TP_041119

38 | April 11, 2019 | the tinley Junction sports
tinleyjunction.com
TPHS program helps build muscle and reduce ‘skinny fat’
PHIL ARVIA
Freelance Reporter
Tinley Park High School track star Desiree Lyttle lifts under the watchful eye of USA Weightlifting coach Dave
Ester during a seminar at Hillcrest High School in March. PHOTO SUBMITTED
The way cosmic tumblers
sometimes click into
place is an amazing thing.
For instance, if an excollege
volleyball player
hadn’t started running
marathons, Tinley Park
High School wouldn’t
have a weight training
program that recently
raised the eyebrows of a
USA Weightlifting-affiliated
coach.
“I think it’s amazing,
actually,” said Dave Ester,
associate head coach
of the Forza Weightlifting
Club. “You don’t see high
schools, for the most part,
setting up such a welldeveloped
weightlifting
program and curriculum.”
And if Titans hurdler
Desiree Lyttle ends up
going to the Olympics
someday as a weightlifter,
credit physical education
teacher Cassie Gaines —
with an assist to Tinley
Park principal Theresa
Nolan. There go those
tumblers again.
“My principal has given
me the freedom to pursue
this,” Gaines, an Oak Forest
native in her 10th year
at Tinley Park, said. “On
the days we have staff development,
she allowed
us to pick anything within
our realm to develop and
explore. I really wanted to
know how to improve athletes
in the weight room,
in and out of season.”
Now, a typical day finds
Gaines cultivating 15 or
so personalized workouts
for Tinley athletes based
on sport, whether that
sport is in or out of season,
gender and more. In January,
Gaines and Hillcrest
teacher Stacey Lane were
certified as USA Weightlifting
Level 1 Sports Performance
Coaches along
with 21 other participants
from across four states in
a 15-hour training course
at Tinley. Last month, 15
students each from Hillcrest
and Tinley — Lyttle
included — were instructed
in two of three Olympic-style
lifts (the snatch
and the clean — the clean
and jerk got cut for time)
in a seminar led by Team
USA coaches, Gaines,
Lane, and Chicago Bears
assistant strength coach
Pierre Ngo.
“She popped out to
me,” Ester said of Lyttle,
a state qualifier last year
in the 300 hurdles. “She’s
a sprinter, extremely athletic,
very explosive, great
natural flexibility. She
could do well as a weightlifter.”
For her part, Lyttle is
planning to venture out to
Forza’s Grayslake location
in the summer to test
the waters. Now, though,
her concern is using the
weight room to give her a
boost on the track.
“It’s helping me become
way faster,” she
said. “Last year, I wasn’t
lifting at all. I just didn’t
like the weight room.
“Now, I see the explosiveness
I get. It’s harder
to go fast when you don’t
have muscle in your legs.
Last year indoors, I was
running like 9.10 (seconds)
in the 55-meter
dash. Now my PR is 8.5.”
Ironically, Lyttle’s
speed-making muscles
are a roundabout byproduct
of Gaines’ marathoninduced
case of becoming
“skinny fat.”
The former Cassie
Fouts, a four-year varsity
volleyball player at
Oak Forest, was looking
for a way to compete after
her career ended with
her 2008 graduation from
Millikin University.
“I ran the Chicago Marathon
and the St. Louis
Marathon,” she said. “I
kind of got skinny fat
from that. I had no muscle.
I wanted to do something
in the weight room
— so I dove into that.”
Done with marathoning
in 2011, Gaines started
body building. In 2014,
she said, “I did a couple of
competitions — I didn’t
do well in them — and
then I got pregnant.”
The weight training
program she has helped
develop at Tinley Park is
vastly different from the
way she used to pump
iron.
“What I was doing was
isolating each muscle
group to make them big,
so they showed well physique-wise,”
Gaines said.
“Now, with my athletes,
I’m trying to develop
power, strength and speed
so it transfers onto their
playing field.
“The kids who are inseason,
I don’t want to
tire the muscle out. I want
them doing super-low
weight. I want them to be
alert and have fibers ready
to move when they need
them.
“On the other hand, I
had an out-of-season football
player in my weight
room. In this phase we’re
trying to build his body,
to put on muscle, so he’s
lifting 85 percent of his
max rep. In the season,
he’ll be able to grab all
that strength we’ve given
him.”
Meanwhile, the whole
school could get stronger
as Gaines’ young disciples
spread the word.
Besides Lyttle, Titans to
participate at the March
seminar were: Jalen Harris,
Carolina Padilla,
Christian Hack, Jojairo
Gallegos, Jules Gomez,
Johnny Gonsalves,
Ezekiel Childs, Davion
Dudek-Brown, Grace Piotrowski,
Matt Doyle,
Gabriela Guerra, Pete
McMahon, Sam Okewole
and Joe Mackessy.
“I asked recommendations
of my athletic director
[Mike Mongan] and
some varsity coaches,”
Gaines said. “I wanted
hard-working kids who
have really good character
and are ready to be
coached. We want to invest
in these 15 kids to
learn these three Olympic
lifts — and let them bring
it to their peers.”