I Am Building Woodward Academy // Part 2 // Videos

Having dedicated and invested staff members is our greatest asset as a school and it is a primary reason why our students have amazing opportunities for success. Trent Fleshner, William Terry, and Jason Anderson are three of those members and they sat down and talked about how they are building WA in this ongoing video series. You can see the first video embedded above with the other two after the break.

Powerlifting Nationals // Video

You can now watch the Woodward Academy Knights win their 10th consecutive powerlifting team national championship in the video embedded above. It follows the Knights as they traveled to Milwaukee, WI to compete in the USAPL High School National Championships that were held March 27-29. In addition to the entire team lifting, you'll also be able to see Julious Walker break 3 American records when he squatted 622.8 pounds, and deadlifted 573.2 pounds for a total of 1,521.2 pounds. He was also named Best Outstanding Lifter of the competition. Congrats to Coach Guthrey Fritz and his team of assistant coaches on 10 straight championships. This year marked the end of an era as Coach Fritz is retiring from the program that he started and passing on the keys to the weight room for next season.

Track Poster 2015 // Practice Video

Here is the official poster of the 2015 Woodward Academy track & field team. The Knights have started the season strong and have some high aspirations as they move into the second half. They are certain to have some athletes competing at the Drake Relays next week and then they will prepare for districts after that in order to have a good showing at the state meet, held May 21-23 at Drake Stadium.

This year's team has shown a special ability to unite as a team. They push each other in practice and that is evidenced in the practice video below. Earlier this week, the team got worked as they ran hills on the bomb shelter. It is just one example of what their practices are like.

We Own the Knight: A High School Basketball Documentary Film // Video

When the Knights basketball team qualified for the Iowa High School Athletic Association State basketball tournament, the state media took note. We Own the Knight is a short documentary film that follows the Woodward Academy basketball team in the week leading up to playing at Wells Fargo Arena and the positive media attention that they generated. It was the first time that any residential treatment facility has qualified for state and the Knights quickly became the "feel good" story of the tournament (as you'll see in the film). It is written and directed by Eric Smidt and we hope to share it with more people this year.

Thanks to WHOTV Channel 13, KCCI Channel 8, LocalABC 5, The Des Moines Register, and Iowa Public Radio for covering the Knights this season.

Knightly Knews Vol. 33 is now online!

The latest edition of the Knightly Knews is now online and you can access it by clicking here. As a .pdf document, you can view or download the quarterly publication to your computer, iPad, or smartphone for easy reading. This State Basketball edition includes:

- A Historic Athletic Day
- State Basketball at Wells Fargo Arena
- Post season basketball honors
- Powerlifting Nationals in Milwaukee, WI
- A look back at 10 years of powerlifting
- American Record holder: Julious Walker
- How Students Represent Woodward Academy
- Facebook update
- I Am Building WA video bonus

We hope you have a chance to check it out and enjoy the read.

WHOTV Channel 13 // Story on the Powerlifting Team // Video

John Sears of the Des Moines news channel,WHOTV Channel 13, visited campus on Monday to do a story on the Woodward Academy powerlifting team that aired on March 31 on the 10 o'clock news. You can see the news segment in the embedded video. Head coach Guthrey Fritz along with lifters Julious Walker and Hector Espinoza were interviewed for the segment that highlighted the Knights 10 straight powerlifting National Championships and Julious' 5 American records. This story continues the string of positive publicity that the Knights have received in the past month when many news outlets reported on the Knights basketball team.