2001 NPC Iron Games, a -jabber review... Preamble: Ah, Stillwater, Oklahoma, home of Oklahoma State University. This was the second show I'd ever seen in that State immediately to the north of me. Herein, Stillwater will be referred to as "Jennifer McVicar Country" as to me the name's synonymous with the only name FBB who hails from that small town. Why this show? Well, after the fact, I'd found out that Karina Nascimento (recent winner of the '00 Iron Maiden in Southern Cali, and winner of the novice class at the '99 Ronnie Coleman Classic here in the DFW area) had ALSO won this small show last year. Well if I knew she was going to be in the show last year, I would've made the trek 4.5 hours north by car last year too. Oh well. Although the competition is decided "lower level" than the Pro shows by a long shot as well as the National level amateur shows, you never can tell, you can find some beginning new talent and be pleasantly surprised. Jennifer McVicar herself had won this show in a previous year (can't remember if '99 or '98). Plus worth the price of admission was to see what "celebs" would show up for this show. Celebs in Oklahoma? Sure, well, in addition to what was expected to be a shoe-in for hometown girl Jennifer McVicar to show up (in her thick off-season look - she changes dramatically when not dieted down for a contest - although the Ms. I wasn't that long ago - and IMO she looks quite good in the off-season), what about Oklahoma's own Toni Norman? What about Sherry Smith (winner of '99 Jr. Nationals)? What about Trudy Ireland? Oklahoma does have its share of mega-high caliber FBB's and curiosity DID reign here. Overall Atmosphere: This as I'd stated was a small show in a decidedly small town atmosphere. But Stillwater was decidedly pleasant, IMO, pleasant weather, pleasant people, etc. The show was held in the Community Center, which used to be their Jr. High School, and is now home of their High School alumni association. Other than the idiosyncrasy of the first row being called row 2, it was a pleasant little auditorium with unfortunately oftentimes inadequate lighting. But the mom and pop atmosphere of the Community Center, combined with muscular women, I found to be a delightful and pleasant contrast. (hint I'll talk about the celebs at the end). I was "hoping" to get a leg up on the competition here and get the inside scoop on this new "figure" division we will see from the NPC in 2001, but that was not meant to be here. This show was strictly bodybuilding, no fitness, no figure, no anything. And I truthfully didn't miss it. On with the brief review... Masters: 1) Jacque Charest Not a lot of drama here, being the only Master's competitor, I'd seen Jacque in a few shows before. Here, she sported short brown hair, was a bit on the dieted down side, only very lightly tanned, but had very nice abs and knew it - thus posing them a lot. Novice LW: 4) Sheila Rex 3) Tena DeCaspir 2) Laurie Budig 1) Sharon Cole Jones Before the show started, I'd seen both Sheila Rex and Laurie Budig during the competitors meeting. And I remarked to myself how these women, clothed, were quite pretty facially, Sheila being a Hispanic brunette and Laurie having light brown hair. In the judging, it was clear this was a novice class, but the top 2 weren't bad at all, Laurie sporting tremendous abs - especially while relaxed on stage and Sharon Cole Jones, not a massive blonde by any means - but the most uniformly thick here - having a penchant for the most muscular pose. Cool! Novice MW: 1) Amber Brown Again a no-brainer here, Amber was an attractive young looking fairly thick blonde. She and a couple women in the Open class had shown the interesting phenomenon of looking considerably better at the finals than the prejudging, IMO. Perhaps more women at this show exhibited that phenomenon than any other show I'd been to. Novice Overall: O) Amber Brown What happens when a lightweight with a penchant for hitting most muscular poses meets a thicker more muscular middleweight who looked near phenomenal for this level during a posedown? Why they trade most muscular poses of course. And my camera went into overdrive for this. :-) This alone was worth the price of admission. Amber, with a little more dieting down, will make her mark in the Open division soon. Open MW: 3) Julie Fisher 2) Karan Shoaf 1) Jacque Charest At the finals, in chatting with the two gentlemen sitting on either side of me, I'd warned them occasionally I have been known to boo if the judges do something extremely bone-headed. But I said I mellowed since the '98 Nationals and '00 Emerald Cup (when some serious boos were heard). Not so fast. I'd seen Julie Fisher at the '00 Red River where she was nervous looking at the prejudging, but much more comfortable at the finals. At this show she seemed comfortable. At this