Weightlifting Booklet
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The De La Salle College Weightlifting Story Forward - by Dave Hale In compiling this booklet, I feel that the De La Salle Weightlifting Story needs to be told. Amazingly, the sport was introduced by a young student, Adrian Kebbe, in 1974. Over the next forty years, the sport has grown and prospered, with De La Salle providing an assembly line of future champions. Over this time, the College has dominated the State competitions and shown itself to be the best weightlifting school in the State and arguably the Nation. The De La Salle Weightlifting Story The story begins in the Blue and Gold of 1975 and I quote “In February, this year, Adrian Kebbe, a new boy to the school decided to form a school weightlifting team”. This team comprising 14 senior lifters won the Schoolboys Weightlifting Perpetual Trophy in August. By 1976, the team had grown to 31 lifters with Adrian Kebbe as Captain. The Hawthorn Citizens Youth Club Sponsors Adrian and a link is made. The College is State Champions by 25 points and 60 members represent the College through A to E Grades. The team’s success continues in 1977 as De La Salle defends its title. Two lifters Mark Shanahan and Brendan Webster represent Victoria at the nationals (for a silver and bronze). Br. Michael Feenan has been coerced into role as Manager and Adrian continues as Captain/Coach. The team has several younger members and Paul Coffa is thanked for his support and guidance. 1978 is another successful year as De La retains its trophy despite injuries and renovations to the gym. Phil Curtis is Coach and old collegian Adrian Kebbe wins Silver at Edmonton, five boys qualify for Victorian Championship (including evergreen Martin Leach). The college includes weightlifting into house system and Edwins wins. The team photo for 1979 has only eleven lifters but obviously a quality team as we win the ’Puma School Boy Clean and Jerk Competition’ ably led by Brendan Webster. July saw our boys win the Victorian Schoolboy and Youth Championship from Scotch, Xavier CBC North Melbourne and St Albans Tech. De La hosts the National Schoolboy and Youth Championships and four of our lads make the state team with B. Webster getting gold. For some unknown reason 1980 Blue and Gold has no weightlifting section but the 1981 report starts with a bang and I quote “weightlifting undoubtedly reached the peak of its existence at De La Salle in 1981, as a determined team of lifters won almost every event open to them” writes Mark Brittain. De La narrowly defeats Wesley in Victorian Schoolboys. Old Boys Andrew Forrest, Brendan Webster and Marty Leach selected for World Juniors in Italy. Thanks go out to Paul Coffa and team captain S. Lele for a successful year and more boys are making the journey to Hawthorn Recreation Centre to train with the big boys. Ron McIver is mentioned and his influence over the years is immeasurable and he must be recognised for his tremendous service to weightlifting at De La Salle. M. Brittain, K. Harper and M. Leach make junior Worlds in Brazil and B Webster is selected for Commonwealth Games. Arguably, the best lifter to ever come out of De La Salle namely Harvey Goodman appears for the first time in the 1982 Blue and Gold. The team is coached by weightlifting legend Doug Esler and the team shield is lost to arch enemy Wesley by a narrow margin. Ron McIver is firmly entrenched as coach by 1983 and through his efforts 917 boys enter the Clean and Jerk Comp which means we start to accumulate valuable weightlifting equipment (Olympics bar sets) Nick Cumino (super heavy) and Harvey Goodman (67.5kg) win gold and silver. De La wins Vic Schoolboys for 9 times in 12 years on the last lift of the night. Harvey is outstanding gaining gold in 67.5kg class and selection to Victorian Team and wins silver at Nationals. The Sport and Recreation Cup is won at St Albans with final scores De La 99 points to St Albans Tech (94) and Mt Clear Tech (93 points). ‘1984 A Year of Success and growth’ heralds the weightlifting report. We win our 9th Schoolboy Title, a $1000 in the Clean and Jerk Comp and some of our greats appear on the team sheet including A and H Goodman, N. Cumino, S. Haldun, D. Brown, S. Grace, A. Pisani. We enter the Buffalo Weekend League and an ACC League involving Parade, De La, CBC North Melb and St Bede’s is formed (with a comp run over 4 weeks). With Ron McIver coaching 1985 sees some talented lifters leave but “De La Salles’ great depth and the talent found through Clean and Jerk Comp” means the success continues. We