Firstly, I am not running for Carolinas WSO Board election. I have served on the Board in the past, both as President, and as Vice-President back when there were only 3 Board members. One of my athletes and Assistant Coaches also just served, and had not the best of experiences while doing so. My suggestions and comments are based purely on what I feel would be positive for the Carolinas Weightlifting community as a whole, and how we may be able to do better with proper leadership in place. USA Weightlifting now offers more input and support than they have in the past, and I hope we can start taking advantage of some new changes now put in place.
I typically am not a vocal person when it comes to matters such as this. I know a lot of what I am about to present will be very negative. I would prefer to stay out of things, and promote nothing but positivity, but I feel some things need to be said. The things I am going to say are not indicative of every member of our current Board. The overall makeup of the current Board could well have left some members in a hopeless position, when all some want is to help our sport grow in our community.
Also, I know being a Board Member can be a thankless job, an unpaid volunteer position, though the expectations of the job are very high. I have taken that into account while preparing my thoughts. That being said, if you choose to put yourself up for a Board position, be sure to understand what it entails.
This will be a lengthy read, so bear with me.
Why listen to anything that I have to say? Simply put, Weightlifting has been an integral part of my life for the past 33 years. All 5 members of my family have competed, and/or are still competing in Weightlifting. I love the sport, and have since the first time I learned the lifts in 1990, started competing in 1995, and received an invitation for a Summer Residency at the Olympic Training Center in 1996. Back then, there was no popularity in the sport, and it was even more obscure than it is now. In the late 2000s, the sport started to regain some popularity, due to a few main reasons such as CrossFit, California Strength and YouTube, and Team MDUSA, which I will talk about below.
This sport completely changed my life and altered the path I was on at the time. That new path has led me on the most amazing journey, a portion of which most people are not aware of. My love for Weightlifting led me to becoming an owner of the original equipment company, MuscleDriver USA, or what most people came to know as MDUSA.
MuscleDriver USA started out as a sport nutrition company called Vigorous Living, owned by Brad Hess in Florida during the early 2000s. In 2005, I joined as the third member of a 3-person company. While there, I suggested we put a platform, a squat rack, and a set of plates in the warehouse so I could continue to train Weightlifting during lunch or slow times. Brad agreed, and joined in on the training. (That original squat rack is still in use at the HWC today.) In 2006, 1 partner left, and Brad and I moved the company and our families to the Charlotte/Rock Hill area, where we started selling kettlebells at the same time CrossFit started gaining popularity. We still had our lifting equipment in the warehouse, and would still train during slow times.
As the equipment business began to grow, along with the popularity of CrossFit, we started to invest more in the production of Weightlifting equipment. (The first prototype barbell from then is still in use at the HWC today, as well as 1st Gen bumper plates.) My dream had always been to train athletes, and teach Olympic Weightlifting, and over the course of months and numerous dinner table conversations, the vision of a Professional, corporate-sponsored Weightlifting team was brought to light. This vision led to the creation of the MDUSA Grand Prix in 2011, following in the footsteps of Mark Cannella and Columbus Weightlifting and the Arnold Weightlifting Championships as one of the few competitions to offer over $10k in prize money in the modern Weightlifting era in the US. That vision is also what created Team MDUSA in 2012, with the first team tryouts taking place that Summer. To my knowledge, Team MDUSA was the first of its kind to form in the U.S.
Two major offshoots of MDUSA became pivotal for the development of the sport of Weightlifting in the United States. The PENDLAY brand can still be found in gyms and garages across the country to this day. As Co-Owner, Vice-President, and COO, my days were spent on business projects, one of which was developing the process of custom printing on bumper plates, which became one of the largest sources of revenue for MDUSA. (If you purchased printed, competition-style plates from MDUSA or some other well-known brands between 2009-2011, I probably hand-printed them myself.) As such, I did not have the time to devote to creating the Weightlifting team. We needed a Coach who already had a good name.
The process of taking a trip to Texas, buying out Glenn Pendlay (who was already coaching and producing and selling his own brand of barbells and Do-Win Weightlifting Shoes), driving all his inventory back to the Carolinas, bringing him into partnership with MDUSA, and sending him to California for a stint to train with lifters and work on YouTube videos all started in the mid-late 2000s.
