From the Shreveport Times:...the room was the site of a record setting performance by Eagles’ junior
Elijah Chatman, a modest young man with an outsized ability to potentially do great things. Chatman is the defensive lineman who stepped up his game last fall when LSU signee Davin Cotton went down with a leg injury. The 6-foot-1, 245-pound Chatman made another significant contribution to Evangel lore Wednesday in front of his teammates and at least one special guest.
With the weight room rocking and rolling as about 50 teenagers went through their lifting stations, Chatman started his morning routine at the squat where he was pushed to the limit by raising nearly 700 pounds of iron.
“It’s hard for the bar to hold that much,” said an impressed Evangel coach Byron Dawson.
But that squat merely set the stage for Chatman’s record-setting bench press, something he has pursued for more than a year.
The bar for that lift was set during the 2002 school year when former Eagle Chase Pittman was a senior before moving on to LSU. Pittman had decided to attempt a record 440-pound bench press in honor of his late brother, Cole, who had played in jersey No. 44. Cole Pittman died in a car crash a year earlier while on the way to Austin for spring training with the University of Texas football team.
Pittman was able to bench 440 pounds during the 2002 Lift-a-Thon at Evangel and a picture-plaque on the wall in the field house commemorates the 16-year-old feat. He was on hand early Wednesday morning to see if Chatman could surpass his mark.
“Honestly, I had no idea I still held the record,” Pittman said outside the weight room. “Coach (Byron) Dawson called me a few days ago and told me there was a guy here who was going to smash it.”
Rest of the story. Good stuff:
https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/high-school/football/2018/04/11/evangels-elijah-chatman-surpasses-pittman-record/509132002/