LIVE OAK, Fla. (WTXL) — State championships will be crowned for girls' weightlifting in the state of Florida this weekend. At Suwannee High School, they are ready to host the Class 1A and 2A meets.
Suwannee is not the original host. That honor belonged to Arnold High School in Panama City Beach. The decision to move the meet came from the FHSAA around the Christmas break, as Suwannee was determined to be better equipped to meet the safety standards for holding a weightlifting event. Though it came on short notice, the Bulldogs feel ready to host the big event, and they're excited to do so too.
"There were several little things but our school has been putting those in place the whole year," said Dan Marse, a weightlifting coach at the high school. "We were one of the few schools able to start our strength program a little earlier in the summer because we were very involved with the CDC on how we could implement things in small programs. So we had a good handle on how to get to this point.
"Our community is really involved in our program anyways, they always make sure our kids have everything they need," added Brittney Shearer, another weightlifting coach at Suwannee. "They feed them, clothe them, they take care of them so we're really excited to kind of bring it here and our community can enjoy it too."
St. Cloud High is hosting the 3A meet this weekend. More information on the state meet can be found here, while a list of qualifiers for each classification can be found here.
