Onward: Austin Coach’s Impact on the Queer Community
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by Preston Fekkes, Communications Assistant
COLORADO SPRINGS - Tyler Villarreal is making a major impact as a weightlifting coach in the Austin, Texas, queer community. At 25 years old, he has been coaching for eight years and recently coached two non-binary athletes to medals at a local meet in Texas.
Villarreal was first introduced to weightlifting through CrossFit during his senior year of high school while training for varsity basketball. A few years later, while at the University of Texas, he joined the UT weightlifting team, coached by David Griffin. Villarreal became involved with a local barbell club called Liberation Barbell around the same time. As he began coaching at Liberation and lifting at UT, his mission became to make his weightlifting teams an extension of the mission that Liberation had. At the time, they were the only super out-loud and proud queer gym, let alone barbell club in Austin.
“My goal was to just make this beautiful little sport that we do accessible to anyone, especially the queer community because, in general, queer people don't get a whole lot of access to health and fitness or strength and conditioning, whether it be from a financial perspective or just a comfortability and space perspective,” Villarreal said.
Starza Thompson, a non-binary athlete, found weightlifting after a months-long finger injury ended their career as an aerialist due to them being unable to grip the trapeze bar. Thompson was introduced to weightlifting on a blind date and immediately fell in love with the sport, but they didn’t connect with their first gym. During their search for a new gym, Thompson found Villarreal.
"I met Tyler at Liberation Barbell," Starza shared. "During our in-person consultation, he immediately impressed me by asking my pronouns and discussing his approach to working with individuals with varied weightlifting experiences. He guided me through some basic movements to understand how my body moves and then used that insight to create a program specifically tailored to my goals of competing in the future."
Margaret (Yak) Yakana, a non-binary athlete who is currently a logistics officer in the Texas Army National Guard, found weightlifting after an injury ended their collegiate basketball career. After just one CrossFit session, Yakana realized they enjoyed the Olympic weightlifting movements much more. However, despite being as excited about weightlifting as they were, Yakana’s first coach eventually caused them to quit the sport after constant negativity that killed their confidence. After more than five years away from the platform, Yakana found Villarreal in 2023 while scrolling Instagram. It was the perfect match.
“One, it was Tyler's positivity, and him resetting my mindset because I'm really hard on myself. He would keep encouraging me and when we decided to set an objective just to get to the gym and then to sign up for a meet, it did help a lot,” Yakana said. “Like, it's not an end-all, be-all type of thing. If I make a mistake or if I'm not able, we're all just trying to figure it out right now. It was a complete 180. He has really helped me build that confidence, and just kind of changed my mentality of how I think about myself. Not only in weightlifting but through my journey of self-discovery.”
Liberation Barbell closed down in mid-2024 and has since turned into Goals Not Dreams Strength Society ATX. Villarreal has since become involved at Stonehenge Weightlifting and OutWellness. OutWellness is a queer-focused, boutique gym that offers physical therapy, acupuncture, and other health services. With the move to Stonehenge, Villarreal continues to train many athletes in person, but he also now trains others remotely, including Thompson. Whether it’s a new gym or a remote session, Villarreal will be there ready to coach others and train himself.
“The most important part about training that I always come back to is it's my rock. It's what keeps me going,” Villarreal said. “It's what I can revert back to whenever life gets stressful. I also wanted that to be the main goal. I want people to create and have this part of their life forever and have that be cultivated from being here.”
Through Villarreal’s coaching and positivity, both Thompson and Yakana medaled at the Texas Barbell Fall Showdown in Austin in early October. Thompson went 5-for-6 and lifted 36/43/79 in the W40 81 kg division, while Yakana went 6-for-6 and lifted 38/46/84 in the W35 76 kg division. Once Thompson saw the opportunity to submit a story to USAW, they felt compelled to highlight Villarreal’s impact on the queer community in Austin.
"As a queer person, there’s always that underlying worry—wondering if someone might judge you, if you’re truly welcome, or if the space is as inclusive as it seems,” Thompson shared. “But with Tyler, all of that disappears. When you’re working with him, the only thing you need to focus on is weightlifting. Those extra worries and fears just fade away. That’s what inspired me to share his story—he creates an environment where you feel safe and supported, allowing you to grow as a weightlifter without the weight of those concerns."
After eight years of coaching, Villarreal is focused on continuing his growth and his positive impact in the queer community.
“A mantra that I return to as often as I can is just the word onward, mainly because it's the only way. We can't put a pause on life,” Villarreal said. “So, onward is something that I resort to whenever there's challenges happening or even when things are going well. It's a matter of successes, failures, highs, lows… they all exist within a moment and we have to remember we're continuing on no matter what. I love the idea of owning my own strength and conditioning business, eventually tied to that mantra, and also just self-acceptance, self-exploration, queer-acceptance, queer-exploration, all those things and maybe someday opening up a gym.”
