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Talia Eiseman

The weight room is currently empty, and will be installed with new equipment, flooring and paint.

After enduring years of the sweat and hard work of gym classes, student athletes and sports teams, the weight room is being renovated and designed with new equipment.

The room, once filled with older, single-purpose equipment, made it difficult for students to move through the machines quickly and have an efficient workout. In addition to the outdated equipment and shortage of space, there were safety concerns regarding the decrepit state of the room’s flooring.

The new design of the weight room will include new flooring and paint, as well as multi-purpose equipment that takes up less space and offers a more effective workout. “The goal of the renovation was to maximize the space that we have,” Erich Hinterstocker, athletic director and contributor to the upgrade, said.

Existing equipment such as dumbbells and kettlebells will be replaced and increase in number. In place of the leg extension, leg press and pulley machines will be several functional trainers that allow for an entire workout to be done on them.

“These machines will make people think a little differently about how they train, and this incorporates more things in your body,” Hinterstocker said. New equipment will also be added to the room, including medicine balls, physio balls, resistance bands and other accessories.

The setup of the room will also be changing to accommodate the new machinery. To address the old safety hazards, the new room will have a ¾-inch rubber floor where any weight can be dropped, and have raised platforms in the floor to avoid any tripping, making the area a safer environment for students and community members who utilize the space.

The Buildings and Grounds, Athletic and Physical Education departments, as well as the school board, were all involved in the decision to renovate the strength and conditioning room. First, Hinterstocker, John Kreuger, gym and health teacher, girls golf and track coach, curling club liaison, and intramural basketball assoc. supervisor, and Sarah Viera, executive director of business services, collaborated with different groups that would use the room. They then proposed the renovation to Principal Brett Bowers, the district office, and finally the school board on Monday, May 15.

Once the design was approved, the room was designated money from the split of the recreation and athletic departments for community use. The team then visited the corporate headquarters of the company that will be providing the equipment, Summit Commercial Fitness, and Oregon High School in Oregon, Wisc., who recently renovated their weight room and used Summit Commercial Fitness. They used Oregon High School’s equipment as a reference for their design with a different layout. After both visits, they went through about nine different designs and decided on one that fit for physical education and athletics.

The new room will provide opportunities for more teams to use the room and for athletes to get a more productive workout. “The renovation will allow the football team to get a greater variety of organized workouts into our off-season and in-season programs. It will be greatly used by our guys,” Coach Dave Keel, head football coach, said.

Along with benefitting athletics, the renovated weight room will be useful to the realm of physical education. “The Physical Education Department is very excited about the renovations to the weight room. We have numerous classes: Freshman PE, Strength Training, Core Strength, that use the that area on a daily basis. The changes will give us a safer teaching area with multi-functional equipment and teaching stations. It creates opportunities for us to incorporate new trends in fitness and training that we will be able to share with our students,” Krueger said.

Students, faculty, and all members of the district will be able to utilize the weight room space. “Not only is the renovation better for physical education and better for athletics, but I think it’s better for our community too,” Hinterstocker said.

There will be three phases to the renovation. The first phase, which is currently occurring, is redesigning the weight room with new equipment, paint and flooring. This initial phase has closed the space so work can be completed by June 12. Phase two is incorporating new cardiovascular and rehab equipment into the athletic training room, and phase three is a long-term expansion project. Both phases two and three are not outlined, but will happen in the future.

The old equipment was removed on the night of May 17. Through that weekend and into the following week, the floor was torn out. Currently, the room is empty, but the new floor, paint and equipment will be installed soon. This will be finished June 12.