Boylan unveils Vincent E. McGuire Performance Center

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - After years of work and planning, the Vincent E. McGuire Performance is open for the students of Boylan High School.

The center renovated over 21,000 square feet of the school’s auxiliary gym. The new center adds 8,700 square feet of turf plus a 3,000 square foot lifting room as well as a revamped wrestling room.

For a wrestler like Netavia Wickson, the new center is certainly welcome.

“Now I don’t have to worry about going somewhere to run on a treadmill or anything, I have it right here, I have all the weights and machines I need right here and it’s right next door to the wrestling room so it’s really great,” Wickson said.

The facility is named after Boylan staple Vince McGuire, who worked in the school for over 40 years in various roles. McGuire nearly left the school as his family grew but couldn’t stand to leave the school.

“After about five kids my wife said ‘hey, you need a new job’ and I said ‘I love that place, I’m not leaving, I’m not leaving to go teach someplace else’ and she said ‘well, you have to do something’ well, god blessed us again and I got a job as a part-time real estate agent,” McGuire said.

“I’ve been very blessed with a great life because I’ve had a wonderfully great job, when you work at a place that you love to go to daily, it makes your job so easy,” McGuire added.

The new space is part of phase one of a $4.5-million investment. The next phase is focused on “wide-ranging classroom improvements”. Boylan President Amy Ott admitted that the athletic facility comes as other NIC-10 schools add or renovate their own indoor athletic facilities.

“You want to say no but yes, really there is, our students deserve nice facilities just like everybody else and that’s our goal and that’s part of my job here to make sure that we have facilities that are a quality of the students here in the building,” Ott said.

Boylan’s President said the ceremony has been a part of a refreshing school year after dealing with COVID.

“It feels like it’s a renewal year for all of us and all of our kids in the building and all of our fans and our donors, really everybody wants to be together, we are thankful for that opportunity because we realized what we didn’t have before, it’s always wonderful to come together as a community and as Vince mentioned in his talk today, a team,” Ott said.

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