Those YouTube videos, started by California Strength, truly helped make the sport of Weightlifting visible in the United States. When we brought Glenn back to the Charlotte area, the popularity he gained from being featured in those YouTube videos followed him. Glenn became the name and face of the MDUSA and PENDLAY brands. His first-Gen GHD (my personal favorite design) is still in use at the HWC today. He also became THE iconic Head Coach of TEAM MDUSA. The MuscleDriver USA brand, PENDLAY brand, and Team MDUSA started to become well-known across the U.S. Weightlifting community, with 2 future Olympians and multiple World Team athletes being on Team MDUSA at one point.
Unfortunate health issues befell Glenn in late 2012, creating a need for more coaches to manage the growing team. We had some hard conversations, and made the decision to start bringing in coaches like McCauley, Mash, and Wilkes to support him, and Team MDUSA continued on.
The business I was fortunate to be a part of from the beginning, went from a 2-man operation in 2006, to the behemoth it became at the height of its popularity in the early 2010s, and was hugely instrumental in putting Weightlifting back on the map, though many sacrifices were made along that journey.
I chose to leave MuscleDriver USA at the end of 2012 and started HWC in 2013. About 3 years later, MDUSA imploded, went bankrupt, and is no longer around. Many lifters you know of today were part of that original Team MDUSA roster of 2012. They are outstanding people and have had outstanding careers. During those last few years from 2013-early 2016, more lifters joined Team MDUSA, gained some notoriety, and developed a strong following through social media. Some of those former Team MDUSA lifters are currently sitting on the Carolinas WSO Board. When MDUSA went under it left Team MDUSA with no home or place to train. Some of the athletes stuck together and started their own Clubs in the Charlotte area, and some went their separate ways out of the area.
The history here is laid out to explain that I have been around this sport for a very long time, and to also provide a timeline of some major events that have led us to where we are today, and how Weightlifting has grown here in the Carolinas. Business dealings with MuscleDriver USA naturally created an extensive network across the country. I meet a huge number of weightlifters and coaches as a gym owner, USAW Coaching Course Instructor, and Head Coach of HWC. I have associations with some amazing people, as well as some whose ethics and character I question considerably, and I just want the best leaders possible to manage our sport and local community.
These decisions, regarding the Carolinas WSO Board, are very important. Our elected officials are to hold their positions for the next 4 years and will be responsible for many facets of our Weightlifting community. Their decision-making will dictate how your money is used. Did you know there was a bank account, held by USA Weightlifting, with not a small sum of money to be used at the discretion of the Board, for the benefit of our Carolina community? The Board also has control over who will be permitted to host local competitions and when they can be held. The Board is meant to have direct audience with USA Weightlifting – sharing notable developments from the larger organization with our community, while also being a means for our community to communicate with the larger organization. Ultimately, the actions (and inaction) of our future Board will impact our WSO community considerably. The potential for our community to grow and develop in a positive manner is there, and leaders in key positions can either help or hinder our community progress.
Let’s choose a Board that represents the entirety of North and South Carolina, not one that is heavily entrenched in one area. The current 8-member Board, (there are supposed to be 9 members, but one recently stepped down from position due to what is described as a toxic environment), is composed of 3 members from one club team, 2 of those individuals being married to one another. One of the married couple holds the WSO Presidency. Two more current Board members are heavily connected with each other, as well as with the aforementioned 3, creating a super majority. Voting within the current Board was rendered essentially pointless because of this. USA Weightlifting has now amended the WSO alignments to permit no more than 2 members from a single club team to serve on the Board at one time, which I think is a step in the right direction. Perhaps the issues that came about purely due to the configuration of the current Board will not arise for our community moving forward.
Let’s choose a Board where members can speak freely, without being censored, hushed, and/or dismissed. The WSO Board chose to introduce each member to the community. The introductions were an opportunity for each Board member to tell the community about themselves, in their own words. A prompt was agreed upon, and the individual responses were submitted to be published on social media. One Board member had their introduction heavily censored without their permission. The Board member’s introduction was originally a rebuttal to a statement made by another Board member during a Board meeting. Many members of our community may have found what this other Board member had to say extremely offensive. The Board member who censored the introductory statement did not want to “introduce the Board in a negative light, or create questions or confusion in the community.” Shouldn’t we, the community, have the ability to question our Board members or clear up confusion from our Board members ourselves? Is the Board a dictatorship, or part of a non-profit organization meant to serve our Weightlifting community?
Let’s choose a Board that is not too busy to bring about changes that can benefit Weightlifting in the Carolinas. Please don’t nominate yourself, or someone else, if the time commitment is something that cannot be adhered to. There are expectations of monthly meetings and tasks related to serving our community. USA Weightlifting has initiatives that the WSO Boards should be passing along to our WSO members, but if Board members don’t have the time to put initiatives into action, our community does not benefit.
