1999 Ronnie Coleman Classic (Notables and Guest Posers)
By Jabber


Notables and Guest Posers:

In addition to the fun stuff on stage watching the competitors, to further
add to the experience, since I was sitting in the front row a bit to the
left, I actually was close to one of the banks of speakers, thus making the
posing music fairly convincingly sound like I was at a rock concert.  Ah, I
lead a hard life. :-)  On with the rundown of notables.

In the audience was Dallas resident Debra D'Andrea, who saw her popularity
grow immensely during the 1998 year.  I hadn't seen her in a while, and she
flexed her right arm for a photographer, and bodywise she looked good.  

When I was at the NPC Jr. USA in Birmingham, AL (the last time I saw Bethany
Howlett), Bethany told me she and her boyfriend, Shari "King" Kamali would
be guest posing at the Ronnie Coleman Classic (I can't swear by it but I
think she said it was her first trip to Texas).  Bethany came out as the
first poser simply to "introduce" King Kamali.  If you're not aware (i.e. if
you didn't read my Jr. USA review in detail :-) ), Bethany, the big thick
young Bethany has decided to streamline and go the way of fitness.  

Well, luckily, for this mass-hound, she still looked pretty darn big at
5'6", 160 lbs (she told me she lost 25 lbs (from her high of 185 lbs) and
plans on losing another 25 lbs for the Jan Tana Fitness and the USA Fitness
- two weeks from each other in July).  Regardless of her placing at the Jan
Tana, she'll be in the USA, too.  But she wouldn't flex on stage!  What a
pity.  She basically did one-back flip, and as I said, acted as the intro to
King Kamali, who lumbered on stage at a whopping 300 lbs. at only 5'10".  

I've never seen King in contest shape (I always leave those shows early :-)
), but he was WAY off contest shape.  His best feature is very broad
shoulders - not lats, shoulder width.  I have no idea what he'd look like in
contest shape.  (hope you don't mind me going on a male tangent here - three
out of the four guest posers were)

Then something happened I'd never seen before, Melvin Anthony (forgive me
for not remembering what he won - he's a Texas state champ I think) wanted
to "best" Mr. Kamali, so he came out second.  I thought, what gives, a
posedown between guest posers?  Mr. Anthony easily was in better shape than
Mr. Kamali and if King could be embarrassed (I don't think he can be though
:-) ), he would've been.  I said, what next, Ronnie Coleman himself come out
and best them both?

Zoom ahead to when Ronnie Coleman DID come out later (at his appointed time),
he was so far off-season, he wouldn't have bested Mr. Anthony - and it was
wise he did NOT come out earlier.  Ronnie was introduced by Sheilahe Brown
and her dance friends.  Sheilahe, to my knowledge, hasn't competed in a
while, but she looked pretty impressive in the off-season, mass, shape,
everything (unless compared to Vicki Gates :-) ).  Strangely enough, Ronnie
sat in a chair with Sheilahe Brown and her dancing buddies circling.  The
whole scene looked kind of like a bachelor party where a guy gets dragged on
stage at a strip club and the women circle him.  I don't know if that was
intentional, but...

Also of note was Kelly Felske in the audience milling around not able to
hide her muscles.  Texan and fellow promoter Betty Pariso had the same
delightful problem. :-)  I cannot fail to mention that the lovely Monica
Brant was on stage a couple times during the evening presenting trophies and
looking cute.  When she stood at the lectern to talk (it's not a podium, you
place your feet on a podium) she carefully made sure that blocked her body.
Shucks, she has nothing to be ashamed of. :-)  

Also interesting that evening was they had the itsy bitsy bodybuilder awards
during an intermission.  They invited youngsters under 12 to come up on
stage and show their stuff.  Of course the majority of the youngsters were
male with one 11 year old boy probably a budding bodybuilder - he should've
won the judging, but it was a popularity contest.  There were many little
boys 5 years of age that you heard the audience sigh like many folks get
around youngsters.  Interestingly, there were only 3 girls who entered, 5,
7, and 9 years of age.  While none were good or muscular, they seemed more
knowledgeable about posing and more into it than their male counterparts
(other than the 11 year old boy)!  And because it was a popularity contest,
the 5 year old girl won the overall, doing a crab pose for the appreciative
audience (yes I have pictures - be patient!).

Ah, but I saved the best for last.  Words cannot describe the mass of the
great off-season Kim Chizevsky.  She looks SO much huger when she takes off
her clothes than when you see her with sexy black cover-up on or a black
sweater (as she wore at the Ms. International at the Expo).  I made sure the
camera was fully loaded when she came out and my damn camera almost went on
fire like that spotlight during prejudging.  This is classic stuff, indeed.
I, in general, prefer the contest ready physique aesthetically, but with
Kim, this HUGE-ASS mass is simply more impressive.  I was beside myself,
literally...

Whew!

-jabber