Body-builder

Sumpter earns
pro standing

Joe Sumpter

Joe Sumpter
Whiteville High School
football team - 1983

By DAN BISER
Sports Editor

When Joseph Sumpter Jr. took up the sport of body-building more than two decades ago, it wasn’t because he was the proverbial 97-pound weakling who kept getting sand kicked in his face every time he went to the beach.

It was far from that.

While growing up in Whiteville, Sumpter was usually always the biggest kid in his class and went on to become one of the biggest and strongest players on the WHS Wolfpack football team during the early 1980s.

Sumpter twice earned all-conference honors as a 250-pound defensive lineman at WHS, but it was his academic prowess that landed a full scholarship to North Carolina State University in 1984.

“I also had the option to go out for the football team at State, but I was majoring in computer science, and I knew it would be a tough course load all the way through,” he said. “I felt I just wouldn’t have time for football.”

Sumpter, now 41 and a development specialist for Systems Analysis Software (SAS) in Cary, got back into his old high school weight training regime after graduating from college and eventually started conditioning himself for body building.

“It started out as a hobby, and at first I didn’t think it was something I was going to able to keep up with like I needed to,” he said. “But I stayed with it and it has become a very enjoyable activity.”

Sumpter said that adhering to a strict diet and a demanding workout schedule contributes heavily to the success of a body builder.

“I find it necessary to work out three times a day to keep it going,” he said. “Some are able to do it only twice a day, but I haven’t been able to reach that point.

After many years of competing as an amateur, Sumpter recently achieved professional status while competing in and International Natural Bodybuilding and Fitness Federation (INBF) competition at Matawan, N.J. He came away with the Masters Overall title and also taking first place in the heavyweight division.

He also captured top honors in 2006 in the Natural Atlantic Body Building, Figure & Fitness Championships at High Point.

Among his early successes in body building competition was the 1998 North Carolina Grand Prix novice championship in Durham.

Sumpter, the son of Susie Sumpter of Whiteville and the late Joseph Sumpter Sr., plans to enter his first pro competition this coming April at the Pro Natural Mr. Universe event at the Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands.

Sumpter, who stands at 6-foot, 2 inches, usually competes in the 250-260 weight range. He has a 29-inch waist, which is no larger than the circumference of each of his thighs.

“I have to buy pants with a 34-inch waist to assure I have the length in the leg,” he said.
Sumpter played four seasons on Coach Frank Ciamillo’s WHS varsity football team from 1980-83. The Wolfpack finished runnerup in both the 1981 and 1982 state 2A playoffs.

“It was during those years that weight training really started to become a big thing for the football program at Whiteville High and it really got me interested,” he said. “We had a player named Daniel Cole who really set the weight-lifting standard for the team.”