win the Schoolboys by 8 points and D. Brown (48kg), S Grace (56kg) and D. Doherty (60kg) win National Schoolboy Titles. We clinch the Sport and Recreation Cup in Ballarat in October. “1987 De La Strong” De La wins Schoolboys for eleventh time in 15 years beating St Bede’s by a solitary point. We retain Sport and Recreation cup and mention is made of the three principal coaches M Dowse, M. Leach and of course R. McIver and the Hawthorn Club. Dom Harrison’s report for 1987 states “De La Salle once again proved itself to be the strongest weightlifting team in Victoria” winning Chiko State League, Sport and Recreation Cup and the Victorian Schoolboys, winning the Schoolboys by a massive 39 points (12th time in 16 years). D. Brown and C. Sinclair represent Victoria at the Nationals. Special mention is made of coaches P. Coffa (Olympic Coach) M Leach and Ron McIver (as State Schoolboy’s coach). The 1988 report is very brief but mentions “De La Salle continued its awesome tradition in weightlifting winning all Schoolboys titles.” S. Holdun (Team Captain) and B Chafer make the Victorian Team. A young M Curtain appears for the first time. Amazingly the 1989 Report claims the 15th State Schoolboy titles, not sure about that but goes onto say that the team is “a model of consistency.” It declares that names like “Mercer, Russo, McIver, Curtain, Beggs and Chafer” could follow in the footsteps of Goodman, Cimino, Brown, Grace, Leach, Webster etc, in wearing the Green and Gold of Australia.” It mentions that we are not just producing champion lifters, but in the case of Marty Leach a Commonwealth Games Coach. In typical De La fashion the report doesn't mention that De La lost Sport and Recreation Cup to St Bede’s under guidance of ex De La Coach Mick Feenan. De La wins all three titles despite losing six very experienced lifters at the end of last year. No report seems available for 1991 but 1992 sees the arrival of a new coach in Brian Grace. De La continues to churn out champion lifters and dominate all competitions. Many significant De La Weightlifting records are smashed this year. Matt Curtain (6 Victorian Schoolboys, 40 De La records in 90 &100kg class. Ian Russo breaks two of Adrian Kebbe’s records (60kg class) and Paul Grace two records (44kg class) including one of Damien Brown’s. The Victorian Schoolboy team to Nationals in Melbourne includes 7 De La boys out of a team total of 14. The boys win 4 Gold and one Silver for Victoria - Gold to P Grace, M. La Rue, I. Russo and M. Curtain. Damien Brown returns to De La Salle in 1993 to teach and naturally takes over weightlifting duties. The team wins both cups including the “18th Championship in only 21 years.” against 13 other schools. Four senior lifters in N, Orloff, P. Grace, M. La Rue and S. Heffernan win Gold at National Schoolboys and Simon Heffernan collects Bronze for Australia in Taiwan. With Damien Brown at the helm the weightlifting reports suddenly become much longer and details many outstanding results. His 1994 report highlights victories in both cups and especially the efforts of Dave Thomas (64kg) clean and jerking 92.5kg. D Wilkinson wins the encouragement award N Orloff, p. Mateos, D. Thomas and W. Italiano make National Schoolboys in Canberra. The Fathers Association refurbishes the College Weight Room. The 1995 team includes some new names and future stars such as Joel De Carteret and Lukas Krajewski. Once again we beat Doncaster and Whittlesea Colleges to win Schoolboy Title with first places to J De Cartevet, M. Chew, N. Orloff, P. Mateos and J. Keed. The first ever Victorian U/16 Championship held in June with 7 De La boys winning gold and 9 others having podium finishes. De La wins Sport and Recreation Cup which is conducted at De La in September. Boys compete in Canberra and Adelaide. Nick Orloff is team captain and many of our boys train and compete at the Hawthorn Weightlifting Club. De La narrowly wins both cups in 1996 beating Doncaster Secondary College by 74 pts to 73 for the schoolboys and Doncaster again by 2 points for S & R Cup. Some standout efforts see Paul Matteos visiting England and Austria (Australian U18 Weightlifting Team). Paul sets 5 Australian U16 records in 59kg class. L Krajewski 4 Victorian U16 records in 70kg class. J De Carferet sets 1 Australian record in U16 and U18 50kg class along with numerous Victorian records. Other notables are M Hornley (Nationals), Dean Hewson and Jacob Reed (State and Nationals). De La faces a tough year in 1997 and wins the Schoolboys by a single point and ties the S & R Cup with Doncaster Secondary College.