The Portal Panther athletic teams continue to compete on a statewide level. Last year they christened in their new track and saw their boys and girls make a run in the state meet. This month they unveiled their new weight room, which should help all sports continue to excel.

“We are very thankful to the Board of Education and the folks that made the decision to approve this project,” said Portal AD Justin Chester. “The equipment that we had was 20 years old and some of the equipment came from the old field house so it was definitely time to get the new equipment and get our floor redone. We’ve talked to the coaches and the students about the new Class-A region which we will be competing against a lot of schools closer to our size. So, it's time to really take advantage of all the new things we have and compete for state titles.”

One of the sports that will be able to take advantage of the new equipment will be the Panther football team. Head coach Jason McEachin is excited about the upgrade and said the players have a new pep in their step coming in for workouts.

“This is a great blessing and a great setup for our kids at Portal,” McEachin said. “The equipment we had was functional but barely hanging on. Now we have all the things we need and we are ready to put it to work. It’s a great motivator. You like to think the kids will work just the same on old equipment but there is no question when they saw this place and the new equipment they were excited and were even early to get here to start.”