AHS aims high with old Cyclone equipment

Elizabeth Thompson

Ames High’s Little Cyclones will be working out like the Cyclone football players with old Iowa State weight lifting equipment.

The recently completed Paul R. Jones Fitness Center was dedicated Sunday at the high school, 20th Street and Ridgewood Avenue, and part of it houses hand-me-downs from ISU.

The equipment used to be in the Olsen Building and was used by the ISU football team, said Judge Johnston, Ames High assistant varsity football coach and Ames Middle School physical education teacher.

When a new weight room was built in the Jacobson Building, the old equipment was offered to Ames High, said Bud Legg, district activities director for Ames High. Most of the equipment is free weights, he said.

The Ames High Alumni Association donated $15,000 to the high school to buy the equipment, said Jean Kresse, development director of Ames Community Schools.

The alumni donation spurred the building project, Kresse said, and most of the center was paid for by donations.

She said 89 percent of the building was financed by fund raising, and school district funds paid for the rest.

Paul R. Jones, a 1934 Ames High graduate and Ames businessman, donated $60,000, the largest of the donations, Kresse said. The center also is named after him.

Kresse said Ames High students helped raise $7,000 for rubber flooring in the center.

Kresse said the center will satisfy more than educational needs.

“Accessibility for students will be enhanced,” she said.

The old Ames High weight room was moveable. Before every basketball game, the equipment would have to be moved so bleachers could be set up, Kresse said.

“We needed a permanent place for students and athletes,” she said.

More space also was needed because of the growing student population.

“Our main objective is to serve the needs of the students,” Kresse said.