Crean Lutheran athletes taking advantage of new weight room

Josh Gage is the head strength and conditioning coach at Crean Lutheran High School.

Crean Lutheran athletes are taking advantage of a new on-campus weight training facility which opened in July as they prepare for the start of the fall season and the school’s move to the Empire League, according to Josh Gage, head strength and conditioning coach.

“They’re still putting together some odds and ends and some finishing touches to it,” Gage said Tuesday. “We’re super excited. Since the start of the school, we’ve been working out on the blacktop, kind of pulling old weights out of a container and over that time, I like to think of it as somewhat of an advantage in building work ethic.

“I think it was awesome but I think ultimately this allows us to do much more with the strength and conditioning department and I think the kids are a little more excited to not work out in the sun.”

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The new weight room became a reality at the same time that Crean Lutheran is moving into the tough Empire League.

“With the addition of the weight room, it’s going to bolster us even more,” Gage said.

There is also an artificial surface adjoining the facility, which has large fans on the top and a sound system, which Gage describes as a “10-speaker, two-sub woofer extremely high end awesome sound system.”

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Gage said there are benefits to training outside, so the new facility incorporates part of that philosophy since there are large openings in the front.

“When we were designing it, we thought how cool it would be if we could use this and kind of spill out on to some turf to do any kind of plyos and kind of have the indoor or outdoor unique look,” Gage said. “We decided against the air conditioning because of the air flow and the economics of it.”

The facility has, “the best dumbbells you can buy,” along with other solid equipment, he said.

All of the Crean Lutheran teams come through at scheduled times and the weight training and conditioning program is part of a class at the school, Gage added.