Pumping Iron

CELINA - Mercer Developmental Disabilities hosted the first annual Power in the Park event in Bryson Park for Special Olympic Powerlifters from five Ohio counties on Saturday.

Contestants from Mercer County were joined by lifters from Miami County, Madison County, Champaign County and Morrow County for bench presses and deadlifts at the Bryson Park amphitheater, with a large crowd in attendance.

"We just do it for the athletes," coach Jason Wells said. "Put them on a stage and watch them change."

Wells, along with head coach Mike Wolfe, has been working with the Iron Will Powerlifting group from Mercer County for the past two years.

Sam Fledderjohann, the Mercer County special Olympics coordinator, started the group after getting interest from the Special Olympic athletes and reaching out to Matt Shindeldecker at CrossFit Crave, who opened the gym to the athletes.

After starting with seven athletes, the group has grown to 23 and hopes to see more growth after Saturday's event.

"Their friends are here, and they're saying, 'Oh, I'm going to do it next year, I'm doing it next year,'" said Fledderjohann. "It's not the last thing (the athletes) are going to do, but the season ends at the end of June, and then we'll start again in September."

Since its founding, Iron Will Powerlifting has attended events coordinated by other counties, but Saturday was the first time Mercer County played host.

"When it came time that the pandemic was starting to open up some things for us, we said, 'Let's do an outside meet,'" Fledderjohann said. "Boy, did we get lucky. Good crowd, and the athletes are excited to be here.

"We look next year for there to be 10-12 counties here, because so many counties wanted to come but they weren't allowed to by their county restrictions yet."

Wells, who also works as an assistant coach for the New Bremen football team, has coached powerlifting for a number of different gyms as well as football players. Working with Special Olympic athletes, who often have no experience with lifting, requires repetition and sometimes starting from the ground up.

"Even where to put their feet and how to put their hands, and it's repetitive, to remind them of that," Wells said. "Where they look, how their focus is, how they breathe. It's really teaching everything from the basics. When you go to another athlete that's playing football or whatever, they pick it up a lot faster. So there is a difference, but you get a lot more enjoyment and gratification out of this, because it doesn't matter what weight it is, they love it."

20-year-old Denzel Hart was one of the headliners of the day for Mercer County, aiming to match his personal best of 425 pounds with the goal of eventually lifting 500.

"I want to be a professional, and I've been doing it for a long time," Hart said. "I got other things, I'm a bodybuilder too. I do it to help people, and when my coaches get old, I'll probably help them run the thing too. So I do it just for the love of sport, just to help out."

Power in the Park drew about 100 in attendance, which both Fledderjohann and Wells found encouraging.

"If you ever come to these events, you'll see the pure joy in their face," Wells said. "All the lifters are cheering each other on. If anything, you're going to leave with a smile on your face and a tear in your eye and want to be more involved in it."