State Senator Arthur Orr, along with the Tanner High School football staff, revealed new weight room equipment to Rattler players on Friday, July 19.

“I take a real interest in Tanner, not just because they are in my legislative district, but because of their proud history,” Orr told The News Courier. “I try my best to always support the school. I was glad to be able to help out where I could.”

Orr helped arrange a community service grant to raise funds for the new equipment that will immediately benefit the Tanner High School athletic department.

“It is so good to have a working, functional weight room now,” said Matt Smith, the head football and soccer coach at Tanner. “I remember working out on the equipment that was in there when I was in high school, and I graduated in 2007.”

Smith vividly recalled helping unload old weights and appliances, which were already used at the time of the school getting them, for the Tanner locker room in 2004.

“I remember all of our coaches going to pick them up and bringing them back on a trailer. They had the whole football team help put them in there,” Smith said. “I had a hand in putting everything together for this new design, but it wasn’t as hard this time.”

The reveal to his players was a full-circle moment for Smith, who is preparing to enter his first season as the football coach at Tanner, the very program that he credited for making him the man he is now.

“It’s like the first day of school, Christmas morning and your birthday all wrapped into one,” Smith said. “We’ve got seven new weight racks with connecting bars at the top that say ‘Tanner’ across the front of them. We’ve got stuff that we’ve never had in there before.”

Smith hopes that his new equipment will last as long, if not longer, than the old equipment they removed, but he said it is important to take in the joy his players have displayed working out in the upgraded weight room.

“The boys were beyond excited,” Smith said. “When we revealed the weight room they were jumping up and down — you could feel the Rattler pride. It was our first day working out, too, so it amped up our workout by ten.”

Orr humorously joked that the excitement of the players will help translate to wins on the football field, noting how the community has always supported the program through different obstacles.

“They’ve got some challenges on their hands, so giving extra attention to them helps the students succeed,” Orr said. “I’m proud of Tanner, and it is my honor to try and help them out. We aren’t done yet.”

Smith referenced the gratuitous act by Orr as an example of the kind of community support and love the Tanner area has continued to show him and his players.

“For him to reach back out and follow up with us on the progress, it’s just special and really nice of him to care about how the facilities look and how we have loved it,” Smith said. “It has meant a lot to me personally, but I know it means more to my players.”