Latest / The Platform: a Michigan High School Powerlifting Association Podcast / Celleste Hallett, MHSPLA Scholarship Winner, Mesick Powerlifting | The Platform Episode 4
Transcript
- Chris Whittaker: Welcome back to another episode of the platform. This one is episode four. We're going to start over the next several weeks. We're to mix in some of our scholarship winners for this year's Michigan High School Powerlifting Association Senior Scholarship. Winners were voted on by the board of directors and some of our college coaches. You're going to see that over the next few weeks. But this one again is episode four and we're going to start with one of our scholarship winners. Celeste Hallett: you Chris Whittaker: It's Miss Celeste Hollett from Meeseek High School. She was the first scholarship winner that we had the opportunity to sit down and talk with and get to know this young lady and get to spotlight her and her program a little bit. But before we get to Celeste, make sure that you are subscribed or you are following the platform on your favorite podcast platform, YouTube, Spotify, Apple podcasts. Yep, here we It helps when I don't double click a button back with another episode ⁓ of the I'm your co host, Coach Chris Whitaker, Dexter High School, Iron Dread, Strength and Conditioning, Iron Dread, Powerlifting, Michigan High School board member. ⁓ I am here with ⁓ Coach Chris ⁓ our director the MHS PLA. Coach Gillum, good to see you again. Celeste Hallett: you Chris Whittaker: Deezer here on Riverside, our recording platform. There's many different places for you to find the platform. Please subscribe, leave a review, give it a thumbs up. Give us some feedback on it or hey, if you are somebody that is involved in our association or has been involved in our association or powerlifting in general and you want to be on the show, Chris Gilliam: It's good to be here. Chris Whittaker: We are a special one today where with our guests coming on the platform, our first student athlete that we've had the chance to interview on the platform. This young lady ⁓ was one of our 2025-2026 scholarship winners through the MHSPLA. This year we gave out four scholarships ⁓ to our senior student athletes who submitted an essay and it was voted on by the MHSPLA board. reach out to us info at mhspla.com and we'll get back to you and we'll get you scheduled for a future episode on the platform where the stories weigh a ton. Until then, I mean, that's really all we got for this intro. Next week will be Connor Berkmeyer, our first college coach that we had the chance to talk to here on the platform. But until then, Miss Celeste Hallett is here with us. Celeste, welcome to the show. Did I pronounce your name correctly? Because I'm going to do another pronunciation here in a second and I don't want to screw up twice. Celeste Hallett: Thank you. Yeah. No, that's okay. You got it right. Chris Gilliam: You Chris Whittaker: All right, Celeste is from Mesick High School, not Messick, Mesick, Mesick High School. Welcome Celeste to the show. Appreciate you being here. We got a bunch of questions we're gonna ask you. We'll have some fun ⁓ and get to know you a little bit more. ⁓ Coach Gillum's gonna kick off the questions here. ⁓ Coach, you take it, let's roll. Celeste Hallett: Not that sick. Chris Whittaker: This is episode four with Celeste Hollett of MISIC. Hit the intro music. Chris Gilliam: All right. Just before we get going, Chris, I don't see you and I don't see myself. I do see Celeste. I see the platform logo. Just want to make sure we're good. Chris Whittaker: Mmm. Chris Gilliam: But a couple of quick questions for you. Super easy, Celeste. Just to get to know you a little bit, how many siblings do you have? Celeste Hallett: Three younger brothers. Yup. Yes I am. Chris Gilliam: ⁓ so you're the oldest. All right. What's the differences in your guys's age? Celeste Hallett: ⁓ my mom had all four of us within five years. So not a lot. The youngest is 12, I think. I don't know. But, yeah. Chris Gilliam: Okay. Okay. Awesome. Well, that's good. Chris, did you want to? Celeste Hallett: Yep. Chris Whittaker: Yeah, hold on. I'm trying to figure out why this is. Chris Gilliam: That's all right. I can continue on. ⁓ there we go, Chris. All right. Chris Whittaker: We're going. We're not even gonna edit that out in post, Celeste. We're good. We keep going here. Celeste Hallett: Okay. Chris Whittaker: So tell us again, how many siblings do you have? Celeste Hallett: three younger brothers. Chris Whittaker: three younger brothers are they in a lift and wait yet. Celeste Hallett: ⁓ Gunner, he's the oldest of the three. He used to do powerlifting. He was in the 105 weight class, but he has recently really gotten into like cross-country and track. So he's kind of transitioned into that. Aaron plays basketball. He's the middle one. And then Zane