Senior and powerlifting champion Tylor Doherty measures his success through the values and connections he’s gained from his experiences rather than any trophy he’s earned.

Doherty played many sports as a kid but he fell in love with football when he began playing it in seventh grade. His skills progressed as he got older, and he eventually started for the Algonquin varsity football team his junior year. However, several years of heavy contact and bodily sacrifice resulted in a series of concussions which now prevent Doherty from playing his favorite sport. 

This past season was the first time Doherty was forced to watch from the sidelines.

“Football was my first love; I played all sorts of sports growing up, but none stuck with me the way football did,” Doherty said. “The team aspects and the values you can take away from [football], I don’t think you can find that in any other sport.”

Football taught Doherty a lot about trust and what it means to be part of a team. He credits much of his character and values to his experiences while playing football.

“The team aspects and the values you can take away from [football], I don’t think you can find that in any other sport,” Doherty said. “You can’t get very far as a team if you can’t trust that the man next to you is going to do his job.” 

As an undersized offensive lineman, he had to get scrappy in order to do his job well. To get an edge on his opponents, he started lifting weights during the COVID-19 pandemic. As he lifted more and more, he developed a love for weightlifting outside of football.  

Eventually Doherty started competing in local powerlifting meets and won them all, culminating in his most notable accomplishment to date: last March he won the New England State Powerlifting Championship in the 198 pound weight class by a landslide. In the process, he broke the state deadlift record that had stood for the last 20 years by lifting 529 pounds (the equivalent of a grand piano or an adult male grizzly bear).

“It was okay; it was cool [to win the championship],” Doherty said. “However, winning that was just not as satisfactory as winning a football game.”

Doherty’s definition of success is not focused on tangible awards. 

“I won more medals and accolades in powerlifting, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that it was more successful than football because I earned more values [from football] that I could apply to my own life than I have with any other sport,” Doherty said.

Although Doherty favors football, he still would have likely started powerlifting regardless of his injuries. Since the schedules lined up, powerlifting had always been on the back of his mind.  The injuries were just gasoline to the fire.

“I wouldn’t say that I suffered from the injuries; I would say they just happened,” Doherty said.  “I wouldn’t consider myself a victim to them…I think they just happened and it is what it is, you know? It doesn’t define me.”

Doherty and co-founder junior Declan Foster recently formed the Algonquin Powerlifting Club. The group will train together and help each other with aspects related to success in the sport, and they plan to enter competitions as a team.

Doherty will lead the group in competing at the St. John’s Classic, a powerlifting competition this January, where he hopes to continue his winning streak as he applies the values he has gained throughout his life.

“I enjoy the idea of being the strongest man,” Doherty said with a smile.

Editor’s Note: This article contains sources who are members of The Harbinger’s Staff. Such members have been removed from this article’s editorial process in order to maintain fair and bias-free reporting.