Ridgewood girls pull own weight

By STEVE LEE

© St. Petersburg Times, published March 22, 2000

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Track coach Sue Vien chuckled when informed Ridgewood sprinter Margarita Salas was going out for the girls weightlifting team in 1998.

The idea of Salas, now a 5-foot-2, 101-pound junior, pumping iron was no laughing matter. Salas has amassed a 19-0 record and last spring was among four returning Rams -- along with Lauren Spena, Emanda Doscher and Jen Wittstock -- to win a Sunshine Athletic Conference championship.

"I had to kind of prove her wrong," Salas said.

Salas' latest challenge is to finish her high school career as a weightlifter with a perfect record. She also aims to help the Rams defend their SAC title.

"We just work harder," Salas said. "You get out of it what you put into it and we really want to win."

Football coach Wayne Parzik led the inaugural girls weightlifting team, which posted a 10-0 record in 1998. He fired up the girls by painting the Ridgewood weightlifting room in Pasco colors for the first meet. The Rams welcomed the Pirates with a convincing win.

"It wasn't even close," Parzik said, though he could not recollect the score. "They were real competitors right off the bat. They just attacked it."

With three victories in the first three tri-meets of the season, the Rams still are attacking the metal bar and steel weights with success.

To Nancy Edwards, a junior with three victories in the 138-pound class, winning the first SAC title (no SAC meet was held the first season of girls weightlifting in Pasco County) "showed what school had the best athletes."

Edwards, who finished third in last year's SAC meet, says winning has rubbed off on the Rams.

"We feel confident in every meet that we're in," she said. "There's no doubt in my mind."

Coach Keisha Starnes, who replaced Parzik as coach, also leads Ridgewood's cheerleading squads. She encouraged cheerleaders to lift weights and 16 on the roster are cheerleaders.

"They pick up other girls," Starnes said. "It's just like lifting weights, just in a different way."

Spena, a sophomore, said winning a conference title has built her confidence as well as helped her in cheerleading and dance classes. She has noticed an increase in strength when dancing to jazz and ballet.

Sophomore Andrea Sablan was quick to point out the importance of spotters in this sport. A discus and shotput thrower in track, as well as captain of the school's club bowling team, Sablan has one victory this season in the 158 class. Her left elbow gave out in the team's other two tri-meets.

"I was really upset. I got mad," Sablan said. "When I went to bring (the bar) back up, my arm was all tingly and I couldn't do it.

"If you didn't have a spotter, the weight would come down and it would crush you."

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