is the youngest and he'll be lifting with us next year when he's in seventh grade. yeah. All athletes. That's right. Chris Gilliam: Awesome. Chris Whittaker: All athletes, all athletes in the Halle family. ⁓ So obviously we know power lifting takes a lot of your time. School takes a lot of your time. Your young lady that has a job, because we're trying to squeeze this in before you have to go to work here. And we thank you for that. Do you have any ⁓ hobbies or interests outside of training and lifting? Celeste Hallett: Thank you. you read a lot, like a lot, lot. So I read a bunch of different books. I like to paint sometimes, but I'll get into creative slump where I won't touch paint brush for like four months and then I'll whip out like 13 paintings in a row. So those are my two big ones. Chris Whittaker: available soon on the MHS PLA shop custom paintings by Celeste Hallett. And now that you've won the scholarship award, that makes them worth more money here. We'll only take a small percentage. Celeste Hallett: I don't know about that one. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, for sure. What ⁓ plans do you have, Celeste, post high school? What are you going to do after you graduate this year? Celeste Hallett: Okay. set to go to GVSU in the fall and I plan to study exercise science and get my bachelor's in that and then once I'm done with that program I'm going to move on to physical therapy or athletic training. Chris Gilliam: All right. You your hobbies and interests and your plans are very similar to my youngest daughter. Isn't it gross? Yeah, she sounds a lot like her. Chris Whittaker: ⁓ Shout out Morgan. Shout out Morgan. Great Lakes Power. She'll be very happy to hear that. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Yeah. So, well, Natalie likes the art where Morgan wasn't into art. So she's a little more like Natalie, but both of my daughters, exercise science is what they studied. And my oldest is doing it right now. And my youngest is getting, she's a sophomore in college right now. So, yeah. Celeste Hallett: Yeah. That's really cool. Chris Whittaker: We have, you know, well, a lot of these things that kind of make us who we are, right? Powerlifting draws all of us together, right? But it's always fun to see those different things that people are into. ⁓ What drew you to this great sport of powerlifting in the MHSPLA? Celeste Hallett: Mmm. So I used to play basketball, but I wasn't very good at it. Like I'm talking rundown and score hoop for the other team, not very good at it. ⁓ So when my dad started the program five years ago at Music, I was like, okay, nothing could be worse than that. So I tried it out and I actually ended up being pretty good at it. And I really enjoyed it because I got to spend a lot of time with my dad and I had a bunch of friends who lifted with me and it's, yeah, just kind of grew on me from there and now it's... My favorite. Chris Whittaker: Yeah, it's fun sport. And I think that one of the biggest things with us with this sport too, is there's a spot for everyone in it. You said your brother was 105 pounds. Right? Like, there's a spot for the smallest of the small, the biggest of the big, the strongest in the area to the weakest. There's a spot for somebody here to come and compete and have some fun. Celeste Hallett: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep. Chris Gilliam: So you mentioned you did basketball before and then you transitioned into powerlifting because those sports kind of conflict with each other. ⁓ So how many years have you been involved in the sport and competing through the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association? Celeste Hallett: Yeah. This year my senior season was my fifth year competing and fifth year involved and that's as long as our program has been kind of a thing at Misec here. And yeah, I competed eighth through 10th grade on JV and 11th 12th grade in varsity. Chris Gilliam: You plan on doing it after you graduate, like in a different association? Celeste Hallett: I've been contemplating it. I reached out to GVSU's club team, I don't know, probably before states sometime and they were like, okay tryouts are in the fall, like we've been interested in having you come down and try out if you're like looking into it. So I might, I might not, I kind of want to see how intense freshman year is going to be, but I think it would be cool to do it after high school. Chris Gilliam: Sure. Yeah, that'd be awesome. Well, hopefully it's something that fits in your schedule and you can make it work out because you're probably going to work out anyway, right? Celeste Hallett: Definitely. Gotta get jacked. Chris Gilliam: Good. Chris Whittaker: Don't we all, we all are working for that jacked and what does Mark Bell say? Jacked and tan. I don't know if I'm either one these days, Celeste. What