La Cueva Hosts Annual Lift-A-Thon Benefitting CCFNM

La Cueva Hosts Annual Lift-A-Thon Benefitting CCFNM

The La Cueva football team hosted its annual “Lift-A-Thon” Thursday evening in their newly-built weight room, where players were pledged to lift a certain amount of weight in different weightlifting events, with 10% of all proceeds benefiting the Children’s Cancer Fund of New Mexico.

In the event, the players were divided into five different teams, competing for the most weight lifted and the most money raised altogether as a team. The Red Team won the night with the best pound for pound ratio, but the night wasn’t all about who won the event.

Bears head coach Brandon Back has said throughout the week that it is all about showcasing the skills that they have done throughout the summer with their summer workout regimen.

“I think the biggest thing we do is we try to get the parents involved because it’s hard for them to see what these boys are doing at six o’clock in the morning throughout the summer,” said Back. “It also shows the boys that effort produces results and getting up in the morning and committing to something that’s bigger than yourself, and if you do it right and you do it every day, you’ll see your numbers grow.”

That’s proven in the case of CJ Rodriguez, one of the Bears’ senior linemen. Before the event, Rodriguez can be seen squatting 605 pounds in a post to the football team’s Twitter account. “That was definitely a personal record for me. I’ve never squatted 605 before, so that was pretty cool,” Rodriguez had to say about the milestone before the event. “It sets my expectations higher for my deadlift because I’ve always deadlifted more than I squatted.”

All that changed though, as he was only able to deadlift 595 pounds, making his squat level higher at the end of the day.

The event was also about raising money to give to CCFNM, which Back says is another way the team gives back to the community. “We’ve been fortunate to have a great group of parents and community members around here, and we’ve always wanted to do something to give back to our community,” Back said. “We’ve had individuals in our program and other family members that have unfortunately been touched by cancer, so we see that impact, and we just felt as a program that it was important to do whatever small part we can.”