Students and staff at Simpson are organizing a powerlifting club on campus that will be open to all students.

This club will expose people to the sport of powerlifting and is designed for anyone to join and allows students to compete in local and nationwide lifting competitions. The club’s goal is to have fun and promote fitness and exercise differently from the other health clubs on campus. The club will utilize the Simpson weight room facility and be sure to practice safe social distancing.

President of the club Lucas Volf, Vice-President Brennan Linn, Marketing Executive Keaton Baccam, Treasurer Tanner Sink, and Secretary Jacob Volf have been lifting together and have always wanted to start competing in powerlifting. They decided to bring up competing to Simpson’s strength and condition coaches Coach Craig Konrardy and Coach Kenadi Batchelor. Both supported the idea. 

“We thought about starting this club Feb. 22, filled out paperwork the same day, and started asking around,” Lucas said. 

After realizing how many people were interested in this idea, the students proposed it to Rich Ramos, Associate Dean of Students, on Feb. 25 and got approved right away.

“He was very impressed with the number of members we had in such a short amount of time without actually branching out and marketing it,” Lucas said. 

The club will be named the Simpson College Powerlifting Club and will hopefully receive Simpson’s funding within the next week. They will be scheduling a meeting in a week or two for anyone to attend. Once the funding is approved and they have a meeting, members will start training for the first competition. All members can join for free. 

“Funding will be for necessary equipment to get everything running. We will sell t-shirts every year as well as supplements for money that will go into traveling/registration for competitions,” Lucas said. 

Currently, the club is not promoting any brands but plans to. They hope to reach out to Gear Athletics and Taking Initiative, both fitness brands created by Simpson students. 

“We also will promote the Simpson Fitness classes and currently are in close communication with a local shop in Indianola about clothing. This will help our club as well as a local business,” Lucas said. 

Coach Konrardy will be the advisor and help teach about the sport and technique. 

“I am excited that students want to join this club and learn the ins and outs of our lifting program,” Konrardy said. 

The club will start by competing in Des Moines and even hope to host their own competition at Simpson in the future. “Some people fear joining a club because they feel as if they have to participate in everything or they will get kicked out. That is not something our executive leaders believe in. We will allow anyone to join and do as much as they are comfortable with,” Lucas said. 

The club currently has a total of 35 members, with 11 of them being females. Sophomore Alex Hommer, an elementary education major, decided to join the club because of his passion for working out and the opportunity to make new friends.

“I am excited to start working out with new people and making new connections. I will compete if I can work it in my schedule with football,” Hommer said. 

The club executives are starting up Instagram and Twitter profiles to advertise the club and keep the community updated.

“We encourage anyone to join, regardless of being an athlete or not. It is open to anyone and everyone,” Lucas said.