was your experience like in the MHS PLA? Did, uh, did it have any sort of impact on you as a lifter or as a person? Celeste Hallett: I'm not either. Definitely. ⁓ I feel like I tell people all the time because there are a lot of like younger girls Sorry about that. There are a lot of younger girls who will like come up to me be like so I'm thinking about trying powerlifting I don't know if I should and I'm like, ⁓ you definitely should like powerlifting is one of those sports that there's it's competitive and like Everybody is competing against each other. But everybody is cheering for each other at the same time. I feel like Nowadays in sports, like everything is so I have to beat you, I have to win that we kind of forget that we're all here just to do our best. But like, I feel like powerlifting because everybody is like lifting for themselves, even though we're still competing against each other. It's a lot easier to kind of keep that sportsmanship and like camaraderie while we're lifting. And just because of that, I feel like it's definitely something that is. Like, go for it. Go all out. Go lift. And then just personally, feel like powerlifting is something that has helped me gain a lot of confidence in myself. Because like when you're in the gym, 300 pounds seems like a lot of weight. And that's like that's because it is. like, eventually, like I got to the point where I was like 300 pounds, I can lift that. Like, I'm confident in myself that I can go out there and do it if I my mind to it, which is really nice. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, for sure. What once seemed like an insurmountable task, you get to the point where you've done it often enough that you don't even think about it being a challenge anymore. Yeah, that's pretty, that's pretty cool. ⁓ Share a fond memory from your experiences at maybe a specific meet, you know, ⁓ with a specific teammate or with a specific maybe competition. Celeste Hallett: Exactly. Right. ⁓ so just this year at States I competed in the 165 pound weight class and one of the girls I recognized her but I didn't really remember her name and I was like I know I've seen you before but where and she came up to me and she was like hey you're Celeste right and I was like yeah I'm gonna be honest I don't remember your name and Chris Gilliam: Is there anything that sticks out in your mind from your five years of competing? Celeste Hallett: I still don't, but she was like, do you remember lifting? I think it was Mona Shores many moons ago, I think two or three years ago. We lifted on the same platform. And I was like, yeah, that's like, that makes sense. That checks out. And she was like, I remember you were like my biggest supporter. You were pushing me so hard in deadlift and like you kept spotting me and like, hey, you got this. She's like, I just want to say thank you because I wouldn't be here at States today if it wasn't for you. And so like that's, that's something like. warm fuzzy feelings you know and it's just kind of stuck with me like your impact on people like you'll never know how much you impact someone because I'm gonna be honest I didn't even remember that I knew her but it sticks with people and I feel like that's something that like it's a nice memory to look back on but it also is like goes to show you that like little interactions like that with someone mean a lot to them so Chris Gilliam: for sure. That's great. That's a good memory to have. Thank you for sharing that. Celeste Hallett: You're welcome. Chris Whittaker: And if the individual that you helped listens to this, reach out, maybe we'll talk to her and we'll hear her side of it too. ⁓ So one piece of advice you would have for somebody considering competing in the sport of powerlifting for the first time. Celeste Hallett: I'll do that. Stay mentally tough. It takes, obviously you have to have a certain amount of physical toughness to be able to lift heavy circles off the ground or off your chest or off the rack, but mental toughness, feel like it's 40 % physical and 60 % mental. Like you have to keep the faith in yourself that it's hard. but I know I'll get there, like I am strong enough to put in the work, I am strong enough to be able to do this. Like just stay mentally tough and don't get down on yourself, because the second you start getting down on yourself is when you start not being able to do what you set out to do. Mm-hmm. Chris Whittaker: Gotta keep working. Gotta keep digging. Chris Gilliam: That's great. That's good advice. So you mentioned your dad started this five years ago. So we're just trying to get a gauge for all the people we talked to. Is powerlifting considered a sport at your school? Do you guys receive letters? Celeste Hallett: Just this year, just this year, ⁓ the last four years it was only a club sport because something about it, I don't know all