Columbus East graduate Brea Hunter competes in last year’s national powerlifting championships in Aurora, Colo.
Submitted photo
Brea Hunter was going through Basic Training at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, when she found out about an opportunity she had been wanting.
On Jan. 30, one of Hunter’s friends showed her a flier that the US Army Warrior Fitness Team was expanding to Crossfit, Powerlifting and Strongwoman. The Columbus East graduate won a national powerlifting title last July and was hoping to be able to compete professionally.
Now, Hunter will have that chance. The 20-year-old PFC will be able to do powerlifting professionally as a full-time job while representing the Army.
“It was crazy the way it worked out,” Hunter said. “I’m very grateful because this is what I’ve been dreaming about. This has been my end goal for my coach and I. I didn’t get confirmation until April, so the whole time, I was worried, wondering what I could have done better. Then in April, I got an e-mail saying I had been named to the team.”
Hunter was fortunate that Jan. 30 was a Sunday since the application was due Feb. 1. Sunday is the day those in Basic Training have a half-hour to talk on the phone with their families, so she called her mother Melissa, and they worked on a resume to send to the recruiters.
“I was scrambling around because I only had 30 minutes on my phone to help my family coordinate my resume, and then they sent it on my behalf,” Brea said. “I never thought that they would accept me at all.”
Columbus East graduate Brea Hunter competes in last year’s national powerlifting championships in Aurora, Colo.
Submitted photo
A three-time state club soccer champion, the former goalkeeper gave up that sport after twice dislocating her right kneecap. She began powerlifting as a freshman at Indiana University and competed in a meet in Indianapolis in December 2020.
Last spring, Hunter drove from Bloomington to Bargersville twice a week to train with six-time national powerlifting champion Jeremy Hartman. She won her division in a qualifier for the nationals last March.
USA Sub Junior/Junior National Team coach Zac Cooper offers encouragment to Columbus East graduate Brea Hunter at last year’s national powerlifting championships in Aurora, Colo.
Submitted photo
At the national championships in Aurora, Colorado, Hunter put up personal records of 292 pounds on the squat, 182 pounds on the bench and 363 pounds on the deadlift for a total of 837 pounds to win the Teen III (18-19-year-old) Raw (which means competitors’ equipment is limited to knee sleeves, belt and wrist wraps) 69kg Division by 77 pounds.
Hunter returned to IU in August, where she is a 21st Century Scholar majoring in human biology. But she put her scholarship on hold and went to Basic Training at Fort Sill in November.
“I just found myself very complacent, and I discovered that in order to be a good leader, I had to be led well, and I thought the best way to do that was to enlist in the Army,” Hunter said. “I’ve always wanted to do it, but I never considered enlisting until last year.”
After graduating from Basic Training on Feb. 25, Hunter left for Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, where she began a 16-week Combat Medic School program on Feb. 28. She graduates from that on Friday.
Hunter was inspired by her cousin, U.S. Army Sgt. Jonathon Hunter, who was killed in an attack on a NATO convoy in Afghanistan in 2017 at the age of 23. For her senior project, she researched and developed chemicals to be used in QuikClot, a soft, white, sterile, non-woven gauze that contains kaolin that quickly clots blood to control and stop bleeding when applied to an open wound.
Shortly after her graduation from Combat Medic School on Friday afternoon, Brea will ship to Fort Knox, Kentucky, where she will begin her job as powerlifter for the Army Warrior Fitness Team. She is the youngest and lowest-ranking solider on the team.
“Once I get there, I’ll be able to powerlift full-time and travel to competitions,” she said. “I think the goal is going to be to get settled someplace so I’m not always moving around.”
Brea, who has her eye on the Junior Nationals competition in November, plans to eventually return to college.
“It took a significant amount of convincing to postpone my education and enlist in the Army, but my family did nothing but continuously support me,” Brea said. “That decision eventually led to a 30-minute phone call in January that turned my life into something I never thought it could be.
“I owe so much to my coach Jeremy Hartman of Hartman Performance Training,” she added. “Since January of 2021, he has been a mentor, support system and truly has developed me into a well-rounded individual.”
