[7/27/04]It’s been a busy summer for Kenny Simms and Trent Smith.

First, the two Porters Chapel Academy football players started lifting weights together. Then, last week, they both powered their way into the record books.

Simms set the state bench press record for Louisiana and Mississippi in the 16-17-year-olds’ 148-pound weight class by lifting 250 pounds at a meet in Ruston, La., on July 17. At the same meet, Smith broke the world record in the 13-15-year-olds’ 242-pound division by pushing up 350 pounds.

“I had to do it, because Trent’s been doing it. He’s been picking on me,” Simms joked. “I got up and was like, That’s a record!’ Trent got up and was like, That’s another world record.'”

Simms is a member of PCA’s powerlifting team, but hadn’t been serious about the sport until he started lifting with Smith this spring. They trained for the Ruston meet for nearly four months, and Simms was introduced to a more serious side of lifting than he had known.

“It’s really not that much different. It’s a lot more serious,” Simms said. “The training is a lot more serious, too, and the judging is more strict.”

Smith, a burly 15-year-old, had already broken the 13-15-year-olds’ world bench press record in two other weight classes before reaching his latest mark.

Smith said setting records never gets old.

“It’s just as exciting as my first one. Knowing I hold three world records is exciting,” Smith said. “That’s usually what I shoot for, but I know one day it’s going to stop.”

After their record-setting effort, the two friends weren’t done with their summer fun. While most teenagers would get a part-time job or wash cars for extra cash, Simms and Smith decided to put on a peewee football clinic.

Simms’ father, Robert, had been approached by a PCA parent asking if Kenny would be interested in teaching his son the fundamentals of the game. After laughing off the idea at first, Kenny Simms thought about it and decided to do it.

That parent told another parent, and before long Simms and Smith were teaching a half-dozen children ages 7 to 11 the basics of football during a three-day camp. Several more parents wanted to join in, but they cut it off at six so the two high schoolers wouldn’t be overwhelmed.

“It’s just passing on to kids what we’ve learned,” said Kenny Simms, a junior running back for PCA who was an all-county kick returner in 2003. “It turned out to be a lot more fun than I thought it would be.”