After letting Tyler feel the position of his own wrist and answering a couple of questions, Gnik gently lifts the bar from the rack and encourages Tyler as the 16-year-old completes a set of lifts.

Like many teenagers, Tyler tries lifting weights as a way to get stronger. It has helped that, but also became a lesson in the power of setting goals.

Tyler Shepard, Jacob Hendee, and Sunny Aparece are the members of the Washington State School for the Blind power lifting team who have qualified to participate in an international competition for blind lifters in July in Miami.

“We meet a goal, and we’re always striving for a better goal,” Shepard said.

Across town, another group of sight-impaired students is also chasing big dreams.

Billy Henry, 16, is a WSSB student who last summer formed his own power lifting team. In May of 2007, Henry and several friends established a regional organization for blind athletes. He said his long-range goal is to expand participation opportunities in lifting and other sports for blind citizens.

More pressing goals for  Henry and the friends who joined him to form the Northwest Association of Blind Athletes Nightmare power lifting team include raising funds to pay for transportation to a May 3 meet in Aberdeen, and eventually to a squat rack to the gym he has put together in the garage of his Hazel Dell home.

As the trophies on a small shelf in that garage indicate, the team has had some early success.

The Nightmare competed at its first meet in June of 2007, and recently — like the WSSB Lions team — had a strong showing at the March 8 World Association of Bench Press and Dead Lift Iron Gladiator event in Pasco. Billy and teammates Jesse Curtis, Rachel Talley, Nick Wilks and Arlando Hicks all won at least one event in Pasco, and the team established several WABDL world and state records.

Power lifting is a sport in which blindness does not limit the athlete’s ceiling.

“In power lifting, there’s very little adaptation needed for blind or visually-impaired athletes, as opposed to track and field, for example, where athletes used a sighted guide or radio guide,” Henry said.

In 1994, teacher Rob Peck and a few interested students that included Gnik, formed the first WSSB power lifting team. Peck, who is no longer at the school, coached the team for a decade.

Judy Koch Smith, a teacher at the school who was an assistant coach under Peck, is the current head coach. She said she was pleased that 11 students turned out for the team when practices started in January.

“I like the knowledge that I’m not only getting stronger, I’m getting healthier,” explained Jacob Hendee, one of the few experienced lifters on the WSSB squad.

Now a life counselor at the WSSB, Gnik said the experience of traveling and competing in power lifting made him a stronger all-around student and person. He said the sport buoys the confidence of the students.

“What gets them most excited is when they max out,” Gnik said, referring to when a lifter reaches a new personal best. “I think it really surprises them that they can move do as much (weight) as they can.”

“Lifting weights is fun most of the time,” said eighth-grader Sunny Aparece, 14. “It makes me feel like I’m a physically stronger person.”

Aparece started lifting in January. She proved to be a strong competitor, and last month was among the lifters who established World Association of Deadlift and Bench Press world records for her age and weight class.

Gnik noted that many of the WSSB students lifted more weight at the two meets the school team attended than they had in practices. And they seemed poised on stage.

“They were so concentrated on their form, that they did a real good job of going up there on stage and blocking everything else out,” Gnik said.

For Billy Henry, and the friends who joined him in forming the NWABA team, success in competition is only one part of the story. Henry said he was spurred to form the NWABA because he wanted to compete in the sport more often than the WSSB’s program and its 10-week season allowed.

To succeed in the sport requires a continuing training plan. Opportunities to participate with a year-round club also helps blind teens build esteem and confidence, Henry said.

“Though it’s an individual sport, it gives you a good idea of what it’s like to be on a team,” Henry said of power lifting. “I think that has helped us out a lot. Especially me. It’s given me the organizational skills to be a coach and form this team.”

At both Henry’s garage and in the basement corner at WSSB, lifting is giving blind teens a chance to push themselves to become stronger.

Nick Wilks, a WSSB graduate who helped Henry form the Nightmare team, said sports such as power lifting and goal ball taught him the importance of persevering and focusing on the future instead of past disappointment.

When a lift is missed “you have to be able to let that last one go and be able to move on and try again,” Wilks said.