World's Coach // Guthrey Fritz

Guthrey Fritz, Admissions Director and former Knights powerlifting coach, recently returned from Szczyrk, Poland, after a week of representing the United States team as a coach at the IPF Sub-Junior (high school) and Junior (collegiate) World Powerlifting Championships. The U.S. delegation brought four teams with 36 of the best lifters in the country to compete at the international competition.

Fritz’s history with elite powerlifting goes back more than a decade. He started the Woodward Academy powerlifting program 2003 and over the course of his tenure as head coach, won 10 consecutive USAPL High School National Championships, crowned 24 individual National Champions, and brought a total of 116 lifters to the national competition. The bookend of his coaching career at Woodward Academy occurred in the fall of 2015 when he travelled to this same competition in Prague, Czech Republic. He coached WA lifter, Julious Walker, to a runner-up World Championship.

After his experience with the team last season, U.S. Head Coach, Curt St. Romain, offered Guthrey a spot as a coach on this year’s team. He was assigned specific lifters and worked with them throughout the competition in getting checked in, setting rack heights, during weigh-ins, and calling squats for the lifters. At the end of competition, the U.S. team performed exceptionally well. The sub-junior boys were crowned World Champions, with the junior boys earning a bronze metal. Both the sub-junior and junior girls teams won silver.

Guthrey has already been asked to coach on next year’s team, with the 2017 international competition taking place in Orlando, Florida.