One day in 1996, Rosalind Morgan was on the road returning to her home in Houlton from Portland when she remembered some friends of hers were in Oakland competing in the Holiday Classic weightlifting tournament.

Her decision to stop in Oakland and support her friends changed her life.

“One of the coaches was sitting next to me and she was saying, ‘Look, Ros, you can do this.’ She kept egging me on,” Morgan explained.

Morgan took up her friend’s challenge and in the five years since, the 45-year-old Morgan has won four state championships.

“I started out to improve my bench press. Then we went to the state championships that spring and I had some success right away,” Morgan said.

“Some success” is putting it mildly. Morgan is a four-time state champion in the women’s age 40-44, 198-plus-pounds division. She holds the women’s open classic (all ages) state bench press record of 175 pounds and the dead lift record of 315 pounds. She also holds all of the state records in her age and weight class.

Lance Reardon heads up Maine’s contingent of USA Powerlifting. He has watched Morgan progress and says the sky is the limit for her.

“She works hard. She’s even got a bad knee and wears a brace that every once in a while inhibits her dead lifting. But other than that she has no limitations and she’s fun to watch,” Reardon said.

Morgan also, at one time, held the national bench press record but says that the record is at more than 200 pounds.

“I guess in large part it gives me the inspiration to keep working out. There are obvious physical reasons to keep working. Over the years I have tried other things [to keep fit]. It would work for a while, but this is very different and it is something I can really focus on.”

She enjoys the camaraderie of weightlifting.

“I love the sport, the way the other athletes behave with each other. We’re all out there trying to win, but it’s not cutthroat. The very person you’re trying to beat is yelling support for you. If something goes wrong, your equipment fails, it may be a competitor who has a spare,” Morgan said.

Her involvement in the sport isn’t limited to competing in tournaments.

“Rosalind is a tremendous individual,” Reardon said. “She’s very willing to help in every aspect. She’s going to be helping me out with writing up the meets. She’ll kinda’ write up a story and send them to USA Powerlifting.”

Morgan will also take a test in hopes of becoming a state powerlifting referee.

“It would be nice to have some other ladies sitting in the chair,” Reardon said.

Morgan moved to Houlton in 1983 from New Jersey. Her reason was simple – New Jersey was becoming less and less green.

“The land prices were good [in Maine] and New Jersey was busy paving up everything in sight. I didn’t want to live in the city,” Morgan said.

When not working with weights, Morgan runs a photography, layout, and design business in Houlton.

She said she wouldn’t mind having a go at the national bench press record. It’s the competitive side of her.

“There’s a little piece of me that likes the notion that at 45, female, and a little on the chunky side, you can still kick ass.”

Shoppe blowing her own whistle

After watching her father John referee high school basketball games for most of her life, Tiffany Shoppe took a step during the holiday vacation period toward following in his footsteps when she passed a board certification test.

“Ever since I was little, it was something I wanted to do because I’ve always been around [referees],” Shoppe said.

Shoppe is a sophomore at Charleston Southern University where she is a member of the golf team. She has been a fixture on the Women’s Maine State Golf Association circuit for years and has finished fourth and third in the last two WMSGA championships, respectively.

Her father points out that Tiffany has wanted to take the test for a long time but something kept getting in the way – her age.

“She was going to do it a year or so ago, but you have to be 18. So it was just one of those things that became hard when she went down south,” John Shoppe said.

Tiffany Shoppe, now 19, is happy to have her certification but is not quite ready to toss away her golfing career. She’s ready to get back to school.

“[Her golf game] came around a lot toward the end of the semester. I can’t wait to get back to school and the warm weather. We start playing again on Jan. 14,” Shoppe said.

She said she will look into referring some summer league games but also plans to play more WMSGA events this year after playing sparingly last summer while coming back from a broken leg she suffered when she slipped and fell on ice while home for Christmas break in 2000.

“I’m walking very carefully around here now,” she said with a laugh.

Don Perryman’s Local Spotlight column runs each Wednesday. He can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net