By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

There rarely is an off day for St. Cloud High weightlifting coach Cory Aun, even during these scorching summer months.

Aside from his classroom and coaching duties, Aun is pursing a Master’s degree in physiology at UCF.

And he is an elite-level weightlifter, one who will represent Team Florida today against a team from New South Wales, Australia, at a meet at Forest City Elementary School in Altamonte Springs.

“It’s an opportunity to compete internationally, so I’m pretty excited about it,” Aun, 32, said. “It’s so hard to qualify for an international event in this country because there are so many great lifters.”

Aun was selected to fill an opening at 169 pounds, even though he usually competes at 152 pounds.

“I’m ranked second in Florida at 169 pounds and first at 152, but I agreed to move up a class to increase our chance to score more points,” Aun said.

Aun cleaned 293 pounds, snatched 225 and squatted 435 pounds to earn his berth on Team Florida for the match against Australia.

Aun, who teaches anatomy and biology at St. Cloud High, competed for the school’s weightlifting team in the mid-1990s along with his twin brother, Jason.

After graduation, the brothers continued to compete at weightlifting meets and consistently won first-place medals at Florida’s Sunshine State games and other USA Weightlifting events.

The brothers have volunteered for more than a decade to help student lifters at St. Cloud High and they launched Team St. Cloud Lifting, an affiliate of Team Florida Lifting. Their students competed successfully at many state, national and sometimes international events, Aun said, producing several champions at the state level.

Cory Aun was named the Bulldogs’ boys weightlifting coach last week by Athletic Director Chad Ansbaugh after assisting with the girls team for several years under Coach Lonnie Beckel.

Ansbaugh said Cory Aun is an asset to the school’s athletic program.

“Generally you reserve the boys weightlifting job for the football coach, but Coach (Bill) Buldini said that it wouldn’t make sense not to take advantage of Coach Aun’s knowledge,” Ansbaugh said. “When you look at him and see what he’s been able to accomplish personally – I mean, he’s like 5-8 or something and he can dunk a basketball at 32 –  there’s reason to believe that those same training methods will benefit our athletes.”

Cory Aun said he and his brother simply love the sport.

“We just really got into lifting after high school for whatever reason, and it’s something we’ll always do because we enjoy it so much,” Aun said.

Jason Aun was a resident for several years at the Olympic Education Center in Marquette, Mich., where he trained for the 2008 Olympics. His wife Jessica placed second at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic trials.

“It’s almost impossible to get a spot in the Olympics. Not only do you have to be the best in your country, but you also have to be one of the best in your weight class in the world. In the last Olympics, the U.S. only sent four lifters because that’s all who qualified,” Cory Aun said.

“That’s why I’m looking forward to this meet in Altamonte Springs. It’s not an opportunity that comes along very often. Hopefully, we can get together a group in the next year or so and go and compete.”