed in an Olympic weightlifting contest in Northfield.

Northfield has had an Olympic weightlifting program in place for a number of years and the number of athletes participating has grown steadily over those years. It’s a model that Bizjak would like to follow with the Albert Lea athletes.

“The strength coach at Northfield, he said the first year he tried doing it he had one kid, then a dozen,” Bizjak said. “Now he has 40 something kids competing. I have that in the back of my mind of something to shoot for.”

Getting athletes to bulk up in the weight room is an important piece especially for football. Albert Lea hasn’t had the number of athletes out for football like other schools in the Big Nine and its offensive and defensive lines have been undersized in the past. Gaining strength during the offseason will go a long way to becoming more competitive on the football field.

Building confidence and camaraderie was an important piece of the program and Bizjak was pleased at what the program accomplished in those aspects.

“The things I was happiest with was, not only the strength and the confidence, but the teamwork aspect of it,” Bizjak said. “The camaraderie side of it will help a lot. Many of them were happy with themselves and proud of themselves for doing it.”

Two athletes Derik DeVries and Anthony Farr saw some of the biggest gains of the group, partly because they had never seen much time in the weight room.

DeVries gained 40 pounds in his bench press, 65 pounds in the squat, and 30 pounds in the clean and jerk. He also gained 13 pounds during the season.

Farr gained 30 pounds in the bench press, 80 pounds in the squat, and 35 pounds in the clean and jerk.

A number of people saw the improved strength of the athletes over the course of the season and were impressed, Bizjak said.

The program is open to all athletes and there is no fee. For the spring season Bizjak said he has some wrestlers and soccer players who will participate for the first time.

Bizjak has been working in the weight room for the past 11 years and at the end of the program he told the group that out of his 11 years this was the year he was happiest after seeing the gains the athletes made.