KEYSTONE HEIGHTS - Five-time state champion weightlifting coach Lantz Lowery has announced that he will be leaving Keystone Heights High School to take a football and weightlifting position at Palatka High School next fall.

“I want to see if the formula I used at Keystone Heights will work at Palatka," said Lowery, who won five state team titles; three in a row with a handful of individual state titles in his nearly 20 years as Indians' boys weightlifting coach. “When I became boys weightlifting coach many years ago, I was told I would never win anything at Keystone Heights.”

Lowery has been coaching for nearly 20 years at Keystone Heights with a brief year at Interlachen after getting the Indians' first state weightlifting title for Keystone Heights in 2014. Lowery, who won three state titles in a row since 2021, has accounted for nearly two dozen individual state titles with Keystone Heights having individual titles in the 1990s.

"We have won the district weightlifting title ever since the inception of districts, regions and then state," said Keystone Heights Athletic Director Chuck Dickinson, who brought Lowery on board as football coach in the early 2000s. "We won the Traditional region last year with Suwannee winning the Olympics in 2023, but we've won district and region titles for nearly 20 years."

Palatka has its own bucket load of state weightlifting titles dating back as far as 1987, with 39 individual titles in that span.

"I see the plaques and trophies all over Palatka and my challenge is to resurrect their powerhouse stature," said Lowery, now 60. "I get them to buy in, we lift against every Clay County school because that's the best county for weightlifting and I go from ground zero to state contender. That's the plan."

Lowery, also a long-time defensive football coach under Chuck Dickinson and recently with Steve Reynolds, is known as a fiery, emotional coach who inspires to build tough, strong athletes. Lowery was part of Keystone Heights' 2021 10-2 record with a region semifinal finish.

"Lantz built a standard of excellence here both on and off the field and we wish him the same great success in Palatka as he delivered here," said Reynolds, who coached just weightlifting last year. "The kids here loved him and would compete at the highest level because of his passion for the sports he coached."

For Dickinson, who has had Lowery at his side for nearly 25 years as a football coach and as a weightlifting coach, Lowery will be missed because of his knowledge of the sport he was coaching, plus his connection to the athletes under his tutelage.

"Ask any coach of any sport, to win one state title is hard enough, to win three in a row is amazing, to win five, enough said," said Dickinson. "Lantz has done more for the kids of Keystone Heights that to win state titles. He has taught the old adage of dedication and hard work can achieve anything."

On the football field, Lowery was embodied by the phrase "Snot kickers", a term used for his usually mobile and ferocious linebackers dating back to John Brown, Mike Lowery and Sam Anderson.

In weightlifting, where Lowery was masterful in directing Keystone Heights to three consecutive years of Class 1A team titles, Lowery's secret sauce of "Nine lifts, we win" created an aura of prowess that included a string of state titles, a multitude of individual state titles and two consecutive Dairy Farmer Weightlifting Coach of the Year awards, plus a National Federation Coaching Association award with Clay High former coach Rodney Keller. Lowery started his reign in 2014 with a tie for in the Class 1A team title with Baker County with Lowery selected as Class 1A Co-Coach of the Year with Baker County coach Scott McDonald.

"For me, the best team we had was the second state title in 2022 with the likes of Mason Dicks and Caleb Moncrief," said Lowery. "They were totally bought in and I put them through the ringer all season and they produced a second state title."

Lantz Lowery File

2024: Class 1A Traditional Runnerups; Suwannee 43, Keystone Heights 30. State Champions: Trey Jeffries III (238)

Class 1A Olympics third place; Suwannee 53, South Sumter 45, Keystone Heights 21. State champions: Trey Jeffries III (238)

2023: Class 1A Traditional Champions, 41-35 over Suwannee. State champions: Brian Overton (169), Trey Jeffries III (219).

Class 1A Olympics runner-ups, Suwannee 49, South Sumter/Keystone Heights 29. State Champions: Brian Overton (169)

2022: Class 1A Traditional champions, 55-17 over West Nassau. State champions: Ulysses Freed (154), Logan Williams (169), Mason Dicks (Unlimited)

Class 1A Olympic Snatch champions, 44-20 over South Sumter. State Champions: Ulysses Freed (154), Bryar Schenck (183).

2021: Class 1A Weightlifting Champions, 37-30 over Mount Dora. State Champions: Zach Glover (139), Kade Sanders (169)

2014: Class 1A Weightlifting Champions, Tied 16-16 with Baker County. State Champions: none

Earlier Keystone Heights state champions: 154 Darrell Byrnes (1995), 154 Bear Snay (1998)