MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Five Monongalia County athletes were named All-Americans by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Carson Poffenberger (Morgantown boys’ basketball), Fletcher Hartsock (Trinity Christian boys’ soccer, football and basketball), Michaela August (Morgantown girls’ soccer), Daniel Arthurs (hockey) and Makenzie Poe (gymnastics) were nominated by Viking Performance Training sports performance coach Jerry Handley. The award denotes each individual’s athletic accomplishments while maintaining a position at the top of their classes for academic excellence.
“Supporting our student-athletes like Daniel, Michaela, Fletcher, Makenzie and Carson guarantees a stronger future for the NSCA in its mission to safely improve athletic performance,” said Eric McMahon, NSCA coaching program manager.
The NSCA is an international nonprofit association headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., that is “dedicated to advancing the strength and conditioning profession around the world.” The greater community includes over 45,000 members and certified professionals, including Handley.
Handley is a former strength and conditioning coach at WVU and owner of Viking Performance in Morgantown. His business works with Division I and professional athletes, mixed martial artists, Olympians and high school athletes.
“It’s always awesome to see when this happens and when these kids get this recognition from the National Strength and Conditioning Association,” Handley said. “It always comes down to the kids who commit to the process of consistently working hard and wanting to improve themselves. I’ve never met an athlete who fits that criteria who doesn’t actively rub that same response off on the people around them. There isn’t another student or person in the weight room who doesn’t see those five working hard every time they’re in there.
“I think every single one of these kids has it to get to where they want to go. They have their heads on straight and pretty much across the board each of their goals is to play at the next level. They recognize that has to happen before they can seriously begin to think about anything after that. They have their eyes on the correct path, and they also realize that working, training, the hard work [of] taking care of themselves, is going to take the long-term commitment to do the work and [following] the process rather than simply [turning] it on and off for a couple of months at a time.”
TWEET @ASpellman_DPost
