By David Fleet
Editor
Harli Hadden’s road to the USAPL High School Nationals Powerlifting Championships this weekend has not been smooth.
But while the 18-year-old Bendle High School senior and co-captain of the Goodrich Girls Powerlifting team physical strength is noteworthy, her moxie to overcome a life tragedy is exceptional.
In 2016 Harli, along with her mother, father, sister and nephew were stopped at a Grand Blanc intersection when a drunk driver crashed into the family’s vehicle.
“We were stopped in the left hand turn lane, the drunk driver came out of nowhere and crashed into us,” recalled Hadden.
The nephew was uninjured, however Harli along with her mother, sister and father Kevin received multiple injuries. In 2017, about nine months later Kevin died from complications from those injuries. He was 49. Years later the drunk driver was charged with manslaughter, serving one year in jail and five years probation.
“I was just 13 years-old when I lost my dad, I was really struggling then,” said Hadden. “I wanted to find a way to channel what I was feeling in a positive way and help deal with the grief I was trying to cope with. I found that powerlifting was something I loved to do, it was also a way to make my dad proud of me. I know he is looking down on me now.”
Hadden recalled at that time she was feeling weak within herself.
“I wanted something to make me feel strong inside and out,” she said. “It (powerlifting) was a release for me to let go of the grief and sadness.

“It worked, everyday it works. I realized this the first time I ever picked up a weight in ninth grade.”
As a freshman, Hadden joined the Bendle Girls powerlifting team, however the program was discontinued when she was a junior.
That’s when she met fellow powerlifter Goodrich High School Senior Roxanne Vickory, a classmate in the cosmetology program at the Genesee Career Institute. In June 2021 Hadden was invited to practice with the Goodrich team led by coach Ron Roberts.
“I realized early on, Harli had a lot of energy,” said Roberts. “She loved the program and it helped pick the entire team up. Roxanne and Harli were just so good at picking up the other girls I made them both senior co-captains. She’s our ‘Bendrich Girl.’”
Hadden recently delivered on Feb. 26 at the USAPL state meet in Lake Orion with a 295 pound squat lift, 135 pound bench lift and a 340 pound deadlift for a record total of 770 pounds. She was the 2022 MHSPLA State champion in the varsity 242 pound weight class.
“Weightlifting is like a high,” she said. “If I’m down that day and go and lift, I just put everything into that, my anger, sadness, happiness. It does not get better than that.”