Fundraising initiative would add more space and new equipment, move training room
Brian Griffin, varsity head football coach at Hinsdale Central, said athletes involved in all sports - and those in weight training PE classes - would benefit from an expanded and renovated Bouchard Family Fitness center with a new training room attached. (Jim Slonoff photo)
When the Bouchard Family Fitness Center opened at Hinsdale Central in August 2008, athletes, coaches and parents praised the new facility as light, spacious and state-of-the art.
Almost 17 years later, the space is in need of a remodel - in part because of its heavy use, athletic director Mike Jezioro said.
"Obviously, from the athletic side, we have both in-season sports and out-of-season sports that use it on a daily basis, whether it's before school or after school or later into the evening," he said. "Seventy to 80 percent of sports are in there on a fairly regular basis."
He noted that strength training has evolved since the 1990s, when it was not recommended for some athletes, including baseball players.
"Don't lift, you'll get too bulky, you won't be able to throw," was the message at the time, Jezioro said. "Every sport - regardless of the sport - needs some sort of strength training."
And there are more sports now than ever, said Hinsdale Central graduate and varsity football coach Brian Griffin, who is spearheading a fundraising campaign to expand and renovate the space.
"When the weight room was built in 2008, there was no boys and girls lacrosse," Griffin said.
Girls flag football wasn't in existence, either. Nor were strength training PE classes.
"We had no weight training classes 20 years ago," Griffin said. "And now we have five or six that use the facility every single day."
The initial plan was to refresh the space with new equipment and a new floor.
"From some of those conversations, I started being like, 'Well, we also really need a new training room,' " he said. "In an ideal world, we'd make the weight room bigger and move the training room upstairs. It kind of led to a plan that involves both - expanding the weight room and redoing the training room."
The district already had set aside funds to redo the training room.
The school's athletic trainers currently work out of a room in the school's basement, which is not conveniently located.
"No one practices or competes in the basement," Jezioro said.
Griffin said he hopes fundraising will begin soon.
"We're kind of at the end of the planning stage. The goal from now until August would be to fundraise, with the hope of summer of 2026 being able to actually start the project," he said.
The ideal space would cost about $3.5 million, he said.
"To really do it right would be a lot," he acknowledged. "If you look at places we like to compare ourselves to - like New Trier and some of these places - that's kind of what they've done and through private donations. That's how schools are getting these spaces."
Organizers plan to talk to the parent clubs for each of the school sports and potential individual donors, including the Bouchards, who gave $250,000 initially and had agreed to help with the refresh.
"(Jim Bouchard) was just here a couple of months ago and contributed to our initial ask to revitalize," Griffin said. "It's one of those things that now we've changed our scope, so we'll be going back around to all those places."
The remodel would bring the space up to par with other areas that were renovated following the voter-approved referendum in 2019.
"The building is great and we've done a lot of great work to the super visible spaces," Griffin said. "Some of the invisible spaces, like the training room, that the general public doesn't go into still have work to be done."
He added that this is a great opportunity for another community partnership.
"We've found the most success when we've come together, and I'm excited," he said.
Pamela Lannom is editor of The Hinsdalean
