The days of Gilroy High School students endlessly dogging it
around the track during gym class are finished.
Gilroy – The days of Gilroy High School students endlessly dogging it around the track during gym class are finished.
The droll laps around the school’s athletic fields have been spruced up thanks to a new half-mile fitness course. The loop features stations of blue-barred equipment set up for strength-building workouts, such as pull-ups or assisted push-ups, spaced about 100 meters apart.
“This is something that we thought would help our students,” said Rich Masey, a physical education teacher who authored a grant that made the course possible. “It’s a combination of aerobic and anaerobic. It’s something different just to keep our fitness level up. The track everyday gets really boring for some kids.”
Signs at each station explain two exercises students can do using the bars, with workouts catered to people with different levels of fitness. The top level – championship – instructs students to use the equipment in a different way with more repetitions, creating a challenging workout, Masey said.
“Some of our athletes try the championship level and they’re winded by the end,” he said.
The course is not limited to high school students, however. The equipment is open to the community while school is not in session, before 8am and after 3pm on weekdays and anytime on weekends. Accessible through entrances on 10th Street and from the levee, the course is already being used by community members.
Having the course open to the public was an integral part to Masey’s plan and a reason he received $5,000 from the competitive grants committee of the Gilroy Foundation – a local organization that distributes money to charitable causes. The course was one of 18 projects chosen from an application pool of about 50 and one of only three projects to receive this large of a sum.
Graniterock and Robinson & Moretti, Inc. also made donations of supplies and labor amounting to more than $5,000, contingent on the foundation’s grant. These companies’ promises convinced the foundation that the course was not only a plus for the public, but also supported by the community.
“For a $5,000 investment, the foundation felt that the community would be yielding much more,” said Donna Pray, the foundation’s executive director.
The funding of the course is an example of the ongoing cooperation between residents and the school district, said James Maxwell, the high school principal.
“It’s consistent with Gilroy, which is almost always a partnership,” he said.
Though few people know about the course now, it is a long-term investment and will become a hallmark of the area for local residents, Maxwell said.
“As more of them understand (it’s there), more of them will use it,” he said. “It’s going to be there for years and years and years.”
