An updated athletic facility at a local high school is bringing more interest to athletic programs within the district. Coast Union High School revamped their entire weight room to give their athletes a boost.
“It looks newer and it looks cooler,” said Hatzumy Ramirez, a soccer and basketball player at Coast Union, about her school’s weight room makeover.
“This one, the squat benches are nice. We have better plates. The other ones were a little old, you could tell. Now, everything looks brand new. It’s great,” said Diego Fernandez, a sophomore football, basketball, and baseball player for Coast Union.
Six new lifting stations were implemented to give the Bronco athletes a much more efficient way to get bigger, faster, and stronger.
“It’s a huge deal. A lot of the equipment in there was old,” said Andrew Crosby, athletic director and head football coach at Coast Union. “With the six stations that are identical, at every station, you can do any workout you could imagine. One’s always lifting, one’s always spotting.”
“I feel like different stations for different people, that’s going to help a lot,” said Ramirez.
Crosby says this weight room upgrade was needed for the student body of about 160 students at Coast Union.
“Anywhere between 70-90 of them are playing athletics at any given season, depending on what season it is. Usually about half our of students are participating in athletics,” said Crosby.
It wasn’t just the district that made this possible; the community raised $2,000 more than the original goal of $16,000 for the new equipment.
“That’s the cool thing about this; it was a huge community effort,” said Crosby. “It wasn’t just one entity that went in and made this happen. We all came together and made it happen.”
Crosby says giving athletes something to utilize throughout the summer before they get back to competition will bring even more enthusiasm than what was already pent up.
“It makes students excited about athletics, and I think more confident about what they can accomplish out on the field or court,” said Crosby. “I think that’s the biggest deal with this is getting them excited and more confident.”
For athletes that might have taken a long break from lifting over the pandemic, the quarterback of the football team says this is the perfect time for them to get back in the weight room.
“Over quarantine, everyone was trying to get a gym membership,” said Emiliano Pena, a senior football, basketball, and baseball player for the Broncos. “This is free if you go to this school. Just come out instead of staying at home and not doing anything.”
The facility only took a couple months to upgrade. The district started work in late March and beside some finishing touches, the workout facility is complete.
