Denver East senior Jullian Keller starts striding to help his team against Rangeview’s second team on July 8, 2015 at Rangeview High School in Aurora. The annual Hog Wars is a competition between offensive and defensive lineman from across the Denver metro area, where they compete school against school in strength and teamwork. (Brent Lewis, The Denver Post)
Denver East defensive lineman Jullian Keller just won’t quit.
At the 2015 Hog Wars — an annual weightlifting and teamwork competition for high school offensive and defensive linemen — Keller was the ultimate tug-of-war anchor.
Out of the five schools that attended — Rangeview, Eaglecrest, Overland, Gateway and Denver East — no hog tied to the end of that thick rope put on a performance quite like Keller did. Except for in the final match because he wanted to win so badly.
The tug of war is the grand finale of all the events. There are five additional competitions: the farmer’s carry, monster truck tire flip relay, 125-pound log press, vehicle push and — new this year — the “hog sled” relay.
The events
The farmer’s carry tests endurance. The lineman walk as far as they can while carrying a 325-pound weight. The players see how far they can carry the weight before another teammate takes over. Points are awarded based on total distance the weight was carried by all team members combined.
Monster truck tire flip relay is fun to watch. The team has a total of six minutes for each guy on the team — a total of five linemen — to flip a 350- to 400-pound tire 20 yards. Only one team did not finish the drill in time: Rangeview’s sophomore squad. They are forgiven this year, but next, we want it done in three minutes… flat.
The 125-pound log press explains itself. The hogs see how many reps they can get lifting the “log.” In this drill, typically the smaller, shorter guys tend to excel, rather than the taller, bigger fellas. The shorter guys have less of a distance to press the log.
The vehicle push was a little different this year. Since the Hog Wars’ inaugural year in 2005, fire trucks have been used for the vehicle push. But this year, under Raiders first-year head coach Justin Hoffman, the hogs pushed an Aurora Police SWAT tactical vehicle that weighed somewhere between 30,000 to 35,000 pounds.
How did that phone conversation go? Hoffman said it’s just how you’d expect it: “Hey… So, I’m the head football coach at Rangeview, and we wanna push your vehicle!”
The competition’s newest event is the “hog sled” relay. Coach Hoffman made the sleds himself with wood from Home Depot. Each sled weighs 265-pounds.
“Each sled took me about three hours to make,” Hoffman said.
He made five total. The hogs take turns pushing the sleds 20-yards, and the team with the fastest time wins. The sleds will definitely be used the rest of the year, too. Apparently it’s unsafe for people to stand on them, and if the players need more weight, Hoffman will just slap some weights on top.
Who doesn’t know what tug of war is? I’d be concerned if you didn’t. The very last event, it determines the Hog Wars champion. It’s divided into brackets based on team points from the previous competitions. In the end, Rangeview took down Overland for the hog crown.
Final resultsRangeview won its eighth championship of 11 Hog Wars with 46 points. The Raiders continue to dominate Hog Wars history. Overland finished in second place with 33 points. Rangeview’s second team took third with 26. Eaglecrest was fourth with 21. Rangeview sophomores came in at fifth with 18. And Denver East finished last with 12.
Next year, there will most likely be more teams, Hoffman said.
