Chapter 9

I don't know where the time went, but before I knew it Christmas was just around the corner. Christmas in our house was more about the traditions, the decorations, and the religious significance of the day, than it was about presents. Jack and I always received underwear and socks, maybe a shirt or two. Things that we really needed. Mom and Dad would get something for the house. It wasn't like the scenes from "A Christmas Carol" but it was close. We never seemed to notice or care.

On Christmas day, after breakfast, we gathered around the tree, it was Jack's job to distribute the presents. He gave Mom and Dad a neatly wrapped box, the next box he picked up had his name on it, the last box must be mine I thought. I watched as Jack leaned over to pick it up, instead of the box moving to him, however, he fell towards the box.

"What the heck is that, it's awful heavy?"

I reached over and slid the box to me. It was heavy. I looked up at Mom and Dad, they were smiling.

"I thought you could use this more than underwear and socks," Dad chuckled.

I ripped off the paper and opened the plain cardboard box and squealed with joy,

"Thank you, thank you Daddy, Mom."

Inside the box were two twenty five pound plates for my weight set. That meant that now I could continue to increase the weight over time to a maximum of two hundred and fifteen pounds.

That evening, I went down stairs and rearranged the weights on my bar. I added another ten pounds in total. I did two full sets and ten reps on my third when I felt I had reached my limit. Yes, it was a Merry Christmas indeed for me.

School resumed and the days seemed to go on forever. Schoolwork and homework were just chores that I had to do. I was friends with quite a few of my classmates, but none were as close to me as Joann had been. We had started to drift apart; our interests seemed to be taking us down different roads. She was one of the most popular girls in our year; she always seemed to have at least one or two boyfriends. I was still several months away from being allowed to date, so I concentrated on my work outs.

In mid February, I decided it was time to tell the track coach that I was planning to try out for the field events; shot putt, javelin, and discus throwing. Coach Jenkins was about forty five years old, trim, with the body of a distance runner. He looked up at me from his desk and asked if I had any experience.

"No, I said, but I'm pretty strong. Is there anything I can do now to get ready of the season?"

"Meet me here in your gym clothes after school, tomorrow. I'll put you through some tests."

I went home that day, told my parents what I was going to do and I arranged to get a ride home after school. The next day after school, I went to the girls' locker room, changed into my gym clothes and walked over to the gym office. The coach asked me to follow him. We went into a room off to the side of the gym; there were several weight sets, a couple of benches, and a tread mill.

"The events that you are asking about all require a lot of strength if you wish to excel in them. Let's find out how strong you are."

I looked over at the bar on one of the benches. It had two twenty five pound plates on each side. I watched as the coach walked over and started to remove one of the plates.

"Coach, stop, don't take off any weight."

He shrugged his shoulders and said,

"Are you sure, that's a lot of weight for a girl to handle?"

That got me a little upset, I'll show this guy, I thought.

I walked over to the bar, reached down and grabbed another twenty five pound plate from the rack and secured it in place; then did the same on the other side."

"Honey, with the bar, that's one hundred and seventy five pounds."

"I know," I said as I assumed my position on the bench. I looked over at him, smiling I said,

"You want to spot for me?"

I waited until he was in position; then proceeded to do a set of twelve reps with perfect form. I looked up from the bench and said,

"How's that coach?"

"What's your name again?"

"Anne"

"Anne, you are the strongest high school girl I've ever coached. You obviously work out a lot. The field events also require quickness, footwork and good form. You can't really work on that right now, so I suggest continuing what you are doing, when practice starts, I'll have someone work with you on the techniques of each event. You can go home now; I don't need to see anything else."