BEAST MODE: Tennis Coach Trepanier Found Passion in the Weight Room

LEIGH-ANN TREPANIER CHALKS HER HANDS AND APPROACHES A COMPETITION BAR.

It’s loaded with a weight that normal athletes, let alone humans, wouldn’t consider lifting above their heads, but Trepanier isn’t a normal athlete.

In her mind, she repeats the phrase “see a little, see a lot. See a lot, see nothing,” to help her focus on the task at hand. She bounces on her toes three times, kneels, sets her hands, moves the bar up and back to herself and then... everything goes silent except her coach’s voice.

He gives her a cue. Muscle memory takes over. She lifts.

Trepanier, the head tennis coach at TWCA, has a history of being in the foundation of Olympic Weightlifting that goes back to college. She started powerlifting — squats, bench, deadlifts, etc. — as a collegiate tennis player at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. At first, though she enjoyed it, it was more of a requirement.

After she graduated and moved to The Woodlands, she was immediately recruited by TWCA Strength Coach Tim Walker to enter into a brand new sport for her — Olympic Weightlifting — in December of 2019.

Then, Covid hit, and Trepanier’s journey took off.

She purchased a women’s competition bar — 35 pounds — and in June of 2020, she started Coach Walker’s program and began learning the “snatch” and “clean and jerk” lifts.

Her workout schedule included five days on, two days off. She did this for an entire year before her first competition.

In May 2021, Trepanier’s first competition arrived — online — through the United States Weightlifting Federation (USAW). She came in third overall in her weight class (59 KG ~ 130 lbs.) with a snatch of 68 KG (148 lbs.) and clean and jerk of 85 KG (187 lbs.).

These lifts qualified her for the U-25 US Nationals and the American Open Series 2. Her and Walker decided to not go to nationals with the goal in mind to compete in the US Nationals as a senior athlete, rather than a U-25 athlete.

At AO2 in September, Trepanier snatched 75 KG (165 lbs.) and clean and jerked 95 KG (209 lbs.). Again, she finished third overall, which qualified her for US Nationals as a senior athlete and the American Open Finals in December.

“It’s amazing how God designed our bodies to be able to handle such heavy weight under such grace,” Trepanier said. “I never had a female lifter to look up to and I think that’s something I love and I hope I can do here at TWCA.”

Once she started competing, Trepanier’s training schedule was upped to six days a week, with two or three two-a-days. The work paid off.

At the AO Finals, she totaled with a 175 KG lift — 75 KG snatch, 100 KG (220 lbs.) clean and jerk. This was good for a seventh-place overall finish against the top lifters in the nation.

“It’s okay to be strong,” she added. “It’s okay to want to lift heavy weights as a female, which is not common. I love that at TWCA I’ve had the opportunity to push specifically the female athletes by showing them that they can do this. That they can be confident and feel comfortable in the weight room.

“I love when they come up to me and tell me ‘I love this!’ or ‘I hit this number!’,” Trepanier said. “I love being able to be more of an example which wasn’t always the case. I’m more confident and I want to help athletes new to the sport.”

Up next for Trepanier will be the US Nationals held in Las Vegas in late June. She will be competing against hundreds of the best Olympic Weightlifters in the country.

Considering that when she started, Trepanier was lifting 22.7 KG (50 lbs.) in the snatch, and 37.7 (83 lbs) KG in the clean and jerk, it’s safe to say that no, she is not a normal athlete.