Gillman pulls own weight
At first, Chris Gilman started weightlifting to fill an athletic void.
Now, the former A-CValley and Edinboro University football player is getting into the national spotlight.
"That guy is going places,"fellow weight lifter Jim Pauli said.
Pauli previously trained under the late Marty Cypher, who worked with numerous national-caliber Olympic weight lifters at the Butler County Family YMCA for years.
Gilman rushed for 1,000 yards one season at A-CValley and was a high school track and field standout. He was done with football at Edinboro in 2004 and got involved in weightlifting in January 2005.
Now 24, the 5-foot-9, 169-pound Gilman snatched 232 pounds and clean-and-jerked 315 pounds at the Pendragon Invitational last weekend in Youngstown, Ohio.
The 547-pound total met the qualifying standard to compete at the U.S. National Olympic Weightlifting Championships May 11 to 13 in Illinois.
"The Pendragon event was a small tournament and I was the only one there in my weight class,"Gilman said. "I was competing against that qualifying standard."
Gilman finished 11th in his weight class out of 17 competitors at the American Open in Birmingham, Ala., in December. He will be competing at the U.S. Collegiate Championships in Reno, Nev., April 14 and 15.
He is eligible for the latter event because he's taking graduate courses at Slippery Rock University.
"I want to get my master's degree in health and physical education,"Gilman said. "I'm hoping to wrap that up within two years."
Gilman has been a substitute teacher in the area during this school year.
Ultimately, he wants to teach full time and to coach either football or track. He sees himself as a strength and conditioning coach as well.
That's down the road, however. Gilman's immediate goal is making an impact at the national level in Olympic weightlifting.
"Powerlifting is grunt work. It's all about brute strength,"Pauli said. "Olympic weightlifting involves technique and speed. You have to jump under the bar and raise it over your head.
"Chris has the background to succeed at this sport. Now he's developing his skills for it."
Pauli noticed Gilman lifting weights at the Butler Yone day and saw his potential immediately. He suggested Gilman enter some area competitions.
"I steered him in that direction because he's the most talented weight lifter I've seen around here since the Schake brothers (Cal and Jay),"Pauli said.
Aformer U.S. Olympian, Cal Schake was inducted into the Butler Area Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.
Eventually, Gilman linked up with coach Regis Becker's Pittsburgh Barbell Club, based in Bridgeville.
"I'm hoping to take this pretty far,"Gilman admitted. "I want to become one of the top lifters in the United States, maybe take a shot at making the world team within two or three years."
