ATHLETE OF THE WEEK: Pineville’s Bailee Anslin, the lone senior of the Powerlifting team

When you’re the only senior on the team, being the leader is almost expected.

After being a part of Pineville’s powerlifting team for almost four seasons, Bailee Aslin says she’s doing the best she can do.

“It’s been really rough for her because she’s says, Coach, what do I do? How do I do this? I tell her sometimes it’s just trial and error type of deal but we’re going to work together.”

Ready or not, here she comes.

As Bailee Aslin pushes through her last season with the powerlifting team, she has more duties than usual to handle.

“It’s kind of crazy to be the only senior honestly because all my friends were seniors with me. I try to be the best leader I can be. We have like five leaders of us, me and some other juniors. We just try to be the best we can be for our team and show them how to work and do their best.”

Bailee’s parents encouraged her to pick-up powerlifting when they noticed her strengths at home.

Now, falling in love with the sounds of heavy weights, and the the feeling of the chalk before a lift, she hopes her talents carry her to the next level.

“My parents just told me to try it and I listened to them and I came with one of my friends, I tried it and I liked it so I’ve stuck with it all four years.”

Her favorite event is deadlift, where her heaviest lift is 315 pounds.

“I can push myself the most on that one.”

Coming into a new campus together, the bond is bound to grow close.

Bailee and Coach Cowan were both new to Pineville about four years ago, so they’ve gone through the growing pains together.

“When she was a freshman, I was just coming in. With us two coming in at the same time, we’ve grown a lot closer than when she was a freshman.”

“He’s really good with us and telling us what to do and teaching everything to us. He’ll sit down and explain it to us if we don’t get it. He’ll be in our friend in and out of there.”

“When she was a freshman, she was just this little bitty ol’ kid that had the big-eyed look and she grew a lot from her freshman year to her junior year and this year she has to fill those shoes of seniors that left which she’s grown a lot a young lady and a team leader.”