the statistics exactly, but something about it either not through MHSAA or something like that they wouldn't consider it a school sport, but just this year they added it on as a school sport for me six, so that is awesome. Chris Gilliam: That's awesome. Yeah, we're finding that's a little more common now, but that's awesome. That's good to know. We got another one coach that's handing out letters for a sport that most schools weren't doing it. And now we're finding that's more common than it used to be. So that shows you the growth of the sport in our state. So great. Celeste Hallett: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Thank video. you Yeah. Chris Whittaker: That's it becomes kind of hard to deny when they see one, the number of interests within their own building and then the number of interest throughout the state. You know, especially, especially with girls like our girls and you know, in just a short time that I've been involved and I've talked with coach Gillum and some of the other coaches that have been around, like our girls participation has gone up significantly. Varsity states this year had more girls competitors than Celeste Hallett: Exactly. Chris Whittaker: Boys competitors, right coach? Yeah. And that's the first time, first time ever that that's happened. ⁓ but since we're on the topic of numbers about, you know, how the numbers with the music program been, ⁓ in your time, you know, have you, have you guys grown? Have you stayed about the same? Celeste Hallett: that we. Chris Gilliam: the first time ever. Celeste Hallett: We've definitely, we've definitely grown. This year we didn't have as many like competitors as we have in the past. Like we have people who like come up and lift with us, but they're like, ⁓ I don't know. Like I'm kind of nervous. I don't know if I want to compete yet, but they've definitely like, ⁓ yeah, I'm definitely competing next year. ⁓ but as far as powerlifting at our school is the sport with, I think the most participation across the age ranges. Like our basketball program is pretty big. I feel like we're definitely more of a basketball school, but powerlifting is starting to rival that, which is really, I'm a powerlifter, not a basketball player, so I like to see that. Chris Gilliam: So, ⁓ had a usual training session. How many people are in their training? What'd you say during the season? Celeste Hallett: Throughout practice, my dad runs it so that like we have like a two hour long, two and a half hour long block that we're up in the weight room. And like the first hour will be for like newer kids, kids who don't quite know what they're doing yet, kids who just want to come up to lift for maybe baseball or something like that. And then like the second hour, hour and a half is his competitors or like his really serious lifters. And over the course of that time, probably 30 to 40 kids come up to the weight room at some point. So we've got a pretty big group up. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, that's awesome because your high school enrollment, how many is actually enrolled at your high school? Do you know what the student population is? Celeste Hallett: Like something. My graduating class only has I think 32 kids so we're pretty small. Chris Gilliam: So your guys are getting a third of the kids in your school to show up and work out in the weight room. Well, that's pretty awesome. Celeste Hallett: Yeah. Mm-hmm. It is pretty awesome. Chris Whittaker: Numbers we wish. Chris Gilliam: All right. you might have to think about this a little bit, but you know, we know powerlifting is a sport where you experience failures. Cause it happens. You put on some weight on an attempt to try and set a PR or to try and win the meet and you you fail, you know, but that's the difference between winning and losing as an individual at these things. And sometimes your place can determine if your team. Celeste Hallett: BLEH Do this. Chris Gilliam: does well as well, you know, in the meat. What's your favorite failure that you've had? What's something that you've failed at in the sport ⁓ that most would view as a setback, but you ultimately feel like it set you up to be successful. Celeste Hallett: Thank Thanks watching. That's a good one. think that so other than squat this year I never PR'd in a lift all of my PR's are from my junior year as a varsity lifter and I feel like honestly like most people would be like that's like don't you want to PR like that's not a good thing like that isn't necessarily successful but to me just being able to consistently pull the weights that I can pull or to lift the weights that I can lift and showing up every day. Like I know I'm not PRing, like I know I'm not lifting anything crazy, at least to my standards, but it's like I still show up every day. I still bust my butt in the weight room. I'm still working