By CJ Bowles

UW News lab

Mercer Island High School athletics have always been competitive on the field. Now, they are also competitive off of it thanks to a high school parent, school employees and community members.

Marvin Anthony — father of an Islander student and two-sport star athlete, Morgan Anthony — was the parent who helped to lead a fund-raising push to refurbish the decrepit weight-training facility at the high school.

“It seemed like the equipment there was the same stuff that the kids’ parents used when they were in school. Half of the machines had `Do Not Use’ signs on them,” said Anthony. “Now it feels like the weight room has taken a complete 180 when you walk in there today.”

The fund raising began in November of 2004 with a rummage sale, after first receiving backing from the high school athletic director Craig Olson and facilities director Anne Meisner. Through the event, Anthony began receiving donations from supportive parents and community members. But it wasn’t until Brian Emanuels, a friend of Anthony’s on the Boys & Girls Club board of directors, got involved that the money really began to pour in.

As of late September, about $70,000 worth of professional-quality exercise equipment had been installed at the high school over the past year, and another $15,000 has been spent to provide after-school supervisors for the students while they lift weights.

Anthony began thinking seriously about the idea after watching the football team get pummeled by Bellevue 68-0 during the 2004 season. He knew Bellevue’s dominance was not just talent-based. It was a function of year-round weight training. But that was not all that Anthony considered weight training would do for the athletes.

“These programs are not just to make the kids strong,” said Anthony. “They help the kids get locked into team building and start developing leadership roles before the season starts.”

And don’t think that this is another program that is strictly being implemented for football. Anthony emphasized that the improvements were made to benefit all students. And according to Olson, no fewer than 15 different teams have used the new facility including volleyball, swimming and lacrosse.

“I don’t think anybody has the kind of equipment that we have in our weight room,” said Olson. “Some might be larger, but none have the quality of machines that we have.”

The school has also hired a consultant to lead two seminars to motivate and teach the students about weight lifting and how to perform the exercises properly.

Although it is too soon to judge if the program is making a difference, the football team improved by three wins this season and four players received All-KingCo accolades. Just one was named to the select teams last year.

“Now there’s more of an interest from the community, especially the parents that were involved. We have a pretty nice facility. And it’s nice to go use a facility like that as opposed to using what was quite frankly a poor facility,” said Anthony.