Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Combining athletes of all ages, the powerlifting group at Concordia Junior/Senior High School focuses on some core principles: bettering themselves for personal reasons, and becoming better athletes for their sport.
Led by Ryan Peroo, the powerlifting team boasts 34 members, with students from nearly every varsity sport on the roster.
The powerlifting “season” starts at the same time as winter sports, but Peroo said powerlifting is not competition to the varsity sports, “I want as many kids to go out for basketball and wrestling, and once those sports start, I start promoting powerlifting,” said Peroo.
Athletes are able to be on a sports team and still compete in powerlifting practices and meets.
The team has five meets that it competes in, including a state competition: Royal Valley, Basehor-Linwood, WaKeeney-Trego, a Clay Center dual, and a state meet in Iola. These meets can have up to a few hundred spectators and competitors. Unlike a regular varsity competition, students push each other to succeed, whether they are teammates or opponents.
In the Royal Valley meet, the girls team finished in eighth place out of 23 teams, the boys varsity team finished in sixth place out of 29 teams, and the junior varsity boys finished in first place out of 26 teams.
In the Basehor-Linwood meet, the Panthers girls varsity finished 13th out of 27 teams, the boys varsity finished 19th out of 35 teams, and junior varsity finished first out of 30 teams.
In the WaKeeney-Trego Golden Eagles Invite meet last Saturday, the Panther boys got fifth place out of 30, the girls varsity got 13th out of 27.
Members of the 2024-25 powerlifting team are: Baylen Arnold, Eduardo Ayala, Francisco Ayala, Jake Barr, Drake Blochlinger, Jakub Brooks, Brigham Chavey, Heath Cress, Noah Demars, Brady Drury, Braytin Hake, Tre Hamiel, Burklee Jackson, Parker Jackson, Rylie Jessup, Landen Jorgensen, Burke Kindel, Brody Knox, Ayden Krier, Gabi Lange, Jori Letourneau, Cole Liby, Draven Luecke, Kyle McFadden, Mathaeu McVicker, Matthew Naillieux, Jadrian Riley, Caden Stein, Grant Strecker, Stella Trost, Nevaeh Valcoure, Harley Weathersbee, Ryker Wildeman, and Koehn Williams.
“After joining powerlifting, I started doing good in school,” said Mathaeu McVicker. “I was motivated to keep my grades up. If there is something you love doing, you should always chase after it.”
“Powerlifting has been a place where I have been able to get better and work hard with people who care,” said Kyle McFadden. “Being a senior on this team has given me an opportunity to push the next generation of Concordia athletes as far as we can go. My best memories of high school come from being in this weight room with my friends. Coach Peroo has set up this team to build an incredible culture and I am grateful to be a part of it.”
“Powerlifting, to me, is not how physically strong I am, but mentally strong to keep pushing myself to the limits,” said Jori Letourneau.
