Lafayette High School athletes will soon be working out with new equipment in the gym. 

NBA Hall of Farmer Shaq O’Neal made good today on his donation to buy the high school $20,000 dollars in equipment.  

The former LSU basketball player made the donation to support LHS through South Louisiana Giving Day in May.  After making the announcement, O’Neal sent Rob Pool, head coach of the Lafayette High School Football program, a video with words of encouragement. 

“Hello mighty Lion boosters of Lafayette, “O’Neal said. “I wanna wish you well with your fundraiser, but I may have a surprise for you. I’ll let you know. All you Lafayette High guys, students, work hard. You can be whatever you want to be. Alright. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye, bye.”

LHS is raising funds to remodel its weight room. The cost of the project is $42,000. Lafayette Parish School System has given the school a $21,000 matching donation through the SOLA Giving Day event. O’Neal contributed to the matching challenge with his $20,000 donation.

“Shaq gave us a jump start in our fundraising efforts,” said Pool. “When I got here two years ago, there were a lot of things I wanted to fix. I want to give the students a first class experience, but remodeling the weight room was at the bottom of the list because of the renovation cost. Shaq and our school board are making this a realistic goal for us.”