BSU Powerlifting Club Reunion

Last night I attended the reunion of the original BSU Powerlifting Club. Of course the reunion was actually of the original group of powerlifters in Southwest Idaho that basically got the sport started back in the 1978 time frame, but is started with the BSU team.
I was introduced to the group in about 1981 and worked out with them down at the YMCA in Boise and under the BSU stadium every once in awhile. Great times...Great stories...Great memories.
What was so interesting last night as I scanned the room at the aged faces was the love of the sport that originally got us all together was still so evident. Even though most haven't competed in years or even decades, each person in the room was eager to share their powerlifting experiences and stories from the past. Everyone was very excited to visit and take pictures and of course share a moment or two that they remembered from those days with the iron.
A few are still lifting regularly and a couple are either still competing or getting ready for a competition, including Jerry Englebert, a 74 year old, who figured he still had at least one more good competition in him and after not being in the weightroom for a number of years, went in for his first deadlift routine and pulled 400lbs...at 74!!! What a great gentleman and competitor. I am hoping he will attend our Idaho State Open this December and wow everyone with his skill in this sport.
I myself used the opportunity to spread the word of our current young lifters and let everyone know that powerlifting was still alive and doing quite well in Idaho. I even gave an update on the two young teenage lifters that will be representing Team USA at the Sub-Junior/Junior World Championships.
Everyone was quite pleased that what we had started so long ago was still being preserved through the lifting of so many young lifters here in Idaho.
Of course the evening was not without the sad news of fellow Idaho lifters who we have lost. We shared stories of them and remembered them as the great friends and lifters who played such a major part in the original development of this sport we call "powerlifting" in Idaho.
I certainly hope the young lifters I deal with on a weekly basis will cherish these quickly passing years of lifting and will keep their experiences close to them as they too age. The years spent competing in this sport are far too short lived and become memories far too quickly. But they are memories to be shared and enjoyed as we shared last evening...Thank each and every person that attended our little event. It was so wonderful to visit and rekindle the relationships that had dimmed over the years. May we be able to do it again and again...