This is a rendering of what the WACO athletic training and fitness center is expected to look like. Image courtesy of WACO Community School District.

WACO Community School District is receiving a donation for a new athletic training and fitness center on the school campus in Wayland.

The Mark and Mary Ann Kaufman Foundation is fully supporting the construction of a 9,544-square foot facility, which will include a weight room, community fitness center, locker rooms, coaches offices, and an athletic trainer office.

Superintendent Jeff Dicks explains how this facility will benefit the WACO community, “It’ll just provide an environment that is really hard to provide with the resources we have. And just the opportunities that it provides all of our kids, and our community they’ll have access to be a member, I believe is kind of the vision. There’s a lot of details to be worked out but now that the gift has been given and we have accepted that from the foundation, I think you’ll start to see and hear more about this project.”

WACO School Board President Tim Graber describes the need for this center, “Our current weight room for student athletes at WACO is basically in a storage closet, we call it. It’s really small and has some outdated equipment. To be honest that’s what kind of got this process started was just looking for a new weight room, and it kind of turned into a fitness center and locker room and training facility which we really don’t have at WACO.”

Donor Mark Kaufman is a 1982 graduate of WACO and is the C.E.O. and President of AthletiCo Ltd., which has more than 380 athletic training and physical therapy locations across the U.S. Greg Gowey of Studio 483 Architects has designed the facility which will be located north of the football field. The center is expected to be completed by August 2018.