SHS Workout Facility Upgrade: A Great Opportunity

 SHS Workout Facility Upgrade: A Great Opportunity

January 2 2024

By: Julia Miller 

Sparta High School is planning to upgrade its current workout facility. It is a great opportunity for numerous students to have space to exercise in their school. The upgrade will include the weight room and the cardio room. The Sparta Education Foundation has already provided the cost for the weight room refurbishment. However, the cardio room expansion will cost between $80 and $90 thousand.
The district is hoping to be able to raise the money through donations.
Of the total cost for the cardio room, $30 thousand will be to layout a turf runner with the balance to be used for purchasing stair mills, elliptical trainers, treadmills and other equipment.

Athletic Director Steve Stoner said the turf section of flooring is to facilitate sleds so they do not ruin the floor as they are dragged or pushed.

There was previously going to be a donor for workout equipment for the gym, but Sparta Schools’ Superintendent Matthew Beck, said, "The donor actually pulled out,” when it was discussed at the December board of education meeting.

Kenneth Scognamiglio, an exercise physiology and human body systems teacher at Sparta High School, has played a vital role in developing the gym expansion. Scognamiglio puts strong emphasis on how significant this gym expansion is because of how beneficial it will be for the students.

He said, "The most important thing is that it will benefit every single student that is in our schools, whether you are athlete, non-athlete, exercise all the time, or are just beginning to learn how to exercise, every single student that comes to this high school will spend time in one of those two rooms." 

A population that will be highlighted through this expansion is female athletes. 

 "We are going to have a number of freeway stations with barbells that allow for traditional lifting, but we also have cable machines that allow for adjustability and movement for all different types of students," Scognamiglio said.  

Stoner said he expects the project to begin in the spring.