Kevin Love offers a hefty gift to Lake Oswego High School

Corey Buchanan, Lake Oswego Review, October 09, 2017

A decade after winning the Gatorade National Male Athlete of the Year award and leading the Lake Oswego boys basketball program to its third consecutive state championship game, NBA all-star forward Kevin Love has offered to make a hefty donation to his alma mater.

Love's gift: approximately $200,000 in strength-training equipment for Lake Oswego High School's weight room.

"I think it's incredible. Somebody that has that generosity to come back to where they came from and have an impact on an entire student body," said LOHS Athletic Director Brigham Baker. "It's a great example and a great benefit that all of our students will be provided with, and it affects every student in the school if they want to take advantage of it."

School district administrators told The Review last week that they had decided to accept the donation, and the Lake Oswego School Board agreed Monday night by unanimous vote. Love, the district and South Carolina-based Sorinex Exercise Equipment will flesh out the exact details and retail value of the equipment "suite" at a later date, school officials said.

"Thank you, Kevin Love — and Stan Love, and Karen Love, and the whole Love family," School Board member Bob Barman said.

Baker said the school's current equipment is sufficient but that the new equipment would be a welcome addition.

"Any upgrade as far as weight equipment, weight machines, weight training and speed building apparatuses would be a welcome thing for not only our sports teams but our education and weight-training programs," Baker said.

According to the district, the equipment will be suitable for boys' and girls' weight- and strength-training regimens. The LOHS weight room is used for a variety of academic classes, by all LOHS sports teams and for the district's Community School sports programs.

"We want to make sure the equipment serves students from all of our sports," said Stuart Ketzler, the district's executive director of finance. "Not just the ones that would be typically associated with a weight room, and particularly for our female students,"

Still, the donation does pose some complications for the school district. LOSD policy stipulates that a gift to the schools cannot "create an inequity between buildings or programs, among or within schools, that cannot be rectified over a three- to five-year period."

That means Superintendent Heather Beck and her staff will need to establish a plan to ensure that equitable equipment is provided for Lakeridge High School's training facilities. School officials said they will request "additional appropriation authority" at the School Board's next regularly scheduled meeting, and School Board Chair John Wallin said Monday night that the board will vote "to transfer the appropriate funds to match this equipment donation at Lakeridge."

Ketzler said the district will undergo a competitive bidding process to choose which equipment to buy for Lakeridge High, and that the equipment will be of equal quality to the equipment donated to Lake Oswego High. He said he doesn't know yet how much the Lakeridge equipment will cost, but surmised that the purchase would be for below retail value.

"Depending on what type of equipment list we get out of Lake Oswego High School, that would drive the equipment we would be seeking to procure through our competitive procurement policy," Ketzler said. But in any event, he said, "we want to make sure the equipment meets program needs and is compliant with equity policies."

Love is considered one of the finest basketball players ever to have suited up at LOHS. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of California, Los Angeles for one year before the Minnesota Timberwolves selected him with the fifth pick in the 2008 NBA Draft.

Love spent six seasons with the Timberwolves and is now entering his fourth season with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He won an NBA championship with the Cavaliers in 2016 and has been selected to the NBA All-Star Game four times.