Wildcats' Joyer can't stay still

Football standout is intent on setting weightlifting, track records.

By Joey Knight, Times Staff Writer
Published March 13, 2008

WESLEY CHAPEL - The most heavily recruited male athlete in Wesley Chapel history is sitting on a stool in the school's weight room when football coach John Castelamare enters and plops a stack of letters on a table.

All are addressed to Wildcats junior offensive guard Kamran Joyer. The mail, like Joyer's diet these days, is bereft of junk. A diversity of Division I letterhead - Ole Miss, Illinois, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, to name a few - adorns the envelopes.

"He has over a thousand letters," said his dad, Jack.

Some time this summer, Kamran Arthur Roy Evers Joyer the middle names are in honor of his grandfathers is expected to commit to a major university and culminate an aggressive recruiting process. But for now, all he's truly committed to is Wildcat athletic immortality.

Joyer is on the cusp of two school records - in separate sports.

The 675-pound total he hoisted in a weightlifting meet last week (400 bench press, 275 clean-and-jerk) is 5 pounds shy of Tommy Edwards' school record. He fell short again at a meet Wednesday, but appears a lock to ultimately break the mark if not first upstaged by younger brother Hunter, who also has totaled 675.

Additionally, he'll try to break Vince Chalecki's school record (49 feet, 93/4 inches) in the shot put at Friday's Wildcat Fast Times Invitational at Wesley Chapel. Chalecki, a Wiregrass Ranch assistant, will be there.

"He has a very good shot," said 'Cats throws coach Tyler Garrett, a former all-SEC thrower at Tennessee. "He threw 50 feet, 41/2 (inches) in practice on Friday, and that was practice."

Skeptics may question the significance of Joyer's feat, suggesting weightlifting and track are little more than organized extensions of year-round football training. Such claims aren't altogether invalid.

But coaches argue Joyer's pursuits nonetheless require time, technique and, every now and again, torture. When asked when he knows he has had a good weight workout, Joyer replies, "When I'm really tired, when I can barely stand up."

Joyer says he lifts weights, either at school or the New Tampa YMCA, every day (excluding competition days). Morning and evening protein shakes serve as bookends to a diet featuring three protein-heavy meals a day.

As a thrower, he's as technically sound as he is disciplined, having competed in the shot and discus since seventh grade.

Strength "is important," Garrett said. "But I've seen guys that are very, very strong and if you don't have technique, strength will only carry you so far."

But strength and technique?

Joyer is hoping that carries him to Wesley Chapel sports lore.

[Last modified March 12, 2008, 22:35:10]