State-Of-The-Art: Central High beaming with pride at new expansive weight training facility

by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor

Central standout defensive end DK Mays recalled the layers, sometimes having to wear two jackets to combat the winter. Then there was the more moderate spring, followed by the sun’s unrelenting heat of the summer.

“When it was hot and humid, you had to survive,” said Mays, who is committed to the University of Houston. 

With the school’s weight room undergoing a facelift, nearly doubling in size to 7,000 square feet to house all sports, Central’s football team was forced outdoors under a circus-sized tent to conduct its offseason workouts. The painstaking process took 6 ½ months with the doors to the new weight room swinging open July 22, much to the applause to the players who had kids-at-Christmas looks etched on their faces.

“We addressed it with the players,” Central’s second-year football coach/athletic director David Simoneaux Jr. “It was an embrace the suck mentality. They wanted us to lift in the parking lot with no cover and we didn’t think it was good for the kids. The kids were going to have to earn their opportunity to get into that new weight room. There was no other place to lift, and we had to train. They were very business-like about it and handled it very well.”

Under the guidance of renowned strength and conditioning coach Thomas Distasio, Central proudly boasts a weight room with plenty of natural light and few peers statewide at the high school level. 

The Wildcats went from a 16-rack to a 24-rack setup with additional room for safety purposes. 

MONDO flooring, the exact rubberized surface used in LSU’s weight facility, is one of the obvious upgrades along with Hammer Strength weight equipment. Each platform is equipped with 3-D motion sensor cameras called Perch to gauge performance levels of each exercise, and the Wildcats are the only high school program in the state to have such technology.

There’s also a 50-yard artificial turfed field in the middle of the facility for agility drills, and the ability to conduct team walk-throughs, thanks to a 15-foot drop-down projector screen, and a 15-blender nutrition center.

“We want to carve our niche in the developmental piece,” Simoneaux said. “For the first huge project, to make sure we have a huge piece that’s not only aesthetically pleasing but is super functional. It’s got the technological bells and whistles that will give us a winning edge.”

Mays was appreciative of the Central School District’s vision and investment in student-athletes at the school.

“From what we had when I got here, it was nothing like this today,” he said. “You work for this; the blood, sweat, and tears people put in, and to have people invest money into sports at Central. I’ve told some of my friends at other schools and they’ve never seen anything like this. It’s something nice to have, makes us want to work and be happy to lift weights. 

Simoneaux was part of a weight room renaissance during his tenure at Catholic High. Thanks to a sizeable gift, the Bears constructed a $2 million brand new, state-of-the-art facility outside of their multiple-purpose facility for football, track, soccer, and lacrosse.

Simoneaux whose head coaching trajectory began at Class 1A Catholic-Pointe Coupee in New Roads where he installed hot water heaters in the team’s locker room and striped his game field, has been the beneficiary of having a vision with resources at his last two coaching stops. 

When he arrived at Central, Simoneaux was able to expand his imagination with the district’s resources that were available and a superintendent – Dr. Jason Fountain – who was a staunch advocate of athletics and the role they play in the viability of a school.

“I’ve had to push myself to dream big,” Simoneaux said. “I left one of the best jobs in Louisiana to go do my own thing. I wasn’t going to leave and dream small. If I’m going to leave, we’re going to do this the right way, the best way I know how.

“We have a facilities director here,” Simoneaux said. “It’s been a mindset shift that we do have some resources, we have people who care about winning. We have a superintendent that understands the value of athletics to a whole school system.”

The role of former Sen. Mack “Bodi” White, a 1973 graduate of Central High and all-state defensive lineman, was another catalyst. Given his clout with the State’s Finance Committee, he helped secure funding for the project which also included an addition to the school’s softball facility.

“We presented a vision to him, and he went and fought for us in the Legislature,” Simoneaux said of White. “He got us $3 million for the weight room and softball facility, and the school district came up with the rest.”

The influence of Distasio is noticeable everywhere. He brought plenty of expertise in his field of strength and conditioning, having formerly trained F22 and F18 pilots at the Air Force Academy, and served as head strength coach at Morgan State, and assistant coach at Sacramento State. 

Distasio’s arrival immediately raised the stakes for Central’s athletic department which now had someone on board to match the science and data of weightlifting and conditioning for all sports on campus.

“As soon as he came on board it gave us the clout to say that this isn’t just a bunch of old, dumb jocks,” Simoneaux said. “The mission of Central High School athletics is to maximize human potential and to create champions. We started collaborating on what we wanted it to look like. We wanted it to be super functional and the technology piece is a big one.

“It’s a great testament to the buy-in, the belief, the alignment of our administration to be on board,” Simoneaux said. “It’s a big vision. The fundamentals of this program are going to be in the development of our student-athletes. This is the crowning achievement of our athletic program right now, and everybody’s going to benefit from it. That’s the beautiful thing.”

Mays said Simoneaux made good on a promise for a new weight room the first time he met the team in December of 2022. 

“When he got here, he called us up and told us we were going to have one of the best facilities in the state,” Mays said. “When he said that, he meant it. When we worked outside under the tent, it was horrible in the winter. They kept telling us it was going to be done. It kept getting pushed back, so we kept working and it paid off.”