Height: 5' 5"
Weight: 175 lbs
DOB: 2/9/83
Hometown: Aurora, IL

I have been lifting weights for about five years. I started lifting for
football on the offseason. I soon realized that I actually enjoyed
off season weight lifting more than the football season. Even though I
was only a place kicker for football, I was one of the strongest guys on
the team.

I got into powerlifting through the internet. I liked lifting weights
so much that I wanted to compete. I was surprised to find that Aurora, IL is
the home of the American Powerlifting Federation run by Ernie Frantz.
He is a great guy and has been a great help with fitting me into my
equipment and has always given me price breaks.

I entered my first meet back in 2000 in the APF/AAPF IL State Meet. I
was hooked ever since. I continued to powerlift when I lifted in the
APF Nationals right here in Aurora. I qualified for WPC Worlds, but
unfortunately hurt my lower back while training for Worlds. I was
planning on trying to break the world squat record. After numerous
doctors and physical therapists, a year later I could finally start to
lift heavy again.

I got back into competing this year with IL State Meet and two weeks
later at AAPF Nationals in Pensacola, FL. Nationals was my best
performance yet. I set AWPC world records in the squat and bench press,
with 228 and 138 kgs respectively. I was also named Outstanding Lifter
in the Men's Teens for the meet. I am going to do two more meets this
summer: the APA IL State Meet run by Roger and AWPC Worlds in Athens, GA.

I am currently a PE and Exercise Science double major at Elmhurst
College here in Illinois. I am not exactly sure what I'm going to do
with my degree. I am getting the PE teaching certificate so I will have
that option to go into teaching, although I'm not sure I will. I will
probably end up going to get a masters in Exercise Science or something
and go from there.

I want to keep competing in powerlifting for as long as I can. I
believe I have a future to be fairly successful in powerlifing. I don't
know if I have the ability to be a professional someday (or if that will
be possible regardless), but I'm going to take powerlifting as far as I
can go.

Email Eric