Introduction
Being an athlete in college and being good at it can guarantee you many benefits. Apart from the social skills it boosts and self confidence it imparts, it also gives benefits like a full time scholarship and opportunities to begin a career competing at higher levels outside college. There are different sports teams in colleges in the US with some colleges having even more than 30 sports teams. The most popular ones are Basketball, American football and baseball. Weightlifting is a sport that has also gained lots of traction in the past years on the big stage. There has been a steady increase of competitors in weightlifting every year and college students are starting to partake in it too in their various colleges. But do colleges have weightlifting teams that students can join?
Do Colleges Have Weightlifting Teams in the US?
Weightlifting as earlier mentioned is a new sport in Colleges, as a result, it is not yet adapted in many colleges. Currently, there are hardly 10 colleges that have weightlifting teams and only roughly 6 of that number offer it as a varsity sport while the others offer it at club level.
Steps to Joining a Weightlifting Team in College
Congratulations, you finally got into a college that has a weightlifting team.
Here are the steps you will take to actually join the weightlifting team in your college:
- Gauge your abilities
- Apply to join the weightlifting team
- Take a screening test
- Gauge your abilities
To play in a college sport, you must definitely be skilled enough since college sports competitions, especially those at the top level, require the best of athletic abilities. To gauge your abilities, you can get a third party like a coach who will evaluate you and identify your areas of strength and weakness.
- Apply to join the weightlifting team
To apply, you can approach the college’s weightlifting team coach and express interest in being a recruit. Afterwards, you complete your registrations and pass through screening tests.
- Take a screening test
Screening is mostly done in three aspects. Your athletic abilities, your ability to be coachable and your academic ability.
Your athletic abilities will be screened on the ground of strength, endurance and stamina, your ability to handle gym equipment and your health history. You will also be screened on being coachable since the team only needs players who will learn and follow instructions. Lastly, your academic performance matters since athletes are required to meet some academic criteria before being recruited to a sports team.
What to do When a College Does not Have a Weightlifting Team?
As we know by now, weightlifting is not a very popular college sport and it can be possible that the college you apply to doesn’t have weightlifting teams. Hope isn’t lost totally in such scenarios, you can still participate in your sport while in such colleges. There are two things you can do. You can either create your own weightlifting club and grow it to competition level or you can just choose another sport entirely, like powerlifting which is closely related to weightlifting.
Conclusion
Weightlifting is a great sport to play in college although a new and emerging one. There are not many colleges that have weightlifting teams at the moment, just about 6 to 10. However, due to its steady rise in popularity, there is hope that it will be more accepted soon by more colleges and admitted into competitions.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What Are Alternative Sports to Try Out if a College Does not Offer Weightlifting?
There are more than 30 sports you can choose from if weightlifting doesn’t end up being a sport in the college you choose.
6 of the best you can consider are:
- American Football: American Football is arguably the most popular college sport and is played on different levels of competition. There are over 125 teams registered and it is a good way to start a football career. It is however a very physical and rough sport compared to weightlifting.
- Basketball: Basketball is a very popular college sport and is very competitive too. It is governed by bodies including the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association), NAIA (the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics), USCAA (the United States Collegiate Athletic Association) and on. Talented basketball players graduating college are also usually drafted by the NBA.
- Baseball: Baseball is another good sport to try out. There are 1600 different college baseball programs available and scholarships are available. Vanderbilt University and Louisiana State University are among the best colleges to play baseball.
- Soccer: Soccer as a college sport is also widespread in the USA and is also governed by the NCAA and NAIA. Soccer graduates can also move on to play at the Major League Soccer to further their career. Stanford University and the University of North Carolina are among the best universities to play soccer in college.
- Powerlifting: Powerlifting is the most related to weightlifting on the list and is just slightly different. Powerlifting focuses more on strength and lifting the most weight at one rep in one plane of motion. The University of Texas and Mckendree University in Lebanon, Illinois are among the best colleges to try out powerlifting.
- Wrestling: Wrestling, while a more physical sport is similar to weightlifting in that they both require maximum use of strength, stamina and endurance with most of their training time spent in the gym with barbells and dumbbells.
Wrestling is also governed by the NCAA and NAIA and can provide you with a scholarship also. Princeton University and University of Virginia are among the best colleges to play wrestling as a college sport.
- What Colleges in the USA Have Weightlifting Teams?
In your search for colleges with weightlifting teams, here are some of the colleges you can consider:
- Oklahoma city university
- Lindenwood University
- East Tennessee State University
- Louisiana State University
- Northern Michigan University
- California State University
- University of Texas
- Can I get a Scholarship in Weightlifting?
The NCAA(National Collegiate Athletic Association) requires an emerging sport to have up to 40 participating schools to consider offering a championship. The NIAA however requires just 15 for membership then if the number grows up to 25, they can set up a competition. The chances of getting a scholarship in weightlifting depends mostly on the number of schools that have weightlifting teams in the future.