On February 15, 2025, Pittsburg High School hosted the state powerlifting tournament. Heading the tournament is PHS powerlifting coach Wes Slavens.

“It is a massive event where hundreds of athletes from across the state of Kansas will come to compete,” Slavens said. “The meet often is the most competitive meet that they will have all year. It is an awesome atmosphere where you will see hundreds of kids cheering on eachother even though they might be competing against them.”

For the tournament PHS will be hosting any 5A school in the area that has a powerlifting team. Within the tournament, there are three lifting competitions: powerclean, squat, and bench.

“It provides an opportunity for kids who might not be involved in any other school sport to compete and represent our school,” Slavens said. “It is really awesome to see the relationships that are formed with both their teammates and athletes from other schools throughout the season.”

Since 2014 PHS has been one of the schools to host state powerlifting. In the past seven years, PHS has hosted the tournament four times.

“It provides us a chance to showcase our school and community,” Slavens said. “It is a major fundraiser for our school booster club which helps support all of our school sports. It provides our athletes an opportunity to compete in the biggest meet of the year right here at home.”

Along with Slavens, Pittsburg Community Middle School weights and conditioning coach, Leroy O’Bray, is assisting with the setup of the event.

“Setting up for this event to make it run smoothly has a ton of different aspects to it,” O’Bray said. “The massive majority of it is done before the event even takes place.”

According to O’Bray, state powerlifting is unlike any other state championship competition because everyone there is so supportive and encouraging.

“The social aspect that this meet brings to the competitors,” O’Bray said. “It is absolutely the coolest thing to see the confidence grow within each person. There’s nothing like it.“