BY MELISSA ROLLINS (Morning News)

William Soolua’s reason for wanting to join the Florence’s Biggest Loser competition was simple: He wanted to be healthy.

“I heard about it in December; that’s when Jesse Parker came up to me and told me about it,” Soolua said. “He said he was going to do it, and it would be fun if I would, too. I love food, but I want to live longer, so that was the reason I did it.”

Soolua works at Cale Yarborough Honda in Florence but also leads worship at Pee Dee Community Fellowship, which meets at the Julia 4 movie theater.

“My mom said that when I was little, I would wake up in the morning and get out the pots and pans and start banging on them,” Soolua said. “When I would go to church, I would stand by the musicians and really observe, and it just stuck with me. Anytime I’m playing music, it is therapy for me.”

He said he felt a call to lead at a young age and has continued to do it ever since.

“I started leading worship when I was around 15,” Soolua said. “I believe that leading music is my calling and that I was born for this. It is something that I feel that I’ve trained for. It is my passion to lead people in to the presence of God.”

Soolua said he was not overweight as a child but began to gain weight as an adult, something he attributes partly to his Samoan heritage.

“Pretty much since high school, I’ve been over 300 pounds,” Soolus said. “Samoans, they always have big events, family reunions and stuff like that. They are always cooking; it is kind of in our culture. We are kind of stuck with it, but if we want to change, we have to determine what is going to happen, what we are going to do.”

Soolua is not big on cooking, himself.

“I might burn the kitchen down,” he said.

But he said he keeps his diet simple by eating a lot of fruits and salads. He also has joined several sports teams at McLeod Health and Fitness Center to make sure he gets his workouts in but also to have fun.

“I like to stay busy,” Soolua said. “Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, they have basketball from 6 to 8; they play full-court games. That’s how I knock out my cardio. Tuesday and Thursdays, I lift weights either with Jesse or my team. I go back to the gym again on Tuesdays and Thursdays to play volleyball.”

One big inspiration for Sooula has been his coach, Jimmy Ard.

“He’s a beast,” Soolua said. “He is so fit, especially for his age. Seeing that makes me want to work even harder. That’s how I want to be when I am his age.”

Soolua also said his teammates have been a great source of encouragement during the competition.

 

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