Swampscott has had a plethora of great high-school athletes throughout its rich history in different sports. One Swampscott graduate might sit at the top of the list — William Hennessey.
Hennessey, who is in the Swampscott Athletic Hall of Fame for track and field, is also a national powerlifting champion.
“I grew up in Swampscott and I was always involved in athletics. I got into weight training in junior high school and continued with it throughout college,” Hennessey said. “I’m in the Swampscott High School Athletic Hall of Fame along with my teammates. From my understanding, we’re the only undefeated track team in a 53-year span at Swampscott High School.”
After high school, Hennessey started to compete in powerlifting competitions after falling in love with the sport. After winning various competitions, Hennessey had his sights set on a national championship.
In 2014, Hennessey decided to give a national competition a shot, despite being injured.
“I had competed in quite a few competitions before the National Championships. Back in 2014, I actually injured my neck two weeks before the competition, so I wasn’t at my best. What I did was I just tried to match the lifts of the other top competitors. I weighed less than what my competitor did, so as long as I could match what he lifted, I would win based on body weight,” Hennessey said. “I ended up lifting more than he did, but going in I just tried to match him. I was ahead by a little in the end, so I decided to up the weight a bit.”
Hennessey competed in the Masters 2 category in the 163-pound weight class.
After winning the competition, Hennessey decided to retire from competing. However, he still powerlifts six times a week.
“I do it for my health. I still train six days a week,” Hennessey said. “Actually competing is a ton of work in the gym. Between making weight and everything, it’s not easy. You have to watch what you’re eating, so I kind of thought if this competition goes well, I’ll just sign off. I’ll enjoy coaching and enjoy preparing on my own without the pressure of competing.”
Despite being a national champion, that’s only one chapter of his powerlifting career.
Hennessey is an accomplished coach. He was Florida International University’s mens and womens powerlifting coach and only just retired this past December.
“I was hired as the Florida International University’s men and women powerlifting coach in 2011,” Hennessey said. “We’ve been the most successful collegiate powerlifting (program) in the state of Florida during my tenure. We won 10 state championships in my 13 years.”
In 2016, during his coaching tenure, the USA Powerlifting team reached out to Hennessey to become Team USA’s bench-press coach.
“I began coaching the FIU Powerlifting team in 2011. When we started to do well at the state level and finish well nationally, I started to coach my daughter too, who won two national championships,” Hennessey said. “The USA Powerlifting team thought that maybe I knew what I was doing, so in 2016 they interviewed me as the bench-press coach, which I took and I’m still the coach today.”
During his time coaching, he also coached against his daughter Katarina, who attended Florida State University. Her resume speaks for itself.
“I’m actually not the most decorated powerlifter in the family, my daughter is,” Hennessey said. “She’s won one world championship, won a silver, three national championships, in addition to a Worlds silver.”
“She won an International Powerlifting Federation World Championship in South Africa in 2016. I had the unique pleasure of being her coach and father and watching my daughter win gold for the United States of America. Then in 2017, she narrowly missed out on gold in Texas to a Ukrainian girl off of body weight, but she still took home a silver medal,” he added.
Katarina was a competitive dancer growing up and her strong legs were something Hennessey believed would benefit her in powerlifting.
“She was a competitive dancer. She actually won a national dance championship and a powerlifting championship in high school. Her legs were always incredibly strong. I told her she would be a great powerlifter and she gave it a try and she just progressed incredibly,” he said.
“She’s 112 pounds of power,” Hennessey said.
In 2021, Hennessey was nominated and inducted into Florida’s USA Powerlifting Hall of Fame. Hennessey was inducted based on his coaching and lifting career. The former secretary general of USA Powerlifting nominated Hennessey and the Executive Committee voted him in on his first ballot.
“I was elated. There’s a ceremony that was held in Tampa during a big meet,” Hennessey said. “They made the announcement and I went up and received my plaque. It was amazing. It wasn’t something I envisioned when I first started all of this. It’s a great feeling.”
Out of all of his and his daughter’s accomplishments, Hennessey is also the USA Powerlifting senior international coach, which is something not everyone can say.
“There’s only a handful of us in the country. It’s the highest level of certification and recognition. We need to understand all the intricacies of national and international competition, in addition to drug testing,” he said.
Hennessey is proud that he and his students are extensively drug tested and clean lifters.
This former Swampscott resident continues to make a name for himself while helping Team USA win medals.
