Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 2, 1995 TAG: 9507050014
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV20 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A major slash came when Joel Hicks, the high school's football coach, found a set of pro football-quality weight training machines for less than half the retail price.
Hicks arranged to buy a reconditioned 12-machine set made by Nautilus International Inc., of Independence that had once belonged to the New Orleans Saints of the National Football League.
The set's $12,000 cost compared to $40,000 or more for a similar set bought new, a spokesman for Nautilus said.
``I don't know of any high school that has any better,'' Hicks said.
Hicks had asked Nautilus if it could find him a used set after he concluded the company's new generation of computerized equipment would not meet his needs or budget. Four weeks later, he got a phone call from a salesman.
The Saints were trading in their set of weights, the man said. Would Hicks be interested?
``I would very much, I told him,'' Hicks said. ``We'd looked around and what we wanted was good weights that a football player could use. Something durable and tough.''
The used set had black padding on it to match the Saints black and gold team colors. The padding was changed to Pulaski County gold.
``It's first class,'' Hicks said.
Included in the set are two squat machines, which go for more than $4,000 each new; a double chest machine; a bicep curl machine; a tricep curl machine; a lower back machine; an incline press; a torso arm machine; an abdominal machine; a rotary torso machine; a leg curl machine; and a leg extension machine.
Hick stressed that the new equipment would be available to all the high school's students, not just the football players.
``These machines are nice,'' he said. ``But you have to get the kids to want to do it before this stuff will do any good.''
by CNB