PAPILLION, Neb. — The high school powerlifting state championships are coming up later this month. A couple of athletes at Papillion-La Vista South are going for some pretty big individual milestones, and hope to help lead the titans to back-to-back team titles.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Powerlifting wasn’t always on Brette Paul’s radar.
“My eighth grade year my teacher there was like, 'you should get into powerlifting, I see something in you,’” Paul said. “I kind of laughed it off and I was like ‘no.’”
Four years later, the she’s going for her third state title in a row.
What’s kept her coming back?
“I think the mental toughness of it all, like I know that I can do hard things,” she said. “I’ve shown myself that I can push myself and succeed in things that might be hard.
“I don’t think that I would have had my best lifts or have my state titles if I didn’t have the support of my team and everyone else behind me. Having them cheering me on, it just really gives me a boost to keep going, go harder and go for numbers I never thought I would have been able to do.
“As of right now I have six state records, so I hope to maybe improve those or get another one.”
Meanwhile on the boys team, junior Nick Pysh is going for a three-peat of his own.
He got involved after football his freshman year and hasn’t stopped since.
“I just think it’s cool to say I’m the strongest person that most people have probably ever met,” he said. “Personal best squat in-meet is 600, my personal best deadlift out-of-meet was 575, and my personal best bench is 335.”
Yep, that’s in pounds.
And there’s less than two weeks until the state meet to see if he can beat them and win.
“This is the toughest meet I’m ever gonna be in,” Pysh said. “If I get lucky and I perform well, it might happen. I always try to win, and if I can’t win… it is what it is.”
The state meet is Sunday, Feb. 25.
