Some students complain about having to lift a heavy backpack during school. 

Meanwhile, about two dozen students in Coach Roni Shoemaker’s female weightlifting class voluntarily lift up to over 100 pounds each day.

“It’s really fun. It helps you get better at your sport,” said Junior lacrosse player Hailey Rappeno, who is in Coach Shoemaker’s 3rd Block class.

She said she likes that the class lets her lift in a comfortable setting.

“You don’t have to go to the gym alone,” she said.

Weightlifting is a class available to all students and athletes to take as an elective. One class is for women athletes only, and the other is for male athletes (although some non-athletes are in the class).  Coach Shoemaker, who teaches the female athletes weightlifting class, encourages other students to be a part of this class.

“Girls workout, guys workout, athletes workout, non-athletes workout,” she said. “We need to spread the word that this is an exciting class.”

Many students may be hesitant to join the class because of nerves, thinking that they’ll be judged or that they won’t be as good as others. But most students say it is a welcoming setting.

Junior Meadow Strganac, who plans to play basketball, said she took the class because her friends were in it and needed the support to get in shape.

“ I don’t work out at home,”  she said. “I needed some sort of motivation to lift weights and stuff, and I get training.”

The class involves a weekly routine of two lower body workouts, two upper bodies, and then a “sport specific” day to improve on muscles needed for a particular sport.

  Coach Shoemaker said the classes not only help individual students grow but also improve Socastee’s sports programs.

”Whenever we can get [people] in shape, getting stronger, and faster, it is just going to show on the field,” Coach Shoemaker said.