Darien sports players should have an upgraded fitness center by the beginning of the next school year.
Photo credit: Lisa Eppley

DARIEN, Conn. – Darien High School’s weight room could be getting a major upgrade. The Blue Wave Booster Club is starting a fundraising campaign to buy new exercise equipment and to add a new room for sports teams to do more intensive workouts.

The weight room is used by nearly all sports teams as well as by physical education classes. The Booster Club, in its ongoing mission to support Darien athletics, saw a need to replace equipment and improve the facility.

“A lot of the equipment is well used,” said Heidi Naughton of the Booster Club. “A lot of it was given to the high school by other organizations, and some of it has seen better days.”

Assistant Superintendent Matthew Byrnes said space is also an issue in the weight room, because of the size of some of the sports teams. “There’s very little room between all these machines, and it gets very crowded.”

A plan was put together that would take a health classroom down the hall and combine it with a storage closet to create a “power room.” Equipment would be moved in so coaches could take teams in for specific training. This would spread out the exercise machines and eliminate the crowding.

Byrnes also said that if enough money were raised, a storage closet inside the wrestling room across the hall would be turned into a spinning room.

Naughton said the Booster Club, which consists of 225 families, raises funds to support all Darien athletics. Because so many teams use the fitness rooms, the club saw this as a project that would benefit many people.

The cost for the upgrades is estimated at about $125,000. The Booster Club will begin by reaching out to generous backers who have previously donated to the club. It then wants to send a townwide mailing to encourage everyone in the community to give what they can to help create the new fitness center.