Strength and Conditioning room and program to be added at South Tahoe High

The very popular Sports Medicine program at South Tahoe High School just got a new counterpart, a Strength and Conditioning program and center. While Sports Med teaches students how to help athletes after injuries occur, the strength and conditioning program will teach students how to train in a way to prevent injuries.

At Tuesday's Lake Tahoe Unified School District Board meeting, the board voted 4-1 to add the Strength & Conditioning center with accompanying classes at STHS.

Overwhelming support has come from the community to create the facility for both athletes and all other general education students. Since first presented at the February 9 school board, Football Coach Louis Franklin has received $59,000 from the community: $20,000 - Gottschalk Family, $15,000 - Loral Langemeier, $15,000 - Jerod Haase, $1,000 from the Novasel Family, Don Borges, Kemper Masonry and the Tarwater Family. Other donations have been made anonymously and more are still being accepted.

"I never thought we'd get this much," Coach Franklin told Soth Tahoe Now. "This is an amazing community."

With the large number of injuries to athletes this year, especially those that play just one sport, Franklin says a strength and conditioning center utilized prior to their respective sport will reduce injuries. Three female athletes tore their ACL this fall, something that possibly could have been prevented with a program that could have prepared their muscles better for sports participation.

"They will be learning how to not get hurt," Franklin said of the program. "Its not just about lifting weights, its about teaching others how to do it."

The school will convert the old cafeteria, a room used to store stage supplies for school plays, into the new center. There will be a course created that could lead students to a career in physical training so students will be guiding the athletes on their conditioning program under the guidance of a trained instructor.

"It will be the Taj Mahal of of Strength and Conditioning Centers for high schools," Franklin told the school board.

They hope to have the new room open by June so those participating in fall sports can start their special program.