show, she was also another VERY attractive blond, had no implants, was not terribly dieted down, but enough so to show really pretty overall lines - and I'm sure would be very "marketable" to this nebulous general populace that seems to cause some NPC guidelines to be re-written. Karan Shoaf was a very dieted down brunette, also with a pretty face (considering contest dieting) but little mass and not much shape. And Jacque Charest was what I said before - short haired brunette with implants. When Julie Fisher was announced third (best symmetry of the three by far), after about a 5 second delay was heard - "boo!" Other folks joined in to express their disapproval - you could tell Ms. Fisher was quite disappointed here, too. The MC tried to apologize for the unpopular decision then said, don't shoot the messenger. To which I replied "boo, anyway!" The audience kind of cracked up after that. Open HW: 1) Lillian Thomas I'd seen Ms. Thomas, a thick black FBB, before, and at prejudging she looked typical of previous appearances. Like many others, however, at finals she was really pretty impressive. Although a no-brainer in her weight class, she's improved considerably from previous shows. Open Overall: As with the Novice Amber Brown receiving no competition in her weight class but winning the overall, so it went with Ms. Lillian Thomas, too. Especially since I was upset that Julie Fisher didn't get the Open MW, Lillian Thomas pretty much trounced on Jacque Charest in the posedown. Congrats to Lillian Thomas as she moves to the next level. Promoter Prince Harrison had mentioned she should be at the Lone Star Classic on 5/5 in Grapevine, TX and later the Jr. Nationals on 6/16 in St. Louis. Overall Observations: Okay, small show, but what's a show without celebrities? Spotted first was OKC celeb Toni Norman. As I've stated before, when dieted down, Ms. Norman can look almost delicate with nice detail, but in the off-season, truly attention-getting, especially at the finals in her black and white sleeveless print dress showing off her thick wonderfully shaped arms. But wait there's more. As I was walking around a muscular blond with short hair uttered the following words, "Are you Jabber?" LOL, sometimes strikes fear in me. Turns out this was a training partner of Trudy Ireland who I'd met in Vegas at the Ms. O Expo in '00. Angela Majors pointed out to me (I would've missed her at the prejudging) that Ms. McVicar WAS at the prejudging, she was a distance away, wearing pig-tails of all things. Hmm... Celeb Trudy Ireland couldn't make it because she was attending a wedding. Angela had mentioned that she herself will be in the '01 Oklahoma State on 6/23 in her hometown of Tulsa - after I got back home, I threw a Texas show out the window and instead plan on heading back to OK then. :-) Obviously I'd not seen Ms. Majors in contest shape, but she has impressive width and thickness in the off-season - wearing a sleeveless top of course. No Sherry Smith to be seen, prejudging or finals, unfortunately. Okay, brief appearance of a pig-tailed Jennifer McVicar, certainly we'll see more at finals of her, no? When I returned for the finals, little lobby quite crowded for a small show in a small town - the promoter must've done a helluva job, there seemed to be more folks at this show than at the '99 North Americans in the large city of Detroit! As I was waiting in line, Texas promoter Prince Harrison said to me, "Look who I found." I should've expected the winner of last year's Iron Games to make an appearance, ahem, this is worth getting out of line for - Karina Nascimento was going to be one of the trophy presenters. Always great to see her again, in the off-season, this Brazilian-born resident of Ft. Worth, has a captivating appearance. Then when I went in to my front row (row 2 lol) seat, that was slightly off-center - the judges wouldn't be in the way - I commented to the gentleman next to me, this is great, no? Until Karina and Randy Sandberg (OK NPC chair) pulled up two chairs and sat in our way. :-) I told Karina, uh-oh, if you're going to sit there, you've got to at least flex. Have I said yet she looks great in the off-season? At the finals, although Karina and Toni were dressed up, Ms. McVicar was a bit more informal looking but sans the pig tails, just as incredible looking in her off-season physique. Both Jennifer and Karina were key trophy presenters (as was another T & A brunette who happened to have a cute face though), read camera went into overdrive there once again. :-) I have to say, I've been to WAY more major shows and I'd be hard-pressed to come up with a collection of three more impressive off-season FBB's than (in no particular order) Toni Norman, Karina Nascimento, and Jennifer McVicar. Indeed Stillwater rocked that evening... Until next time, I remain... -jabber