The New Cowboy Weight Room

“The new weight room is just in time for our recruiting season.” These words echoed the sentiments of Coach Zeb Hawkins, who is the Head Strength and Conditioning coach at McNeese, as he viewed the final touches being put on the new Cowboy Weight Room. It is a vision that Coach Hawkins has had since he hit the ground running upon his arrival from his similar position at Northwestern St in Natchitoches.

Coach Hawkins’ passion for his profession coupled with his dedication to the student-athletes at McNeese has created an ongoing excitement among the students, athletic administrators, fans, and boosters. The journey toward the weight room project began when Coach Hawkins and the student athletes held the first annual McNeese Lift-a-thon last summer at Burton Coliseum. The lift-a-thon raised $13,000 in donations that was quickly used to replace badly worn, out-dated, and potentially unsafe equipment that the student-athletes had to use for their strength and conditioning.

With the momentum from the lift-a-thon, McNeese sports continued excelling in the field with Southland Conference titles following in Baseball, Soccer, and Football. The championships created a real buzz among the McNeese faithful, boosters, and administration just as the campaign to Build-a-Power-House was launched.

The Cowboy Club Chapter, through the McNeese Athletic Foundation, started the weight room project with a legacy donation of $30,000 to purchase new equipment. Then the McNeese athletic administration through Director of Athletics, Mr. Sonny Watkins’ office, and auspices of the John and Alta Baker Foundation followed with a stipend of $10,000. With the donations in hand Coach Hawkins started the process of taking bids.

Under the leadership of Coach Hawkins, McNeese boosters, Keith and Wendy Romero of Lafayette enlisted the help of Body Masters™, a Louisiana corporation located in Rayne, LA to submit a bid. Body Masters™ has a reputation in the industry of making weight equipment of the highest quality and safety. The Romeros then added $20,000 of their own MAF Power House donation to the replacement of all the outdated weight room equipment as well as the addition of brand new leg presses that female athletes could use for strength and conditioning. Sean Sellers, direct sales manager for Body Masters™, worked very closely with Coach Hawkins to insure that McNeese State would not only have the very best equipment for its needs, but would become a showcase of quality work-out equipment for all of Southwest Louisiana and the Southland Conference.

With the additional stipend, Body Masters™ was able to offer McNeese State University a generous discount in support of McNeese athletics to facilitate the purchase of over $50,000 worth of the highest quality weight room equipment for both men and women student-athletes. McNeese State is now very proud to have an ongoing relationship with Body Masters™ and their continuing generous support of all McNeese athletics.

The final touches were now ready to be put in place. Coach Matt Viator, Head Football Coach, then added $25,000 from his own fund-raising proceeds from the “Football Fun Fest” to replace the existing floor with a new state-of-the-art padded professional weight room floor. Scott Bailey, owner of Bailey’s Audio in Lake Charles, is adding new audio equipment and new speakers to round out the new weight room that is now surely one of the best in the Southland Conference. And, just in time for recruiting season!!

Thanks to all the people involved in this exciting project. We all have an arduous task ahead of us in building a POWERHOUSE for our kids. They have consistently blessed us all with conference championships in all sports; it’s time to give them champion facilities. It will be done, and it will be because of the hard work, dedication, and donations of the many McNeese faithful. Then we can all echo McNeese’s motto “EXCELLENCE WITH A PERSONAL TOUCH”

Below are some shots of the refurbished weight room. First in the smaller room before you get to Coach Hawkins' office, on the south side of the room there are two new Body Master curl machines in the foreground. In the left background are two Body Master Lat Pulldown Machines. And in the right background are two Body Master angled leg press machines.

On the north side of the smaller room, you have the dumbbell racks with new adjustable Body Master benches.

On the north side of the main room you have eight olympic weight stations. Each has a wooden standing area complete with a McNeese logo and cushioned landing areas for the barbell weights. Here are a couple shots of those stations.

Looking towards the south end of the room you have eight Body Master Half Power Rack stations. Four on each side of the room. Below is a shot looking towards the south end of the room. One of the Olympic stations with the McNeese logo is in the foreground while the half power racks are in the background. You can also see the special rubber cushion floor of the weight room in this shot.

Below, two shots. One of the half power racks on the left and one of the half power racks on the right.

Below, a shot of Strength and Condition Coach Zeb Hawkins, on the right, and his assistant, John Cambre, on the left, in front of one of the Body Master Half Power racks.

Below, some shots of a group of football players that Coach Hawkins and Coach Cambre were putting throught a workout.

Below, a player squeezes out a couple more pullups assisted by a fellow player who was spotting him.

After finishing in the big room, the players moved to the small room for some dumbbell work.

This picture is self-explanatory

Narative by Keith Romero
Pictures by "Doc" Martin