Coalition for Family and Children's Services Legislative Breakfast

Pictured are a couple WA Knights with Executive Director, Ryan Santi, and Group Living Director, Trent Fleshner, at the Coalition for Family and Children's Services Legislative Breakfast, held at the Iowa State Capital. The Coalition's breakfast is an annual event where state legislators are invited to meet with over a dozen members of the Coalition, including Woodward Academy. Awards are presented for work done with the children of Iowa and it also provides facilities face time with legislators to discuss relevant issues. Victor Fuller and Gabe Lee, Executive Knights on campus, did a great job explaining to the Senators of Iowa about the WA Experience and many gained some understanding of the services that WA provides.

Intro to Business College Course

This semester, three WA students are taking a college course online through Iowa Central Community College. These students are considered good candidates to be college bound once they leave WA, but they have not yet completed their program on campus. Students who take college classes are those who have either earned their high school diploma, or recently acquired their GED certificate.

The Intro to Business course is a good class for students to begin with to get a taste of the workload that college classes require. The students work on it throughout the week and check in with WA's Educational Liaison, Jon Shelness, twice a week to input their assignments. The courses are being paid through the Woodward Academy Lifetime Commitment Fund.

WA Alum Competes in the USATF Indoor National Championships

In the last edition of the Knightly Knews, we did a cover story on Woodward Academy alum, Cal Lane. At that time, Cal was resurrecting dreams of becoming a professional track athlete and his first step was to compete at the USATF Indoor National Championships.

As a 6-time state champion, Cal certainly has the athletic prowess, but lacked a lot of the resources necessary to compete on the national level. He continued to train on his own after work and with the help of WA, competed at Iowa State University’s indoor Holiday Preview event in December and won, despite not jumping his best.

Since then, he has competed at events at Arkansas University, the University of Kansas, and the University of Indiana, all leading up to qualifying for the USATF Indoor Championships. On February 22, Cal Lane was jumping with the nation’s best at our National Championships in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He was one of 16 who qualified and finished 11th after jumping 24’ 1/4’’. After jumping a new personal best this season of over 25’, Cal is looking forward to a successful outdoor season later this year.

Powerlifting at Peru State

The road to the USAPL High School National Championships continued for the Woodward Academy team this past weekend as they traveled to Peru State in Nebraska. The Knights have made this a regular stop over the past several years and have had great success in the past. The meet serves as a good barometer of the competition that they will face in nationals and another opportunity to lift in front of spectators to ease the nerves of competition.

The competition this year was intense with a lot of weight classes being determined with the last dead lift. In all, the Knights walked away with 2 third place finishes, 3 in second place, and 4 first place finishes, including Julius Walker earning the best lifter award after his meet record 545 pound squat. The Knight's next meet is at home, March 8, and then off to Nationals in Killeen, Texas, March 28-30.

Powerlifting Poster 2014

Even though the powerlifting season started last November, the season poster does not generally get done until this time of year. It showcases the lifters who are competing in events and trying to qualify for nationals.

The season has already gotten off to a great start. At their first meet in Lincoln, the team recorded a nearly perfect score with nine lifters qualifying for Nationals. The team has two more meets leading up to the national competition that will be held in Killeen, Texas over the weekend of March 28-30. We'll have a lot more on the powerlifting team in the next couple months, but in the meantime, here is the official team poster for the 2014 season. At first glance, it appears to be just one picture of the team in the weight room, but in actuality there is a lot more going on in the poster. Learn about the photographic process that went into it after the break.

WWE Smackdown in Des Moines

About once a year, the WWE show comes to central Iowa, and this week some select students were able to attend the WWE Smackdown wrestling event in Des Moines, Iowa with Program Director Bill Badgley. The students who were able to attend loved it. It was teenaged boys at a wrestling event, so that seems obvious. But beyond the entertainment value of it, it is important to understand that these students have earned that opportunity to go. They spend a lot of their time helping to improve the dorm, the campus, and their individual programs. So for these students, it was a night away from campus and a chance to have some normalcy.

Jeremy Stephens Speaks to Students on Campus

Des Moines native, Jeremy Stephens, spent some time this week talking with some WA students about growing up in Iowa and his current career as a fighter in the UFC. Recently, Stephens beat the 9th ranked fighter in his weight class and is currently ranked in the top 10. He shares an agent with Myles Fury, another UFC fighter who spoke on campus last year.

Stephens has made some mistakes in his past, and would be the first to acknowledge that. One of the worst he told students was that he surrounded himself with people who didn't have his best interest in mind. Once he got in the spotlight as a successful UFC fighter, others around him held onto that for their own interest, which ultimately got him in trouble. When that happened, he said he found it very difficult to approach his family, friends, and even UFC President Dana White, to explain his side of the story. He has vowed to be more diligent about the decisions he makes in the future. During the question/answer session, students were particularly interested in how Stephens got into the UFC. He stressed hard work and being focused as his main reasons. Often times, he prioritizes working out and training over more fun activities. Stephens was a great speaker for the Knights, and afterwards he posed for some pictures with students and took a tour of campus.