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Mountain Ridge High Special Education Teacher is Women’s World Arm Wrestling Champion
Description
She is a champion for students with special needs in her classroom at Mountain Ridge High School. Now, Sarah LaFond has risen to the top in something else she is passionate about. Sarah recently became the women’s world champion in arm wrestling during a competition in France.
On this episode of the Supercast, we head to Mountain Ridge High where we meet this dynamic educator and athlete who is a powerful force in and outside the classroom.
Audio Transcription
Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. She is a champion for students with special needs in her classroom at Mountain Ridge High School. Now, Sarah LaFond has risen to the top in something else she is passionate about. Sarah recently became the women's world champion in arm wrestling during a competition in France. On this episode of the Supercast, we head to Mountain Ridge High where we meet this dynamic educator and athlete who is a powerful force in and outside the classroom. Find out what it takes to make it to the top as a world champion for both right arm wrestling and left arm wrestling.
We're at Mountain Ridge High School with Sarah LaFond, world champion in left and right hand arm wrestling. Sarah, thanks for taking time to talk with us.
Sarah LaFond:
Thank you for having me.
Anthony Godfrey:
When you're not arm wrestling, you're also a special education teacher here at Mountain Ridge. Tell us about your career.
Sarah LaFond:
I've been teaching, this is my sixth year teaching. I've always done math resource at a secondary level. So I teach the kids with mild, moderate disabilities the high school math content.
Anthony Godfrey:
And what made you want to become a teacher?
Sarah LaFond:
I'm dyslexic. Had a hard time learning to read and so I guess I saw the difference a good teacher could make and wanted to be that teacher for some kids.
Anthony Godfrey:
And you ended up with math as the focus?
Sarah LaFond:
Yes, definitely. I have always preferred math to language arts.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Fair enough. Now let's talk about arm wrestling. First of all, what got you into arm wrestling in the first place?
Sarah LaFond:
Okay, so I've lifted a very long time. I started out lifting when I was a young teen with my dad and have lifted for most of my adult life. And it got to a point where I felt like I was strong enough and not doing anything with the strength that I was building. So I kind of started researching different options. My upper body's always been my strength and so I thought breaking into arm wrestling would be easy. There was a local team and so I just started going, that was only about a year and a half ago, so I'm pretty new to it.
Anthony Godfrey:
So you've only done it for a year and a half and you're world champion?
Sarah LaFond:
Yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
That feels pretty awesome I’ll bet.
Sarah LaFond:
It's pretty good. Yeah.
Anthony Godfrey:
So how did you find out there were teams to start with?
Sarah LaFond:
My dad really, cuz I was talking to him about different competitive outlets and he was like, you should look into arm wrestling. So I googled it, you know, found a Facebook group.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay.
Sarah LaFond:
Yeah. That's pretty much it.
Anthony Godfrey:
Are you generally a competitive person?
Sarah LaFond:
I'm very competitive.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay. Yeah. So you needed an outlet for that?
Sarah LaFonda:
Everything's a competition.
Anthony Godfrey:
Okay, you knew you had to compete somehow, somewhere.
Sarah LaFond:
Yes.
Anthony Godfrey:
Tell me about the equipment that you, when you, if y