hard and making sure that I'm cheering on my teammates and that kind of stuff like that to me, even though, even though on paper I didn't. necessarily live super successfully this year, I still count that as a success because showing up and keeping after it and still working hard even though it's not paying off, like that is a success to me. Chris Gilliam: Well, yeah, I mean, if you want to look at paying off a sudden PR is, the fact that you can consistently hit numbers and, know, you are showing the determination and consistency in your training. Yeah. I can, I can see where you're looking at that as that's a success. Cause you know, inconsistency people could still have a good day or a bad day, but yeah, making sure you have fewer bad days and that all of your days. Celeste Hallett: Exactly. Exactly. Chris Gilliam: may not be the greatest, but they're still good. All right, I like that. Thank you for sharing that. Chris Whittaker: I'm a microcosm of life there from using the correct term. We're not always going to, we're not even going to set PRs on the day, but just making sure that your, your good days are more than your bad days. ⁓ mean, did you, did you have an injury that you're working around? ⁓ did you drop weight classes down? So you're comparing to a higher body weight. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Celeste Hallett: Thanks. Exactly. I actually competed in the heavier weight class. I usually fluctuate a little bit throughout the season, like where I'm at. So I competed a couple times in the 155 this year, and then I competed a couple times in the 165. And I told my dad, was like, realistically with my combine, I'm not sitting too much higher in the 155 than in the 165. But I know that if I try to cut down to the 155, I'm gonna lift like crap because I'm not being able to like fuel up how I should. So I might as well have fun and compete in the 165 and not be cranky because I get hangry. I was like maybe don't let me be cranky with everybody else. So I'll lift in the 165 this year but yeah not really anything that I was necessarily working around just didn't happen this year. Chris Gilliam: the It's true. Chris Whittaker: Yeah. In this sport, we're not really in the business of making smaller humans. Be as big as you possibly can be and then cut down light enough so that you could be in that weight class and then, you know, be the biggest person in that weight class, right? Chris Gilliam: Gotcha. Celeste Hallett: Yeah. Exactly. Chris Whittaker: ⁓ The next one is this. What's the hardest thing to learn in this sport of powerlifting? Celeste Hallett: think that the hardest thing to learn is that it's like it's gonna be okay. Like if you have a bad day in the weight room at practice, it's gonna be okay. Like it's not the end of the world. If you don't hit a PR at a meet, it's okay. It's not the end of the world. If you miss your weight class, eighth grade year I missed my weight class at States and I didn't get to compete. So it was like, that really sucks, but it's gonna be okay. Yes, you can always do better. As long as you're giving it your all though, it's gonna be okay. So I feel like that's something, I'm a perfectionist, that's really hard for me to like wrap my head around sometimes. And I know that there are other people out there on the girl side, on the boy side that can relate to that. But it's like, it's not the end of the world. There are more opportunities and it's not the end all be all if you. can't do something. Like that's part of the sport is to find your limits and then push past them. And there are going to be limits sometimes and that's okay. Chris Gilliam: Where was that state made up when you were in eighth grade? Was that Henry Henry Ford? That's what I thought. I was just going to bring that up because I had a lifter that also missed their weight class. And I feel like that day, I remember quite a few girls missing their weight class. And it was after that season that we said, if they miss their weight class, we're still going to let them lift. They just can't and score team points because knowing that families like Celeste Hallett: Henry Ford. Henry Ford, yep. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Chris Gilliam: traveled hours away, you know, and then all of sudden you're not lifting. Like that's like demoralizing. So, okay. Yeah. That sounds about right. So that's something we did. The next section is like a rapid fire. So don't think about it too much. Just give us your first answer that comes to mind, but it's going to be a choice. All right. So it's choice between a couple of things. All right. Celeste Hallett: Yeah. Yeah. See Chris Gilliam: So which do you prefer? What's your favorite lift? Squat, bunch, or deadlift? Celeste Hallett: left. Chris Whittaker: Low bar, high bar squat. Chris Gilliam: Sumo or conventional deadlift. Celeste Hallett: Fumo. Fumo. Chris Whittaker: another sumo puller coach. We're gonna do a one rep max or rep PR. Celeste Hallett: We're at PR. Chris Gilliam: Okay, what's your favorite accessory exercise for squats? Celeste Hallett: Bulgarian split squats. Chris Gilliam: while she likes to punish herself coach. I love it. Chris Whittaker: He likes the Bulgarian sports squad. The Bulgarians, some very evil people on that one. They also used to run the conjugate method where they'd max out three times a day. Crazy, crazy Bulgarians. Your favorite accessory exercise for the bench press. Celeste Hallett: Love-hate relationship. