It is the year of weight room upgrades in Durango.
After Fort Lewis College unveiled its new $6 million sports performance center in May, Durango High School has a new weight room for its student-athletes and student body. The new space should help student-athletes perform better on the field and the student body as a whole build strength and good health habits.
Donors, teachers and members of the Durango Demons Booster Club met at Durango High School on June 12 to talk about the new weight room and thank all those who made the project possible.
“Our mission is to subsidize the cost for DHS athletics,” Durango Demons Booster Club Treasurer Brian Beal said. “It's for our student-athletes to be able to compete against those on the Front Range who might have deeper pockets or more access to more financial resources. We've got to figure out how to bridge that gap … we were thinking about what we could do to go a bit big, and what, what might we be able to accomplish that would really make a difference … That's when we landed on the weight room and it was called our moonshot project.”
The new weight room is 3,608 square feet and is about three times as big as the old weight room, according to Durango High School Athletic Director Ryan Knorr. It has eight squat racks, eight pulley stations with additional storage, a 40-yard strip of turf going down the middle of the space for speed training, weight sleds to help with strength and speed training on the turf, box jumps and dumbbells.
Two of the biggest improvements the new weight room will give student-athletes are with safety and space. In the previous weight room, it wasn’t the safest setup because the space was so condensed and therefore, student-athletes were on top of each other trying to use the weights and machines.
The new weight room can hold 55-60 student-athletes at a time, although coaches plan to limit the capacity to around 32 students so that there’s a good coach-to-student ratio. The new space allows the coaches to see everyone in action a lot better because of the designated sections and stations.
At first, the plan was to have the racks in the middle of the space with the turf on the outside. But the design team for the Durango weight room project saw a lot of new high school weight room builds that had the turf in the middle. This design maximizes the space, allowing student-athletes to sprint 40 yards in the winter as well as run batting cages for baseball in the winter.
Designing the space was a group effort with Knorr, Darren Tarshis, Tim Fitzpatrick and the Demons coaches all involved in the design process. They collaborated to use the resources available to best utilize the space to fit as many students’ needs as possible.
Knorr and the booster club started envisioning plans for a new weight room in November 2023. He gave the booster club a tour of the old wrestling room (the new weight room space) and then moved some of the old equipment into the new space during the spring break of 2024 to see what equipment looked like in that space. Knorr wanted to see how much equipment could fit in the space.
Student-athletes were allowed to lift with the old equipment in the new space as Knorr was talking with equipment companies on quotes for the space.
Durango High School settled on Push Pedal Pull, a company Knorr worked with when he was the Athletic Director at Cherry Creek High School.
Brian Tinker was the man from Push Pedal Pull with whom Durango High School worked with on the project. Tinker is a former coach who knows the ins and outs of high school athletics and is an expert on weight training, equipment and building functional weight rooms, according to Knorr.
“He played a part too in what's going to make this the best room in the Western Slope,” Knorr said about Tinker. “I was so happy that he was willing to drop some of the prices and say, ‘We knock on your door, open this up and show other coaches, show other athletic directors, give them a tour.’ So it is the showroom for Push Pedal Pull and for Mr. Tinker and some of the things they envisioned.”
A big part of the design of the weight room came from Tarshis and physical education teachers Bethany Gleason and Griffith Gans.
Tarshis researched the best high school physical education and strength and conditioning teachers in the state. This led Gleason and Gans to visit Discovery Canyon, Vista Ridge and Lewis-Palmer High Schools in November 2024 to check out those schools’ weight lifting programs and weight rooms.
“One of my biggest takeaways coming back here was the level of knowledge and expertise that those coaches had and seeing how it translated to the organization of space and efficiency of their programming,” Gleason said. “The kids were bought in to that program … These kids know exactly what they’re doing and they're working hard. There are definitely different styles throughout all of the schools, but the big common theme was that they all had very efficiently run programs and spaces with kids who were bought into that.”
The renovation of the old wrestling room into the new weight room really started the week of March 15 with a fresh coat of paint. Then by March 19, the room had to be completely empty for installers.
Once the installers showed up, everything was put in place in about a week. New floors were put in and the new turf was put in the middle. Next, the squat racks were built.
The new weight room features a mix of new and used equipment. The racks, benches, storage, pulley system, box jumps and sleds are all brand new. The weights, the dumbbells and bars are from the old weight room.
After spring break, students were allowed in the new weight room on March 24 and 25.
“It's really cool to see even the shift in athletic movements from the short time that we've been able to get in this weight room already,” Gleason said. “We've been able to utilize this space in such a cool way that's building that neural activation, so the kids know how to move like athletes. It's really cool within a semester to see that already, from having this space and being able to actually practice those movements that will translate to the field and court.”
Gleason added that it’s been incredible to see the amount of buy-in and discipline from the kids. She compared it to the kids having a shiny new car. They’ll care for it because they value the space and how it’s a showroom for the Western Slope.
Despite the student-athletes using the new weight room, there are still a few new additions to be expected. Durango High School’s graphic design class is designing on some decals for around the room. Knorr said they have plans to name the stations as well as add pitchforks as yard markers on the turf. The high school also hopes to have some more dumbbells.
Student-athletes will be the primary users of the new weight room. However, students can use the weight room through weightlifting classes. Gleason said the school has had these classes for a while, but the new weight room will allow the curriculum and programming to improve.
The new weight room cost about $136,000, according to Beal. The booster club raised about $66,000 from 85 different donors, many of whom were corporate sponsors. A huge partner for the project was the Daniels Fund, a nonprofit based in Denver. Knorr and Beal communicated with the Daniels Fund and relayed the plan for the weight room. The Daniels Fund liked what it heard and put forth a $50,000 matching grant for the project, meaning it would match up to $50,000 of the money Durango High School raised.
Local companies CommonSpirit Health, Bronson Family McDonald’s and Goff Engineering contributed greatly to the project, along with many others.
The booster club also raised $61,000 from the Colorado Youth Sports Giving Day
“I really appreciate you investing in the vision of what we had and making time to help us express our gratitude for that and for our kids … The overwhelming return I have seen in our community and the investment into our community is mind-boggling.” Knorr said to the donors. “The fact that we have a booster club with representatives from every single sport and activity that we offer here at Durango is just insane. It's … something I've quickly gotten used to and feel very fortunate about.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
