Clean sweep! December 13th was the first meet of the season, in this very town, and the Cannon Falls weightlifting team was able to capture first place in both JV and Varsity. The weightlifting team finished the day with five new school records, resulting in more than a dozen medals to be handed out to these sturdy athletes. This phenomenal outcome is due to the hard work of the team, and the real muscle behind the program– the coaches.

Out of all the sports in Cannon Falls, weightlifting is the only one to hold their practices before school starting at 6:10 a.m. Each and every teammate is keen to remember this time, because if a lifter is late the whole team has to do five burpees per minute the person is late. Thus, if two teammates are five minutes late, the team does fifty burpees. The quirky part of this rule is that the late lifter has to helplessly sit and watch his team endure the punishment. As a result, the weightlifting team’s tardy rate is quite miniscule.

The weightlifting team’s head coach, Scott Safe, conceived this effective rule. The Bomber’s are also led by Josh Hofstedt, Tad Ulrich, and Mitch Otto. With this distinguished coaching staff the team continues to improve and numbers continue to grow. Coaches from around Minnesota come to watch the team train, although, most would say the coaches come to watch the coaching staff to see how Cannon’s instructors have structured the workout, teach the athletes, and lead the practice. “For me, and my family, weight training has been a great way of life.” Safe adds, “I’m always excited to see people take it up, whether they are young or old, competitor or just for general health.” Helping athletes isn’t a job to them. To them, it’s a privilege to watch young men and women thrive, and to be a part of it.

The next meet takes place in Rosemount, on January 17th. The team expects to have another successful meet to start off the new year.

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