ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Evan Anderson

Why have you pursued weightlifting?

Just bettering my own body and seeing improvements in myself — improvements in the weight room and on the field, obviously. Most of it is just reaching my own personal goals in the weight room. I kind of just set the goal and keep going until I reach that goal, and then I just set a new one.

What are your favorite lifts?

Bench press and the power clean. I’m the best at those two.

What gets you going for your lifts?

It’s not really music. It’s more motivation coming from myself, and I have coaches around me every time I lift, so there’s motivation through that, too, and from my teammates. It was a big thing during the season for me to get stronger so we could actually win our meets instead of just coming in second place.

What weight classes have you participated in?

I started my freshman year in the 150 (pounds) weight class, and then my sophomore year, I think I was 200 (pounds), and then it just kept going up from there. Junior year, I was 238 (pounds), and this year I’m 238.

How do weightlifting mechanics translate to football?

You can definitely tell with power clean and squats. Power clean, you’re using your hips to push the weight up and then move it onto your chest, and you use that as an offensive lineman pushing the defensive lineman back. Bench, I guess, too. 

What are your favorite classes?

I would say history and biology. I just like history because my dad’s really into history and he always has the History Channel on, so we just sit there and watch that sometimes. Biology, I like it — I’m not very good at it — it’s just one of those things where I want to learn about it but I’m not good at memorizing everything.

Do you have thoughts on what is after high school?

I was considering playing football, but that’s off the table — it’s not for me. I enjoyed it, but it’s not something that I want to do in college. Right now I am committed to go to FSU …  I’m not sure about a major.

What places have you traveled to?

We go to Michigan every summer, Traverse City. It’s smaller, but most summers we go to visit family and stuff.

What do you like to do in free time?

I like to watch Netflix a lot. I watch a bunch of different shows, play some Xbox — that’s always fun. There’s not really a lot of time with sports after school. We have “Fat Night” every Wednesday night at Ale House; we all go and get the mountain melts.

What games and shows do you like?

Right now, “Gotham,” “Weeds” — that’s a funny show. And games, more like “Madden” and those types of games, sports games.

What’s something you’d like to try before graduation?

I guess I’d kind of like to try track, try out shot put, because I know we had a couple offensive linemen who did that last year, and they seemed to be really good at it.

What’s something not many people know about you?

I’m a little bit more quiet, I guess — I’m not a very outgoing person. I don’t like music at all, and I don’t really listen to it in my free time. I don’t really care for it. 

– Zak Kerr