St Jago High gets gym
Published:Tuesday | November 17, 2015 | 9:37 AMRuddy Mathison
SPANISH TOWN, St Catherine:
The St Jago High School Foundation in St Catherine has constructed and equipped with 30 pieces of equipment a state-of-the-art gym at the school in Spanish Town.
Done in an effort to strengthen and improve the performance of the boys and girls teams in all sports in particular the Issa/Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Athletics championships, the gym was established at a cost of $5 million dollars.
According to Marlene Hawthorne, head of the physical education department, the equipment was donated by Bally Fitness Company of New York, through the efforts of past student Davaon Spence; a manager with the company.
"Davoan Spence is a distinguished past student who continues to contribute to the development of his former school, he has always come to the school's assistant when the need arise," Hawthorne disclosed.
"This donation will make this one of, if not the best equipped school gym in the Island," she told The Gleaner. "Our objective is to extend the services to members of other schools, organisations and the public at an affordable cost," she added.
According to Hawthorne, the gym which has a wide-range of equipment including vertical bench press, bi-angler chest press, leg extensions and curl machines, forms the first phase of what will be the sport centre at the school, that will include a large multipurpose auditorium that will be constructed in phase two of the project.
Hawthorne said the equipping of the gym with these sophisticated machines will greatly enhance the capacity of the students in other areas.
"We have other programmes other than track and field that this gym will help to enhance, programmes such as rugby, football, basketball and netball will all benefit from this facility," she stated, revealing that as soon as a gym instructor is put in place the facility will extend its services to outside users.
Meanwhile, students have expressed excitement at having the best equipped high school gym at St Jago. They told The Gleaner that they will use the facility to advance personal development and improve their skills in various sporting discipline.
At the recent handover ceremony several distinguished past students, including former Jamaica Olympic four and eight hundred metres runner Bertland Cameron were in attendance.