By Laurie Senior
One of the biggest changes this year in Sterling High School
has been the opening of the brand new and improved weight room, now known as
the Wellness and Fitness
Center. I had a chance to sit down and talk with Dr. McCulley
before the ribbon cutting ceremony took place on December 15, 2012 and discuss what
this would mean for the students here at Sterling High School.
His
foremost concern about the students here was physical fitness, which was not sufficiently achieved by the previous facilities.
With the expansion of the weight room into a wellness center, the
students are able to focus on more than just lifting weights; they can focus on
getting in shape with cardio exercises and a wider range of physical
activities. It was also a matter of
space; allowing more students to work out at one time.
One of the
main reasons for this is the transition to physical fitness in the physical
education program. In a battle against
obesity and lack of physical fitness, the curriculum has taken a turn towards health and
wellness through exercise. Gym classes
will be using this new fitness center as a larger part of their syllabus, and
after school sports will also be taking advantage of this new addition for work-outs
and off-season training in order to allow the students to become more
proficient in that specific skill-set, said Dr. McCulley.
It is also for the students who wish to participate in sports but can’t
because of their physical fitness, so that they can get in shape in order to
participate in sports in the future.
But that is
only the tip of the iceberg. While
informed that this will be a while off, Dr. McCulley was encouraging that
eventually, with enough support, the Wellness and Fitness Center
will be open to the community to use possibly before and after school hours. The overseer of this program is Sterling's Varsity
football coach, Mr. Wiley. Other
staff members, most likely gym teachers, will become part of the supervision
and aid in the facilities as time goes on and the program starts picking up
steam.
Most of the
equipment in Wellness and Fitness Center now was taken from the old YMCA near the Voorhees Town
Center, and re-furnished,
as the school has recently purchased that building for multiple future
uses. Other than that, the construction
cost of expanding and updating the weight room into a Wellness and Fitness Center came to about $70,000.
I was lucky
enough to attend the ribbon cutting ceremony as well, and what I saw was a huge
improvement. There is now a variety of
equipment with plenty of space to move around.
At the ceremony, about 30 to 40 students were working out, using the new
equipment, all of which looked brand new.
The head members of the Board of Education were in attendance and there
was a small speech given by Dr. McCulley and the President of the Board, Ms. Caramiello, before
she cut the ribbon to officially open the Wellness and Fitness Center.
This
expansion is a huge leap for Sterling
High School and the
surrounding community. It helps
diversify the students here and puts us ahead of other schools in the area on
the matter of physical fitness. I have
to admit that I, myself, am not an extremely physically active person, but with
the addition of this Wellness and Fitness
Center to the school, I
may end up becoming one. So come on Sterling community!
Let’s get up and get active!
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