The News-Press selects athletes that stood out the week before based on a combination of coach reports and school nominations sent to [email protected] and our coverage. Those athletes are put in a poll each Monday on news-press.com and you, our readers, vote on who you think did it best. The winners of The News-Press Athlete of the Week poll sponsored by Elevate Home Services receive a T-shirt from BSN Sports and a tote bag from the USA Today High School Sports Awards. To get to know our winners better, The News-Press will have a question-and-answer session with each athlete.
The News-Press Athlete of the Week sponsored by Elevate Home Services winner for Jan. 27-Feb. 1 was Bishop Verot girls weightlifter Lainey Hooper with 53% of the vote. The senior won regional championships in Traditional and Olympic lifting in the 129-pound weight class. She had lifts totaling 290 pounds in Traditional and 270 pounds in Olympic to earn the nomination.
Question: How did you start weightlifting?
Hooper: So I’ve always just been strong, just like naturally. In my freshman year, I saw that they offered it here at Verot and I just wanted to give it a try and ended up loving it.
What’s it been like watching the program grow from where you were as a freshman to now where your tam is a district and regional champion?
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Hooper: It’s been great to see the program grow. I mean, we went from getting district runner-up my freshman year to now getting a regional title in the traditional category. And my junior year, our program was totally revamped. And, you know, form was really emphasized, and strength training and everyone just really came together and decided to put their best work in.
What advice would you give a freshman who wanted to be a weightlifter or a high school athlete?
Hooper: My advice would be, show up every day, be consistent, put your all in, and you’re gonna get the results that you want if you’re willing to put the work in.
If you weren’t weightlifting what other sport would you play?
Hooper: Maybe track, I’m not sure, because I do wrestling as well and weightlifting introduced me to wrestling.
How did you get into wrestling?
Hooper: I started my sophomore year. Because they were like, oh, weightlifting girls are strong, they should come wrestle. And I was like, OK, I guess I’ll try it.
What do you see yourself doing in the future?
Hooper: I want to go to school for wrestling, but I want to continue weightlifting in the future and hopefully maybe even compete in competitions and just keep going from there.
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