LAFAYETTE, La. - A Louisiana high school has a new weight room thanks to former NBA star Shaquille O'Neal.

  

Lafayette High School's Mighty Lions will be working out in a new, state-of-the-art weight room beginning Thursday. The Advertiser reports the school's athletics staff put together the new equipment Wednesday after it arrived.

  

The Lafayette Parish School Board had committed to matching funding for the weight room at $21,000. The total project was a little more than $40,000. O'Neal stepped in to fill the budget gap.

  

Football coach Rob Pool says if he had not stepped in, it would have been another two years before they could have raised the necessary money.

  

O'Neal's donation was part of South Louisiana Giving Day, which is a project of the Community Foundation of Acadiana.