During this past winter Washington High School head football coach David Everson presented the idea to the coaches and the Blue Lion QB Club about updating the locker room at Gardner Park, as it hadn’t been updated in decades.

During the initial research of the cost to have the desired lockers built, delivered and installed, it was in the range of $75,000.

Everyone involved knew that raising that amount of money and having the project completed in time for the upcoming season was highly-unlikely.

One of Coach Everson’s themes for this year has been ‘Find a Way,’ and this story is a prime example of how the coaches, the Blue Lion QB Club, parents, alumni, and community came together to do just that.

Todd Keaton, one of the varsity assistant coaches, presented an idea of having the carpentry department at the state corrections facility (Chillicothe) where he works do the work. Todd took the lead on gathering information on materials needed, timeline and so forth.

Once the Blue Lion QB Club had the information, they worked on a plan to raise the money to cover the material cost for the lockers, which included receiving donations from the local Eagles lodge, Blue Lion football alumni, Laura Jones and Mandy Miller, local realtors, along with many others.

With the funds now available, the material order was placed and delivery arranged to the correction facility.

The QB Club worked hard to get the old lockers out and hauled away, thanks to Mike Phillips (middle school assistant coach and Blue Lion alumni) and his crew at This and That, LLC.

Fast forward to the completion of the lockers, and Todd had arranged with Halliday Lumber for a trailer to pickup and deliver the lockers to Gardner Park. The driver even volunteered on his day off to help make sure this delivery happened.

Once the lockers arrived at Gardner Park, several coaches, high school and middle school, as well as John Heidler with his skid steer, were present to get the lockers offloaded and installed into the locker room. Once the lockers were installed, it was time for some of the final touches, including installing name plates, putting up plaques of the alumni that made donations.

The players were able to see the updated locker room on Aug. 9 before practice, and they were ecstatic with the update.

The overall cost of the project was approximately $5,200 which, as noted, is a prime example of ‘Find a Way.’

Often there is a lot of behind the scenes work done that never gets to see the light of day, but this story definitely needed to be shared.

Everyone involved with the Blue Lion football program is very appreciative of Coach Everson’s vision, Todd Keaton for leading this effort, the Blue Lion QB Club’s raising and coordinating funds, and the countless businesses and folks that provided donations and help with the renovation.