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Celeste Hallett: God. tricep extensions. Chris Whittaker: What variety? Celeste Hallett: over the head. Yeah. Chris Whittaker: Over him dumbbell dumbbell overhead. Chris Gilliam: Nice. Favorite accessory exercise for deadlift. Celeste Hallett: hate them but deficit deadlifts they suck Chris Gilliam: They sure do. Yeah. All right. Awesome. I mean, that's the gist of our ⁓ questions, Celeste, but I did want to talk to you before we move on to the last part of our interview is, know, your dad, you said your dad started it. So I want to share a quick story with you when we, you know, we, ⁓ basically, you know, we knew who we had selected, but we didn't know you. We didn't know nothing. I didn't even know your dad was your coach. to be honest. So, ⁓ at the state meet, I, seen him and I walked up to him and I talked to him. said, Hey, how do, how does this person pronounce their last name? And he told me, and I said, all right, thanks coach. Make sure she sticks around for the awards. Cause I didn't know how you were doing at the meet or anything, but I wanted to make sure, you know, we knew we were giving you a scholarship, but sometimes kids, if they don't model, they take off. And I just wanted to make sure you were there. Celeste Hallett: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Chris Gilliam: And he's like, okay. And then it was afterwards that I seen it and I was like, ⁓ you're, you're her dad. Okay. That makes a whole lot of sense why he knew how to pronounce the name, you know, but, ⁓ so that, that was kind of unique. And, so I talked to him a little bit because I coached my daughters, ⁓ and stuff. So, ⁓ him and I probably have a lot more in common. ⁓ I'll have to have a conversation more in depth with him down the road, but. Celeste Hallett: Yeah. Chris Gilliam: Has it been pretty fun being with him to like build the program up? Celeste Hallett: ⁓ yeah, definitely. like, like I said, I've done it every single year that it's been a thing. And so like, it's kind of bittersweet, like this is my senior year, like I don't get to lift with him anymore. So some tears have been shed over that. But ⁓ it's also like, I'm really proud of him for sticking with it, because like, it's hard, because early mornings, like he drives us down a lot. Chris Gilliam: You Celeste Hallett: with the school van and so like he'll be driving and he'll get maybe three hours sleep because he still has to like set stuff up and do all the paperwork and make sure that everybody has all their stuff and then he's up all day and then he's driving us back but he always has a good attitude he's always been my biggest supporter even when he's hard on me and like he's always shown up for all the other kids too like I say all the time like Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Celeste Hallett: My dad's the coach and he only makes it to one or two of my lifts, but honestly I wouldn't have it any other way because I know that there are a lot of kids at MESIC who need that kind of support from someone. And so it's really like, it makes me happy to see that my dad can be that for someone, even if it's in the weight room. Like that's just good. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Well, that's good. That's good to hear. mean, you know, the last thing I wanted to say before we give you a chance to talk about some other stuff ⁓ that, when we, you, you submitted your, your interest in the scholarship. So, you know, nobody knows who, who the lifters are. ⁓ we may have run across you guys at meets, but not really putting a face with the name. Celeste Hallett: Mm-hmm. Chris Gilliam: You know, but like the way you answered your questions is a large part why the board selected you as one of the recipients of the scholarship. But after interviewing you today, I can totally see, you know, you're very well-rounded young lady. So you're very good at speaking and, ⁓ you know, it's a no brainer that you were selected. So thank you for being with us. Celeste Hallett: Thank you. Thank you. Chris Whittaker: Yeah, it's as a father of two girls too as well ⁓ that are young. You know, I've I always talk with Coach Gilliam's daughters about all right. What what did dad do really? Well, what did dad screw up so I can learn from him and they love that because I put it to him like that and they laugh. ⁓ But yeah, it's it's so much of and you just hit the nail on the head with it like as coaches. Our kids have to share us with. