By Becky Maxedon

Content sponsored by Anderson Toyota

The weight training room in the Lake Havasu High School gymnasium is showing off its makeover.

LHHS Athletic Director Dustin Zampogna said work began on the project at the end of the 2022-23 school year.

The weight training space has been revamped, redecorated and redesigned.

“We started at the end of last year. We ripped everything out. Scrubbed the concrete floor. Repainted everything even the small details. Everything was taken into consideration,” Zampogna said.

Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

“The community and Anderson made this happen.”

Zampogna said the facility is not only open to the school’s athletes, but to all students, faculty and staff.

“We have 500 kids coming through here every day in weight training classes and fitness classes,” he said.

Zampogna said the athletic department stresses respect for the facility.

“We pride ourselves on that. It’s not every day we get something like this, and we want to make sure we take care of it. We try to impress upon our kids, our athletes, our coaches and staff how important it is to take care of this,” he said.

Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

He said the project could not have been possible without Anderson Toyota’s financial input and the expertise of Sean Michaels, owner of Feelin’ Good Fitness, and Brian Francis, owner of Havasu Cross Fit.

Andrea Foote, marketing director for Anderson Toyota, said, “We went to the school district and asked them, ‘What do you need?’ so they came back to us and said we need to remodel our weight room and so we were ‘alright let’s do this.’

“So, we went to Brian and Sean and they were fortunate enough to work with us,” Foote said.

She likened the newly remodeled space to a mini-college training facility. “That’s where high schools are going. When you see this, it’s like night and day from what it was,” she said.

Both Michaels and Francis are Lake Havasu High School alumni – Michaels graduated in 2006 and Francis in 1998.

Sean Michaels and Brian Francis pose for a photo at the new LHHS weight room. Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

“Andrea reached out to us about a year ago about this project. I grew up in this gym,” Michaels said.

“This is a space I really love. To be able to tear it up and rebuild the gym so the younger classes can come up and build stronger bodies and smarter minds was the vision,” he said.

Francis said, “It was pretty neat to be able to do this. I did not get to grow up in this gym because it wasn’t built yet when I was here. But I did get to use a lot of equipment that was in this gym.

“To see that this was still around – that equipment was pretty worn out then so to have this opportunity to come tougher and sit down – Sean and I have a great relationship anyway – we have similar mindsets – putting our heads together making this a more functional place for the kids, it was really great to be asked to be a part of it,” he said.

“We wanted to make sure we got that right so they can learn the movements and lifestyle for the rest of their life,” Michaels said.

“The goal was to make this a great space for all the kids that will be coming through for the next several decades,” he said.

Jillian Danielson/RiverScene

The remodeled facility includes several state-of-the-art stations, large television screens on the wall that map out the different workouts taking place during the day and more.

Foote said that Anderson Toyota was grateful for the coordination of Zampogna, LHHS Principal Scott Becker and both Michaels and Francis, for the opportunity to sponsor the project.

To view the interview on Facebook live with Lonnie Stevenson, visit our RiverScene Magazine Facebook page.

Jillian Danielson/RiverScene