Powerlifting
Button sewed up senior year in fine fashion

Button sewed up senior year in fine fashion

By Greg Ford
Sports Editor
gford@wylienews.com

MURPHY (June 4, 2008) - Jeff Button’s initial foray into the sport of powerlifting began in a rather interesting fashion.

During his junior year at Parish Episcopal, Button, a Murphy resident, was recovering from a broken arm and saw weightlifting as a way to regain his strength.

It didn’t take long for the young man to realize that he enjoyed the activity.

“So powerlifting was just a good competitive-type thing that had to do with weightlifting, and that interested me,” Button said.

“I thought I could compete really well if I tried it out,” he added.

Unfortunately in his first meet, Button was disqualified during the squat event.

“That was the only meet I ever did (as a junior),” Button said.
He returned to the sport as a senior following football season. This time around, the 160-pound Button experienced more success.

A lot more.

In February, the University of Mississippi-bound Button won four gold medals in the 165-pound weight class at the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools State Powerlifting Championship in Dallas.

Button won the bench press (265 pounds), squat (445), dead lift (430) and the all-around (combined weight of 1,140).

“I loved it, and that’s why I want to try to continue in college. It’s a sport that I found that I really excelled at,” he said.
Dealing with heavy weight was nothing new for Button, who, as a 160-pound nose tackle, often battled centers twice his size.

“Strengthwise, I was one of the strongest guys on the team, so that is why they put me on the D-line. I retained my quickness as a I got stronger,” he said.

His efforts, as well as those of his teammates, produced an 8-3 record in just the Panthers’ second year of varsity competition, a six-game regular-season improvement over 2006.

They defeated Arlington Grace Prep in the postseason’s opening round but then lost to eventual state champ Argyle Liberty Christian in the second round.

After hanging up his shoulder pads, Button turned toward powerlifting, often finding himself working out twice a day, four times a week. Some weeks, he noted, the coaches sometimes had team members do “lots of reps and low weights” and then would reverse it for several sessions.
“It really takes a lot of dedication. Some people don’t like to work out a whole lot. I like to work out, so I go into the weight room and train really hard,” Button said.

The senior often took some of his lunch period to lift — leaving about 20 minutes to eat — and then was back at it when school ended.

“It was really convenient, because my dad works kind of late, around 5:30 to 6 p.m. Basically, I had a lot of time to kill after school before I could leave,” Button said. “I could get a good hour or hour and a half of lifting in before that.”

Button, who plans to study exercise science in college, expects to keep lifting this summer and at Ole Miss. The university doesn’t have a competitive powerlifting team, but Button wants to establish one as a club sport.

Should he be as successful in that endeavor as he was competing, then there will be some mighty strong students strolling along the campus in Oxford.

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