USAWA

This year, the points were so close between two clubs, I chose to just award co-Clubs of the year rather than pick a winner and runner-up or flip a coin. For the first club, when you think of the Denver Colorado area, you think of outdoor activities, skiing, the Colorado Rockies (beautiful mountains and baseball), the Avalanche, Nuggets, and Broncos. One certainly can’t get lost when the mountains are to the west! And the area is famous for Denver omelets, Coors beer, and good Mexican style food. This is the home of High Country Vigour, a club led by Sanjiv Gupta, our 2026 Leadership Award winner. High Country Vigour has become our western hub as they’ve volunteered to be a location for the USAWA Heavy Lift Championships. They’ve revived some older events such as the Team Lift Championship and proposed some new events as well (e.g., ground-to-Overhead Challenge, Carnival in the Cul-de-Sac). They participate in remote meets and allow remote competition in their own meets. Some of their members have proposed new lifts, and they are active in generating interest in the team and repetition lifts. Pictures from their meets show they enjoy competing together.  Congratulations to a relatively new club High Country Vigour as the 2026 co-Club of the Year winner. They certainly live up to the name!

The second club is one that has been with the USAWA for a long time. And when you think of Lebanon, PA, you think of the beautiful rolling terrain of the Appalachians, Pennsylvania Dutch Country, and Ivy League universities. It is not far from Philadelphia, the ‘Cradle of Liberty’. You think of Philly steak sandwiches and Hershey PA (Ok, maybe I’m the one that thinks of food). It is the home territory of the Phillies, Eagles, 76ers, and Flyers. But, you also should think of Habecker’s Gym, which is led by one of the great Hall-of-Famers in the USAWA, Denny Habecker. Denny sits atop the USAWAs all-time individual record list. He served the USAWA as president for many years and has been in charge of designing and compiling the quarterly postal competitions. He has many members of his club spread across Pennsylvania and has even attracted some new members from my old stomping grounds, Upstate New York! Denny is the original USAWA ‘road warrior’, frequently making meets across the USAWA. Habecker’s Gym members participate in remote competitions as well and they will be the host of the IAWA World Championship in less than two weeks. Congratulations to Habeckers’ Gym as the 2026 co-Club of the Year winner!