I lifted in my first meet at the 1980 Del Rio Boys Club Open and won the Novice Men 181 (actually the only entry in that class) and saw Vince Anello deadlift 804 for the last lift of the day. I had an extensive running background including 4 full marathons and had lifted weights on and off since 1971, but after that first meet, I was hooked on powerlifting. I continued competing throughout the ‘80s and ‘90s in a total of 41 meets. As an engineer, we moved around the country and I introduced powerlifting to a gym in Virginia and won the subsequent 1986 Pokomoke Open that we organized. I hooked up with some powerlifters in Fresno, California in the late ‘80s and learned more about the sport (and drugs).

Moving back to Seguin, Texas in 1989, there was no real place to train and that’s when the idea of our own gym came about. With my engineering background, we began designing and building equipment and in 1991 we opened Seguin Fitness in downtown Seguin. The gym was successful and a move to a major shopping center in 1994 increased our visibility and income. We heavily promoted powerlifting and brought many people into the sport as we competed around the state. I did win one major title when I placed first in the 1996 USPF Texas State 40-44 220lb class. I managed to achieve a 1415 total at 198. I was an averager lifter. Great work ethic, no genetics, but I had a lot of fun lifting and competing and loved coaching others to success.

I was always intrigued by the meets we went to and we began running powerlifting meets in 1992. We held the first annual Biggest Bench in Seguin in 1992. The South Texas Championships were held in 1993 for our first full meet and in 1994 was our first USPF sanctioned meet (the USPF South Texas Championships). Our shopping center location turned out to be ideal for meets because we could clear out the gym and have a pretty decent venue with a separate warmup room. By 1996, we were running 4 meets a year and had begun holding meets in Austin – the 1996 USPF Texas Cup at the Austin Hilton.

I was elected the USPF State Chairman at our first USPF Texas State Meet we held in 1997 in Austin. Since then, our meet resume shows the following, not including the 4-5 smaller meets that we held regularly each year:

1998 USPF National Masters/SubMasters Austin

1999 USPF Senior Nationals Dallas

2000 WPL Worlds Corpus Christi

2000 USPF Teenage/High School Nationals Killeen

2002 USPF Junior Nationals Killeen

In 2003, I was elected the APF Texas State Chairman and began promoting APF meets. To date, we have run one nationals for APF, the 2005 APF National Masters/Junior Nationals in Austin.

Our meet schedule began to include contract meets such as the Police Olympics, Firefighter Olympics and various military meets in San Antonio. These were all unsanctioned events for private organizations and we would hire out to bring all the equipment and staff and run the meet for the host.

We had begun working with high schools during the Texas High School Powerlifting Association season (January through March) in 2001 and gradually developed a method of providing a complete power meet on wheels. Flexion Strength Systems,Inc. can provide up to 12 platforms of equipment on two trucks to a high school meet. The setups include platforms, squat racks, bench presses, deadlift jacks, weights, barbells, lights, and everything else required to run a high school meet. We can setup 6 platforms in one hour and move out just as fast. We have supplied equipment to both the Girls State Finals and the Boys State Finals since 2003.

In 2006, we will run 38 meets and continue to develop methods for improving the flow of meets and meet equipment.