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. Celeste Hallett: Yeah. Chris Whittaker: everyone else on the team, you know, or, you know, with another, you know, my, my kids don't, they're still so young. ⁓ but it is cool that you as not only his daughter, but also a student athlete on the team recognize that and, and value what he's giving to the entire program. ⁓ you know, cause a lesser kid would be selfish to themselves. So hats off, hats off to you. Celeste Hallett: Okay. Okay. Chris Whittaker: So that's for sure. And maybe we put that down on our list of coaches interviews. Sure. Chris Gilliam: Sure, that'd be awesome. Chris Whittaker: So we're kind of getting close to our time here, Celeste. We know we got to get you to work. ⁓ But is there anything that we haven't talked about that you would like to share with our listening audience? Celeste Hallett: Great question. I feel like definitely like if you're thinking about joining powerlifting or I don't I don't really know who all listens to the podcast but whether you're an athlete whether you're a parent whether you're a random community member like these kids work their butts off. Like there are kids in the weight room, like I've seen literal blood, sweat and tears shed in the weight room, whether they're mine, whether it's someone else. Like we really work for what we accomplish on the platform and whether you go home with a medal, whether you don't go home with a medal, it's still, it's a really rewarding atmosphere and environment to be a part of. So Go watch a meet. Have your kid try it out. Like, if you are the kid, then try it out. Like, even if you don't go home with a medal or a personal best or something, know that you're doing it for yourself. And that's something that I have really learned. Like, do it for me because I deserve someone to put in the effort for myself, whether it's me or whether it's my dad, whether it's one of my teammates, like... It's important that you have something, whether it's powerlifting or not, just have something that you do for yourself. And I think that that's something that more people need to hear and need to know. Chris Whittaker: Choosing things in life that make you better and help you to feel more accomplished and feel better about yourself, that then radiates out into how you interact with other people. Celeste Hallett: Exactly. Chris Gilliam: Yeah. And challenging yourself. ⁓ You need to learn what your limits are. And sometimes you can push those limits and realize that the limits are bigger than, you know, what you originally thought. So the sport teaches that and I'm glad that you brought that up. So thank you very much. Celeste Hallett: In it. Right. You're welcome. Chris Whittaker: Awesome. So Celeste, we again, we really appreciate you giving your time to be here on the platform with us. Congratulations on a great season. And being one of our four scholarship winners. One last thing before we let you go or I'll kick it to coach Gillum before we let you go. Do you have any public facing social media or any social media that you are willing to share if anybody wants to connect with you a young lifter ⁓ wants to connect Celeste Hallett: Thank you. My mom has Facebook. I don't really have that much social media, but my mom has Facebook. ⁓ Jenny Lynn Hallett is her name. If you look her up, I'm sure you'll be able to find her. Or look up MESIC anything, any of the MESIC sports. You'll be able to find me somewhere. I'm pretty involved in my school, so if you really want to get a hold of me, you'll be able to get a hold of me. Chris Gilliam: Don't worry about it. Chris Whittaker: Nope. Well, and that's why we asked the question like that. Not everybody has that public facing social media presence. ⁓ so if you want to keep up with what's going on at MISIC, ⁓ find MISIC's powerlifting page, on social media, coach Gillum, I'll kick it to you to say goodbye to miss Celeste. Celeste Hallett: Yeah. Chris Gilliam: Hey, so Les, once again, thank you for being with us. Congratulations on being one of our scholarship winners this year. Good luck at Grand Valley State. We hope that the ⁓ club powerlifting works out for you with your schedule and stuff. ⁓ But just remember where you came from. I'm sure your dad has taught you those things. And when we say that, we also mean that from the Michigan High School Powerlifting Association. So thank you very much. Appreciate you. Good luck. Celeste Hallett: You're welcome. Thank you guys for having me too. And thank you for the scholarship. Chris Gilliam: Yeah, you're welcome. Chris Whittaker: All right,