ENNIS, Texas — At certain times in life, an uncomfortable weight can land on our backs. And 17-year-old Lucas Hagler, a senior at Ennis High School, knows exactly what to do in those moments.
He jokes that, while growing up in the rural corner of the Metroplex, his family often asked him to open jars or carry things around the house.
"To quote my grandmother: I was always a strong one," Hagler told WFAA with a smile.
The 242-pound weight-class powerlifter is heading to the state meet in Abilene this weekend after breaking the squat and bench records during the Region 2 Division 1 Championships on March 8th.
But getting to this juncture wasn't an easy lift for the teen.
"I'm lucky to be here right now," he said. "It sounds cocky, but I have come a long way since August."
Except, no, it's not cocky at all once you learn what happened to Hagler.
He had a biopsy on a cyst found on his left leg during football season to determine if it was dangerous. Then he played in the trenches on the defensive line while suiting up for his team's game against Waxahachie in August - while his wound was still healing.
After that game, the teen became sick with a 105-degree fever. And his health would soon take another drastic turn.
"I thought I was having a heat stroke," Hagler said. "They took my blood at the hospital here in Ennis and decided to send me to Children's [Medical Center Dallas] after seeing the results."
Doctors there told Hagler and his family he had developed sepsis after getting an infection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describe that life-threatening condition as "the body's extreme response to an infection"; it quickly "triggers a chain reaction throughout your body" and "without timely treatment... can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and death."
Hagler spent three days in the ICU being treated for sepsis. Then he spend six more days in the hospital just recovering.
It was a moment he describes as touch-and-go.
"I was close to death right there because the infection went all through the left side of my body," Hagler said. "I was in a lot of pain the whole time."
His left leg became swollen too, making it difficult to walk.
"The feeling of trying to walk was like putting needles in you when you moved," Hagler said.
At the same time, though, the teen was putting his focus on bouncing back into form. He was on antibiotics for weeks, his mother said, but he still managed to return to the gridiron to finish the football season alongside his fellow Lions.
After a playoff loss in the second round, Hagler then turned his focus back toward powerlifting.
He's already made the state meet for powerlifting in 2022, and his eyes were firmly planted on making it back again this year.
It wouldn't be easy, of course. He's still dealing with a complication from his health scare -- including a bone in his left hand that he said is now dead due to his infection reaching it.
"I'm going to need surgery in a few months to get that taken care of," Hagler said of that bone.
But that just makes what the teen recently did to event qualify for state all the more impressive.
Dead bone and all, he set a record for his weight class and region by benching 505 pounds.
He also set a new squat record alongside Buda Hays powerlifter Christian Rameriz at 710 pounds, a feat that equates to putting a well-filled vending machine -- or a small Icelandic horse (seriously, look it up) -- onto your back and doing a squat.
Then, to top it off, he deadlifted 510 pounds.
As a result of lifting a combined 1,725 pounds -- a total of his best bench, squat and deadlift from the day -- Hagler finished first in his weight class at the regional championships.
The teen, needless to say, is proud of his progress.
"I was down for months, and it's just a really big personal goal that I'm proud I've achieved," Hagler said.
Making the moment all the sweater: Hagler isn't the only Lion competing at the state meet; his teammates Max Sellers, John Vega, and Bryten Fields will be joining him there, too.
Soon enough, he'll focus on what comes next. Hagler told WFAA he will likely attend Navarro College once he graduates, where he hopes to study nursing. A $1,000 scholarship he just received from the Texas High School Powerlifting Association could help his achieve that goal.
For now, though, Hagler is just thrilled about getting the chance to show folks how far he's come, and where he's been, come the competition this Saturday in Taylor County.
"Lifting is a big part of my lifestyle," Hagler said. "I deal with stress by lifting. It's taken me a long way."