Recently, Lowellville athletes have received new equipment for training. Thanks to the Lowellville Booster Club, athletes have new opportunities to increase their level of fitness. Booster President, Joe Ballone who has been a member of the community his whole life, made this possible. Mr. Ballone explained how getting new fitness equipment became possible this year. It all started about a year ago while Joe was coaching junior high football. He saw how outdated the equipment was and wanted to do something to gain new equipment for the student athletes.
He met with Carl Larosa, trainer at the Youngstown YMCA, who is very knowledgeable on weight equipment. They planned out everything they needed to get and what they had room for, and ended up deciding on 12 brand new pieces of equipment. Equipement they thought necessary included: two lat pulldown machines, a chest supported row, an olympic bench, a seated chest press, a smith machine, a jammer, leg extension and leg curl machine, a glute drive, a belt squat and lastly a leg press. The total cost for all of this equipment was $15,895. The Booster club paid for ⅔ of this cost and the school covered the other ⅓. The Booster Club was able to support this cost because of the amazing Lowellville concession stands and other sport fundraisers.
The new weight room is open to any Lowellville sport teams and students that are supervised by a coach or school issued adult. Student athletes, especially the football players, are very appreciative of the new equipment. Lowellville Senior Anthony Lucente, a three sport athlete, puts a lot of time into weight training for his sports. Lucente said, “When I first saw it I was excited to try everything out. I think this will really motivate kids to get in here more.”
Students are looking forward to the new opportunities they have to improve their training. This is a great addition to the school and opens new doorways for the students and athletes!