There’s a new look in the Escalante weight room as Lobos power lifting coach Earl Martinez continues to look for athletes who want to get stronger and just maybe win a state medal.
“This team is really young,” he said. “No seniors, a few juniors, so we’re extremely young. But promising.”
The team is not only young but inexperienced as well, as there are just two girls returning from last season and six boys.
“We have a couple of new kids and our baseline maxes are pretty impressive,” Martinez said. “I like where we’re at right now. As far as the returning guys, I think some of them lifted year round.”
On the boys side, Darian Ulibarri turned in an impressive performance at last year’s state meet as an eighth-grader, finishing sixth overall, so Martinez is looking for him to challenge for the podium this year.
“He is incredibly strong for his size,” Martinez said. “He has this tenacity that he can lift any weight that you put in front of him. He listens well and understands what we want him to do.”
Aaron Valdez is another freshman who Martinez believes has the potential to shine despite a setback last year.
“He was doing really well and had an accident and ended up not being able to lift for most of the summer,” Martinez said. “He’s been cleared by the doctor and he’s back.”
Sophomore Khalil Ibrahim and junior Creed Hardzog have been putting in significant work and often will be going head-to-head in the same weight class.
“They are two of the new guys who have been impressive with their baseline, 180-pound weight class,” Martinez said. “They’re pretty strong for their class.”
On the girls side of things, Martinez has been recruiting hard and one of his success stories, junior Alyssa Aguilar, has been working out well.
“I’ve been trying to talk her into coming out for a few years now,” Martinez said of Aguilar, who also plays basketball and volleyball. “Her numbers are pretty impressive.”
Martinez also is counting on Seli Aguilar to turn it up this season after finishing fifth in the 105-lb. weight class last year as an eighth grader at the state meet.
“A lot of girls who were in that size were juniors and seniors,” he said. “So we’re hoping she remains focused so she can get up there on the podium.”
Junior Kyrrah Aguilar just missed out on qualifying for state as she was ranked ninth in the state and only the top eight qualify, but she was also struggling with a back injury.
“Once you get something like that, you have to work a lot more on yoga and stretching to alleviate some of the injuries,” Martinez said. “We’ve upgraded her training program so she can get into state the last couple of years.”
Martinez has been using the girls who are in the program to go out and recruit more and it seems to be working.
“That’s something we’ve been trying to push, get more girls to come out and compete,” he said. “We hope all the girls make it through the practices. We get a bunch come out but once they see that it’s a legit sport and they have to do the work, we kind of lose some. But this is probably the most girls we’ve ever had.”
For both the boys and the girls, Martinez said he’s just looking to see them improve overall and position themselves for future success.
“What I tell them, each meet that we go to, or have a match, we want a personal best,” he said. “If we’re putting in the work as a coaching staff, we believe they should improve. If they’re doing what they should, they should improve at each meet.”
So the goal right now is not so much measuring against other lifters, but against each individual lifter’s personal standards.
“The focus is not so much on where they are in the rankings,” he said. “We want them to beat their last max or last personal best.”