A brand new workout room has arrived at South and is stirring up excitement for not only athletes but the many other students that have access.

The refurbishment of the room has been a long process. Nobody knows this better than athletic director Mark Sanders, who has been organizing the remodel. According to Sanders, a $300,000 grant was given to both Roosevelt and South High School from Hennepin Youth County Sports to benefit the department.

While the room will be utilized extensively by sports teams and physical education classes, the room is also available to other students. A checking-in/out system was mentioned by Sanders and while he is more than willing to allow this large variety of students into the room, there is hesitation that comes with it.

According to him, machines are often neglected or mistreated by students who aren’t educated to use them. He expressed his concern by saying, “The thing I tried to get away from was machines with cables and stuff like that because we were always breaking them, we always had to get them fixed and Phy-Ed classes are really hard on the stuff and abuse it.”

Even though the room hasn’t opened yet, this type of negligence has been seen through the students that went into the room before it had opened. This led to locks being placed on the doors and Sanders only issuing a select number of keys to maintain a better watch on the renovated room.

On the subject of machine maintenance of the weight room, Sanders said, “My main concern is that we really are going to have to watch and make sure the stuff isn’t misused, and that’s going to be the responsibility not only of the teachers and coaches but also the students who want to take pride in something that we’ve worked hard to get. So we want you guys as students to police it as well, because this is something we’ve stuck a lot of money into and it only takes a couple knuckle heads to ruin something.”

The new weight room may offer more to some than others. Junior Addie Welch, for instance, recently tore her ACL during an ultimate frisbee practice and was on crutches and in a brace for months. “Since I tore my ACL and meniscus it would be cool to use the weight room for part of my physical therapy. So if there was a leg press or a stationary bike that’s what I would be using most. And it would be nice because I wouldn’t have to get a Y membership…”

Welch isn’t the only student who see’s benefit in the refurbishment. Senior Jordan Medlock is a football player at South and was involved in some of the remodeling work, giving him an advanced look at what’s changed. “When we used the equipment and it broke down, it was a major inconvenience because the more things broke down, the longer it took to fix them … so our ability to use the weights were limited, and now that we have a lot more new equipment and new machines and things, we’ll be able to use them longer and without interruption,” said Medlock, looking forward to the new South resource.

The prolonged wait, however, has been causing some of the talk about the new weight room. “It was supposed to be done like a month ago,” said Medlock, addressing the delay from when athletes were told they would be able to use the room. In acknowledgement of the concerns associated with the delayed arrival of the room, Sanders said, “It may look like it might be done, but it’s not… just because the equipment got put together, doesn’t mean it’s all ready to go.”

“The cool thing is that I want it to be accessible to all students, not just the sports teams, and I foresee possibly getting some kids that maybe aren’t into other sports, maybe interested in weightlifting. And then, you know, there’s weightlifting clubs, we could have our own weightlifting team here … so it can go a lot of different ways,” Sanders said while exploring the many opportunities presented by South High’s new workout room.

Gallery • 3 Photos

Rhiana Stark

To the left of the room are four heavy duty treadmills, and if you’re wondering why there are so few of these popular machines, keep in mind that Sanders chose greater quality equipment over a greater number. Also pictured are stationary bikes, which for junior Addie Welch is more beneficial than for others. “Since I tore my ACL and meniscus it would be cool to use the weight room for part of my physical therapy. So if there was a leg press or a stationary bike that’s what I would be using most,” said Welch.