Recent updates to the weight room at Riverside Brookfield High School will improve students’ athletic experiences this year thanks to funding from the school’s Sports Boosters.
Jennifer Hepker Royer, president of RB Sports Boosters, said that $26,340 was donated toward new equipment for the school’s weight room. Before the donation, the most recent renovations to the weight room took place about 15 years ago in 2009.
“The school reached out to see what Boosters might be able to contribute, since it was a project that really needed to be done,” Royer said. “We wanted to try to be as generous as we possibly could, and we were excited to support a project that actually, for sure, supported the athletes, but certainly had a broader impact at the school, because all of the students can use the weight room, and all the gym classes use the weight room.”
Most of the funding raised by RB Sports Boosters came from spirit wear sales, selling concessions, online raffles and membership drives. Royer said RB Sports Boosters was happy to be in a position to update the weight room and give back to students and the school.
Superintendent Kevin Skinkis said that after meeting with coaches, administration and the athletic department at the end of the last school year, the decision was made to upgrade the weight room, largely due to an increase in the level of student participation on the school’s various sports teams.
“We were able to determine the amount in the budget that we could put towards that program, which was roughly about $25,000,” Skinkis said. “We went to the booster club and asked if they would like to split the project with us, and lo and behold, the booster club was kind enough and came back and actually paid for all the weight equipment that was going to be updated.”
Skinkis said the district is looking into using the initial funding they had allocated toward equipment updates to replace the weight room’s floor.
With new equipment, students in physical education classes will have more opportunities to spend time using the weight room, and more after-school sports teams can train.
“Both the physical education department and head coaches were involved in identifying what equipment needed to be replaced, or new equipment that needed to be purchased,” Skinkis said. “By having this new equipment, we’ve expanded some opportunities to get more students down there to get the strength training that they need, both in physical education classes and for their after-school team sports.”
Samuel Styler, the head football coach at RBHS, said that having the additional equipment and space in the weight room is exciting as football season arrives.
“As more and more evidence is coming out about science-based workouts and making sure that our athletes are prepared before the season and even during the season, weight training is becoming critical in pretty much every high school sport,” Styler said. “Making sure that we have a facility that best fits the needs of our athletes is huge.”
For the football team, the additional space allows for the athletes to stay active and fine-tune muscles that help with injury prevention on the field. The team goes to the weight room twice a week during football season, and Styler said the students are excited about the updates.
“With the additional weight racks that we have down there, the additional open space that we have down there, our athletes are able to do workouts that better cater to their specific needs and their specific sports,” Styler said. “It’s definitely big for us and we’re excited.”