Knight earns Bell Ringer award

WORLAND – When Brant Knight walked into the administration office building Monday night, the furthest things from his mind was accepting an award.

Knight, who was lured to the school board meeting under false pretenses, thought he was giving a presentation on the strength training program he designed and about the power lifting competition he put on with help from sponsorship form the National Guard and Powerlifting Coach Ryan Utterback.

Instead, he was presented the Bell Ringer ward for leadership and volunteer service at Worland High School.

Superintendent David Nicholas said the Bell Ringer award is given out by the board for someone in the school community that is going out of their way to help the system and kids in a way that's exceptional.

Knight said he was really caught off guard by the award, as it is his first from the district, and Worland High School girls basketball coach Mark Mortimer pulled a good trick by bringing him there under the ruse of a presentation.

Initially, Knight started volunteering at the high school four years ago because of his job as the Staff Sergeant National Guard Recruiter in Worland, but continued because he enjoyed teaching students about strength training and about the physical fitness lifestyle.

"I like teaching young kids ... and extending their knowledge on something that will benefit them in the future," Knight said.

In his time volunteering at the high school, he has brought rock climbing walls and obstacle courses sponsored through the National Guard to the high school, and now he volunteers to teach a week-long strength training course he designed for the high school for three different teachers, sometimes up to six classes a day.

The course is designed with warm up time, proper form and injury prevention in mind and it gives the kids a change of pace, and Knight said, "They see a different pace and experience different knowledge from someone else other than the teacher that they've seen the entire time."

Knight also helped set up a powerlifting competition this year, and had boys and girls compete in three different lifting techniques (squats, flat bench press and deadlift) separated by gender and weight class. The invitation was extended out to several schools, and Knight said two athletes from Shoshoni came to compete.

"It was a huge success for our first year, and we had 11 competitors from freshmen to seniors," he said, adding there are plans to make it bigger in the upcoming years.

"We're trying to hit Basin, Greybull, Ten Sleep and Thermopolis and as many schools that want to come and participate in this," Knight said.

What's next?

Through his volunteering, Knight said he found a passion, and is currently "in the process of getting personal training certification so I can extend my knowledge not only at the high school but into the community."

After his certification, he said he plans to go for a degree in sports and health sciences with a core study in wellness and fitness from the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) and hopes to train teens and adults alike, and eventually get his substitution teachers certification to continue teaching about a fitness lifestyle.

Though he has been volunteering to teach, Knight said he's learned a lot from students in his four years of doing it. "They teach me patience ... I've seen a lot of them grow up. I also learned some kids learned by different techniques, and that's why I want to get my certification."

Knight said some of the high school students have even encouraged him to compete and last year he competed in the NPC Bodybuilding and Men's Physique Competition in Cheyenne and qualified for nationals in two different categories.