High Point coaches part of gym's attraction

Contributed photoCoach Lisa Rands, left, explains a maneuver to Emma Hunt while they watch climbers at the gym on Broad Street. Hunt and her brother Ethan from Woodstock, Ga., get private lessons from High Point's Rands and Wills Young and will compete in the USA Climbing divisional there this weekend.
Contributed photoCoach Lisa Rands, left, explains a maneuver to Emma Hunt while they watch climbers at the gym on Broad Street. Hunt and her brother Ethan from Woodstock, Ga., get private lessons from High Point's Rands and Wills Young and will compete in the USA Climbing divisional there this weekend.

The highly rated High Point Climbing and Fitness gym in downtown Chattanooga will be the center of attention for youth climbing competition in the Southeastern United States this weekend.

More than 200 boys and girls up to 19 years old from 10 states, ranging from Florida to Texas, will participate in a USA Climbing divisional for sport and speed climbing at the Broad Street facility Saturday and Sunday, and spectators are welcome at no charge. Top finishers will advance to national competition.

The 216 or so in Chattanooga had to qualify through regionals after advancing from local meets. Among the sport climbing participants are Adeline Chinery, 14, and Spencer Chinery Jr., 10, from Signal Mountain and another member of High Point's competitive team, Mason Hamilton. That team is directed by High Point Climbing School founders Wills Young and Lisa Rands, who also regularly coach two other divisional participants, Ethan and Emma Hunt from Woodstock, Ga.

The Hunts met Young and Rands when they took part in a bouldering regional at High Point last fall. From that meeting they discussed private lessons and followed up by coming to Chattanooga a couple of times every four to six weeks. In between they work at gyms close to home on things the High Point husband-wife duo recommend.

"Our kids are in their third year of climbing competitively, and we decided to get them some extra coaching," said their father, Keith Hunt. "Wills and Lisa are two amazing people. It went so well, they helped Ethan get to bouldering nationals (in Madison, Wis.) this past year."

Even though Ethan, 14, prefers bouldering - and loves outdoor sites for that in this area at Soddy-Daisy (Stone Fort) and LaFayette (Rocktown) - he embraced his coaches' recommendation to work on the ropes, as this weekend's competitors will do. Like his 12-year-old sister, he used to play soccer and do taekwondo but now focuses his recreational energy on climbing.

"I train so much and I love it so much, I don't have time for anything else," Ethan said. "Lisa and Wills are great coaches. They helped me get from V5 (bouldering grade) to V7 in two months."

Rands is a former women's open national champion and reached the rank of No. 1 in the world in competitive bouldering, and Young helped coach her to those heights with his own extensive experience. He's also a former Climbing magazine editor and wrote one of the country's most popular guidebooks for the sport, "Bishop Bouldering."

"I like how they train me. I've made a lot of progress in technique with them," said Emma Hunt, who in her first year on the ropes finished second in Female Youth C in the regional in Melbourne, Fla. "They're very nice and encouraging, and they're very knowledgeable."

Spencer Chinery Sr. echoed that assessment.

"They're phenomenal," he said of Rands and Young. "They are one of the primary reasons we're so comfortable with our kids doing climbing, and why they love it so much. Both kids are passionate about it, and they work out very hard to do it, and Wills and Lisa are a huge part of that. We haven't done this with anybody else, but I can't imagine anybody doing better as coaches."

The young Chinerys got a taste of climbing at a YMCA Adventure camp in Ocoee, he said, and "when High Point came around, the first summer it was open they went to a summer camp and fell in love with it," Spencer Sr. said.

"They love everybody, and they just want us to have fun. But they help us so much," said Adeline, who qualified for the divisional in her first sport climbing regional.

"I love climbing, and I love outdoor climbing. I definitely think it always will be part of my life."

High Point has about 30,000 square feet of climbing space, counting the outside walls, where the speed climbing competition is scheduled to conclude from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. The sport finals are set for 8-11 a.m. inside.

Other good times to watch should be 8 a.m. to noon and 2-6 p.m. Saturday.

Contact Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com or 432-757-6291.

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