One measure would be accomplishments in various powerlifting competitions, although all schools may not compete. I will start off with Joe Tronzo, St. X. I think he squatted 670 lbs. in high school, and he was a defensive stone wall on the football field. He is the strongest I have seen in Jefferson County.

James "Bubba" McCollum (sp) from Male was reputed to be very strong.

What about Jesse Stuart, the shotputter from Tompinksville, I believe? Did he play football? I think he also had a brother who was a shotputter.

Tronzo and Jeremy Caudill are the strongest two I've seen play....

In powerlifting, Tronzo was selected to be a member of the US World team.

Jeremy Caudill-Prestonsburg

The strongest I ever saw was Vernon Johnson in the early 1980's. He benched 590+ while playing at UK, while in high school won the state shot put (3 times) and discus (2 times) while a player at Laurel County High School. Marc Logan told me he was the strongest player he had ever been around until he got to the NFL, and that he was stronger than a lot of them.

Jeremy Caudill is the strongest I know of. He was the strongest player on UK's team the day he walked in the door as a Freshmen! He is still on record boards around the state.

Jeremy Caudill-Prestonsburg

 

I agree

Jeremy Caudill is the strongest I know of. He was the strongest player on UK's team the day he walked in the door as a Freshmen! He is still on record boards around the state.

 

I didn't realize he was that strong.

 

What were some of his numbers?

I saw Jeremy Caudill at a Whitesburg weight lifting competition in the winter/spring of 1999 and he squatted well over 600 lbs. Dead lifted somewhere from 600-700 if I remeber right. He didn't bench much that day because he just had shoulder surgery. We heard that he did 405 before his surgery.

 

The power clean I thought was the most impressive. He cleaned 315 that day. It looked like the bar was about to snap. He is by far the strongest I have ever seen.

 

This was still in his junior year when he did those numbers so I'm sure they went up.

I saw Jeremy Caudill at a Whitesburg weight lifting competition in the winter/spring of 1999 and he squatted well over 600 lbs. Dead lifted somewhere from 600-700 if I remeber right. He didn't bench much that day because he just had shoulder surgery. We heard that he did 405 before his surgery.

 

The power clean I thought was the most impressive. He cleaned 315 that day. It looked like the bar was about to snap. He is by far the strongest I have ever seen.

 

This was still in his junior year when he did those numbers so I'm sure they went up.

 

Why didn't the shoulder surgery effect the other lifts?

Jeremy Caudill still holds the State Powerlifting Meet Record with 1,115 combined pounds in the dead lift and the bench press, although he doesn't hold the record in either. Trigg County's Taylor McGee bench pressed 435 last year and Eastern's Myron Pryor had a 690-pound dead lift in 2003.

 

Bardstown's William Redd holds the 205-pound total record of 1,000 pounds (set in 1993), third-highest total behind Caudill and Fern Creek's Doug Schneider (1,015 pounds).

 

For what it's worth, Union County's Michael Cheatham weighed less than 125 pounds in 1990 and bench pressed 300 pounds and had a 450-pound dead lift.

Jake Anderson- Harlan (2004)

While his totals wren't as high in high school as some of these guys, Chester Ford (Danville) played as strong as anyone I can remember playing. He was benching over 500 lbs when he was UT, the strongest on their team back in the mid 90's.