How many of you are aware of the various USAW Coach Development Scholarships programs? Each WSO was given an opportunity to take advantage of a scholarship matching program: the WSO could fund a number of scholarships for Women and BIPOC Coach development within our community, and USAW would match a number of these scholarships depending on what the WSO committed to. The WSO would be responsible for opening the scholarship applications, reviewing the applications, and awarding the scholarships, (within USAW-guided award criteria), to members within our WSO community. Each scholarship is $549 for a USAW Level 1 or Level 2 Coaching Course enrollment. A one-year USAW Coach Membership would also be funded for the scholarship awardee. Through this annual program, USAW would match up to 2 of these scholarships. Participation in this program was not mandatory, but strongly encouraged by USAW as it would benefit each weightlifting community. This program was introduced to the WSO Presidents some time before April 1st 2023 (although, I don’t know the exact date). I personally have not seen any communication or details about these scholarships or this matching program from our current Board. Surely there are Coaches within our community who would like to apply for such a scholarship? Our community can only benefit from encouraging further education of passionate coaches.
Did you know about the Nationals Scholarship Program? One Board member spent a great deal of time creating a National Scholarship initiative for the Carolinas. This program was to provide funding, through the WSO, to athletes who qualified for and posted a total at the 2023 USAW National Championships Week. Was anyone, besides those athletes who qualified for Nationals, aware of this initiative?
During the planning phase of the National Scholarship initiative, the WSO Board voted to cap the total funds allocated for the program. Support among the Board members was given to potentially increase the award payout to each approved applicant if the total scholarship fund did not meet the agreed upon cap. After USAW Nationals 2023, applications for the National Scholarship program were submitted and reviewed by the Board. Initially, the total payout for the scholarship program amounted to less than 28% of the established fund cap for the program. When one Board member requested an increase in individual scholarship award (based on previous support for doing so), where the proposed increased dollar amount still would have been well below the scholarship fund cap, support from the majority of the Board was withdrawn, and the Board member was insulted for making the request.
This same Board member who framed the initiative was then chastised by members of the Board for asking all scholarship applicants to follow the rules for submitting the application. A simple discrepancy in the application deadline date, the difference of 1 day, came up while reviewing a scholarship application. This discrepancy regarding the deadline date was neither questioned, nor addressed during the Board’s final review and voting process, yet complete responsibility of the discrepancy was placed on the Board member drafting the program. Since the application in question belonged to an athlete who is coached by members of the Board, concessions were then asked to be made for this individual, and the application in question be approved.
Remember, Board positions are unpaid volunteer positions. This Board member, who found themself on the receiving end of insults and aggressive unprofessionalism from other Board members, spent an enormous amount of personal time and effort to bring about an initiative to benefit members of our community. Is this type of bias and unprofessionalism what we want to see out of our leaders?
Let’s choose a Board that really wants to help. It may be prestigious to say you are on the Carolinas WSO Board, and it may be enticing to have some control over the Weightlifting community. Such a position may be an opportunity to spotlight your own gyms, club teams, and reputation as an active Coach or athlete. That being said, the Board should be comprised of people who simply want to help the community as a whole.
In 2022, the current WSO Board voted to reimburse themselves for their hotel and travel expenses during the 2022 WSO Championship competition. Some of those Board members were also competing in and coaching during the event, not just facilitating it. Did any other competitors or coaches who also helped, load, ref, check-in, weigh-in, Marshall, announce, etc also receive travel expense re-imbursement? Prior to 2022, I do not know of any Board members in the Carolinas ever taking community money for their work in running the State Championships. I do not believe there are any rules against it, and whether or not they should is probably a matter of opinion, just simply stating that this may have been a first. I wonder if the larger community would have voted in favor of reimbursing the Board Members for facilitating an event when they themselves did not have the option of reimbursement for their own travel expenses?
Board members also voted to re-imburse themselves for equipment provided to supply the WSO Championships. Anyone that supplied equipment was also re-imbursed in the way of free registrations for the WSO Championships. In the past, equipment sponsors simply provided the equipment at no cost to the organization. Now, there are more funds available to WSO communities from USA Weightlifting. Would it have been more fiscally responsible to purchase equipment that could be used year after year, (as well as to be on loan for smaller clubs in need of equipment to be able to host competitions), or essentially continue to rent equipment from Board members and our community every year?
Some Board members were also questioning if they should be compensated for closing their gyms during the 2-day weekend event.
Taking advantage of access to funds is not something I want to see in our Board Members
Let’s choose people that we know just love the sport of Weightlifting, want to see it grow in the Carolinas, and want to support all athletes and clubs.
