text: Bulldogs Hoist State Weightlifting Title - tribunedigital-orlandosentinel
  Bulldogs Hoist State Weightlifting Title
  DELAND — For all its sculpted bodies glazed in sweat, the swelled veins and faces stretched with tortured expressions of effort, weightlifting is ultimately a sport of mental strength.
  It's a hidden strength, too easily forgotten amidst the flesh and iron until it is called upon to fortify the flesh and impel the iron.
  They know about this strength on the weightlifting team at DeLand High School. The Bulldogs - the Volusia Extra's athletes of the week - claimed their ninth state championship and second in three years Saturday at Brevard Community College.
  Allen Johnson and Tom Belkey led the way with individual weight-class titles, but DeLand won because it got the most out of each lifter.
  ''If you want something bad enough and you love it, you can do anything,'' said Johnson, a senior who exceeded his best lift in the clean-and-jerk by 25 pounds to win the 198-pound class over teammate Robert Rogers.
  Johnson's statement echoed the advice of his grandmother Susan Johnson, who before her death two months ago told her grandson, ''If you want something, you've got to go get it.''
  That memory strengthed Johnson's resolve during his most important lifts.
  ''I was real focused,'' he said. ''I couldn't hear anything anybody said. I was zoned out.''
  Johnson benched 375 pounds, 10 more than his previous best, then lifted 265 in the clean-and-jerk, shattering his personal record of 240.
  Exceeding expectations was the rule for the day. ''We were doing stuff we've never done before,'' said Belkey, a junior who won the 123-pound class with a combined total of 440 pounds. ''It seemed contagious. Every time somebody had a great lift, it just seemed to make the next guy stronger.''
  That kind of strength more than made up for a lack of numbers. Lifters must qualify for the state meet, and a school can bring no more than nine. That's a problem for schools with deep teams such as Spruce Creek, which won its 11th state title in 1992 and defeated DeLand handily during the regular season this year. It's usually a problem for DeLand, too, but the Bulldogs didn't have as many lifters this year under first-year coach Richard Graham.
  That lack of numbers hurt DeLand in its head-to-head meeting with Spruce Creek, but when both teams were limited to their nine best lifters for the Five Star Conference championships, DeLand won. Spruce Creek appeared to recapture the advantage when senior Josh Bell, a contender in the 165-pound class, became academically ineligible, leaving the Bulldogs with only eight lifters who had qualified.
  ''It bonded us together,'' Johnson said. ''We knew we each had to do a little more.''
  For Johnson, that meant lifting more. Belkey's contribution to the team came by lifting less.
  Belkey, who advanced to the state wrestling tournament as well this year, cut weight just as he had during the wrestling season so he could lift in the 123-pound class, where Graham believed he could score more points for the team.
  Cutting weight was more difficult this time. The ever-active Belkey played football in the fall, wrestled in the winter and pulled double duty by lifting and playing baseball in the spring. Losing so much weight - he's up to about 135 pounds now - might be commonplace in wrestling, but it probably hurt Belkey in baseball and he was afraid it might sap his strength.
  He needn't have worried. Belkey benched 240 pounds and cleaned an even 200 - his best totals at the 123-pound weight class, topping teammate Jamie Abrego, who finished second with a combined lift of 430 pounds.
  ''I didn't think we were going to win it at all. We only had eight guys,'' Belkey said. ''But that meant we didn't feel any pressure. Spruce Creek had all the pressure.''
  The Hawks finished third with 25 points, three behind runner-up Lake Brantley and 11 behind DeLand. The one-two finishes at 123 and 198 paved the way for the state championship, but the Bulldogs also got important points from Eddie Lawrence, who finished third in the 114-pound class; Eric Chojnowski, third in heavyweight; and Jon Deveaux, fourth at 220.
  ''We were trying for a top three finish in the state,'' Graham said. ''We happened to peak at the right time.''
  Graham won Class AAA state titles while coaching at Seabreeze in 1979 and '85, but this unexpected victory proved sweeter.