Arslan Ahmed | Sports Editor
Featured image: The Tait McKenzie Centre has worked hard to provide a welcoming, energized environment for both York students and athletes. | Courtesy of York University
Tait McKenzie, York’s gym and home to York athletes, is always buzzing with people, clanking with weights, and echoing with hollers during basketball, volleyball, or indoor soccer games.
It brings our athletes together, helping them work on their respective sport through training and practice.
Many York athletes attend Tait for training and practice. It is a renowned place for cheers and applause, as fans come rushing to support Lions teams or their own colleges during intramurals. In making Tait a special gym, the staff work extremely hard to ensure the facility is operating smoothly, so students and athletes can take full advantage of it.
Whether it be attending phone calls to provide information about the daily gym schedule, providing towels and lockers so you don’t go to class smelling like a skunk, and even ice after a particularly hard workout, bruising game, or a minor injury; the staff at Tait are on top of their duties and work to make the gym a welcoming environment.
“One of the benefits of Tait is it’s right on campus. I’m able to go to the gym for a quick workout in between classes and then go back to studying without the hassle of taking a bus or subway,” says Marissa Sputore, a fourth-year Kinesiology student.
“However, the gym does have outdated machines, many of which are often out of service. The free-weight area is also quite crowded and finding the right weight dumbbell is difficult as you often have to wait for someone else to finish using them,” she adds.
As York students and athletes, Excalibur and the Lions team would like to give a heartfelt thank you to Tait McKenzie for focusing on the health and fitness of York students, and for ensuring the gym is a sanctuary away from exams and studies.