Of the 34 registered Weightlifting clubs in North Carolina and South Carolina, how many have you seen highlighted on the Carolinas WSO social media account? Or do we typically see the same gyms/athletes/club teams being posted? Why has this past week been such a flourish activity on the WSO Instagram?
I wonder how many athletes from the Carolinas qualified to compete at the Nationals Championships (Youth, Jr, Sr, Master, U23, U35, or University)? How many USAW National medal winners from North Carolina and South Carolina were discussed or spotlighted by our current WSO Board? Since 2022 alone, I know of multiple Youth, Junior, University, U25 and Masters athletes from the Carolinas that have won National Championships. I know of multiple Youth, Junior, University, U25, Senior, and Masters that have also received medals at National Championships. Since 2022 alone, the Carolinas have at least 1 Masters World Champion and World Record holder, and at least 1 more Masters World Championships medalist. In 2022, at least 2 athletes from the Carolinas were selected to represent Team USA in International competition at the Youth Pan American Championships, and the FISU Americas Games.
How many of those athletes have been recognized by our Board? How many others haven’t received any recognition? Is there a reason why we don’t highlight youth athletes, who are the future of our sport, and Master’s athletes, who play a huge role in keeping the sport alive with consistent event participation and membership? While USA Weightlifting seems to highlight mostly Junior and Senior athletes and their success, we can do a better job at supporting our own Carolinas weightlifting community, by highlighting ALL our athletes and recognizing everyone’s hard work and efforts.
Do we want Board members who are willing to bend the rules for themselves to win local competitions?
One Board member, who was attempting to make weight to compete, removed the weigh-in scale designated for Platform A, and took it to the Platform B weigh-in area, after failing to make weight on the Platform A scale. Such a maneuver granted this person greater opportunity and flexibility to attempt to make weight, well outside of normal weigh-in protocol. Would anyone else have been allowed to use a different scale other than the one designated for their platform and session time?
This same Board member was also seen verbally berating a YOUTH athlete who was not their own athlete. Should an adult be approaching a minor in that capacity? What was preventing this Board member from speaking with the youth athlete’s coach, or perhaps parents (who were also seated in the spectator stands when this aggressive confrontation from the Board member took place)? This conduct from a Board member, who is also a coach, is highly questionable. Should we not expect at least the most basic level of professionalism from our community leaders?
Some notable clubs were absent from both the 2022 and now the 2023 Championships. One of the biggest annual events in the Carolinas was not hosted here this year. Clubs, coaches, athletes, and events should not have to choose whether to come to, or host events in the Carolinas due to differences with some of the Board members.
Until this past week, the last time minutes of board meetings were published on USA Weightlifting’s website was in September of 2022. Until this past week, the last time anything was updated on the Carolinas WSO Website was April of 2022. Until this past week, did anyone know that there was a system to submit State records? Why has it taken well over a year for this information to come out, and why just now, this past week?
Again, there are many things the Board has the ability to do for our community, and these things I have been mentioning are all very time consuming. It is completely understandable to not have the time to volunteer to push these initiatives forward. My point of view is simply that if someone does not have the time, then another person who may have the time could be a better fit for our community.
Since incorporating the new WSO alignments under USA Weightlifting, we have had 2 WSO Championships. By most accounts these meets were run well, with only a few notable issues. Athletes and coaches had great experiences overall, and all the hard work that goes into running these large meets is greatly appreciated. Our community loves to compete, and can’t do so unless people are willing to hold events. Unless you have actually hosted a competition, it is very hard to understand how much goes into it, how much work and planning is involved, and how thankless it can be. The Board is to be commended for all its hard work in organizing these past 2 Championships.
As I said in the beginning, I don’t believe my opinions here are reflective of the entire Board. I am sure some members want nothing more than to simply help our community.
I just think that with all the new support coming from USAW, our Board (as a cohesive unit) has the potential to do more for the community. Let’s look for Board Members who are eager to get involved and help the community as a whole. This should not be done through a popularity contest.
If you love Weightlifting, and have the time to give to the community, you can make a huge impact on the growth of the sport here. If not you, nominate someone you know would love to make a difference. Maybe we can all have a fresh start, and create some amazing opportunities for our community, and the growth of the sport we all love so much.
An email from Election Buddy calling for nominations was be sent on October 9th, and the nomination period will last until Oct. 20. Elections are open for one week starting November 7th. The election term for winners runs Jan 1. 2024-Jan. 1, 2028.
Dan Rose
