Carter Sing walked into the Field Training Center five years ago, planning on bulking up to become the latest in a long line of great football players at Lebanon High School. “The guy who was helping me coach at the time on Carter’s first day, about 15 minutes in, he’s like, ‘Hey, he’s ready to squat,'” said Field Training Center owner Tim Cole. “And I’m like, ‘No, he’s not.’ He goes, ‘Put it on his back, let’s see it.’ And it was the most beautiful squat you’ve ever seen.”
Carter was a natural. And Cole, his new lifting coach, had an idea. “He got me to come to a local competition, he talked me into doing it,” said Carter, who is headed into his senior year at Lebanon. “And that ended up qualifying me for my first national championships. And I ended up going and I ended up winning my first national championships.”
Carter qualified for the Pan Am camp, which features champions from countries throughout North America and South America. “And so that opened up this whole new world of possibilities,” Carter said. “And it led me farther into the sport and it made me realize this sport of weight lifting might go somewhere.”
After that experience he was all in. “We knew that doing this stuff nine months out of the year, because we would give up three months with football, we probably couldn’t hang with the best in the world,” Cole said.
It turns out Yellowjackets head football coach Will Christian was all in too. “He was great through the process,” Carter said.
While coaching is key for Carter, he’s his own nutritionist. “My number one thing is to prioritize protein,” Carter said. “Most people try to overcomplicate nutrition, in my opinion. If you want to lose weight: caloric deficit. If you want to gain weight, eat a surplus.”
Carter took his own advice and Cole’s coaching all the way to the World Championships in April. He had a few butterflies in his stomach. “Some almost like, fan moments because these weightlifters who I’ve been watching for years were at this competition,” Carter said. “I was just like, almost star struck.”
As the saying goes, his heroes became his rivals. Carter grabbed 6th place in his weight class. Now he’s poised for the Pan Am games in Mexico this November. “I think we’re definitely in the medal hunt to get on the podium,” Cole said. “I have incredible expectations of him.”
And who would bet against the kid who has already beaten all those expectations.
