New weight room benefits Nativity student-athletes

POTTSVILLE — From the outside, it looks like an old-fashioned trading post.

Located to the rear of Nativity B.V.M. High School atop Lawton’s Hill, the building looks like an outdoors equipment store of some sort, with wooden pillars in the front, a pair of entry doors on either end, a couple of small windows in the middle and a garage door on the side.

Inside, however, is a new facility to benefit Nativity’s student-athletes.

Through the efforts of the Green Wave Association and the Nativity Preservation Support Foundation, a building originally intended to be used for storage has been converted into a weight room filled with virtually brand new equipment.

The 40-foot by 60-foot structure, built by Pioneer Pole Buildings, Wayne Township, allows the Nativity football team to escape a small weight room located in the school’s basement and prepare for the upcoming season in a spacious, air-conditioned facility right up the path from the Green Wave’s practice field that’s located down the hill in front of the school.

“We were real fortunate,” Nativity coach Pat Mason said. “We were in the basement, but we had great equipment. We had a donor a couple of years ago that came in and re-did the entire weight room down there, but we just outgrew it. Getting 35-40 kids in the weight room at one shot was kind of tough in that facility.

“The Green Wave Association built this (building) for storage when they had the carnival up here. We had a donor come in and donate a bunch of equipment to us. When we got more equipment, we were like, ‘We need somewhere else to go.’”

Vince Zimerofsky, president of the Green Wave Association, said the project to convert the storage building into a weight room started in December and took 2-3 months to complete. The Green Wave Association paid for the original building, while the Nativity Preservation Support Fund funded the work done inside.

“The Green Wave Association, what we pride ourselves in doing is giving back to the sports programs,” said Zimerofsky, who had three children — Tyler (Class of 2017), Haley (’19) and Hannah (’24) — graduate from Nativity.

“We saw a need to make room and expand the weight room situation. There was currently a building there … we thought this could be better used as a weight room as Nativity’s football team kept growing.”

Although the facility is designed for all of Nativity’s sports programs, the football team has been the biggest benefactor so far. Throughout the summer, the team has held workouts on the practice field in the morning, then headed to the new building to lift.

Mason’s players said working out in the air-conditioned facility instead of the damp, musty, hot basement is a nice improvement.

“We lifted in the basement level. It wasn’t bad, it was nice,” senior wide receiver/defensive back Noah Dolbin said. “But with no AC, in the summer it was so humid, the floor would get wet.

“For the school to have this built with the AC … there’s so much more space. It’s really nice to have, especially after running all morning, coming into the AC, it’s a blessing to have.”

Mason said the school will retain the basement-level weight room and use it for cardio workouts. The new structure includes free weights, weight machines, benches and racks. Most of the equipment for the new facility was donated by the Coval family.

“It’s great. It’s nice,” Mason said of the new weight room. “We can put the garage doors up, make it an indoor-outdoor facility. It’s right here by our practice field, so it’s a good fit.

“This facility is top-notch,” he continued. “I don’t know if there’s a better facility around. We have everything we need in here and everything is brand new. There were a bunch of people involved (in this project) and we’re reaping the benefits from it.”