Cedar Springs — After an 18-month construction process, the new athletic wing at Cedar Springs High School is complete, and students, athletes and staff are already making good use of it.
The 10,323-square-foot, roughly $4.75 million athletic complex — dubbed the Red Hawk Fitness Center — was completed in February and funded with dollars from the district’s $68 million 2020 bond. The facility’s completion was one of two major bond projects to wrap up this school year, the other being an almost full rebuild of Beach Elementary.
The fitness center addition is divided into two spaces: One side is a turf field, with batting cages that lower from the ceiling; the other side is a 20-station weight room and exercise area. The center also features a state-of-the-art sound system and TV monitors.
‘This is all state-of-the-art stuff … Kids come in here and they want to train.’
— senior Ayden McClurken
The facility is being used by students in the strength and conditioning program, as well as wrestlers, cheerleaders, and football, soccer, baseball and softball players. It’s also open to staff during before- and after-school hours.
Diane Druckenmiller, the district’s assistant director of facility operations and logistics, said versatility is one of the main selling points of the new space.
“I would say the biggest thing is the multi-facet use,” Druckenmiller said. “We could have a soccer team on the exterior turf, a football team on the interior turf, and then you could have two different teams … using the bikes and the weights all at one time.”
The weight room and the turf field can also be partitioned off, so different activities can take place on either side of a dividing wall.
“That’s kind of the biggest thing for us — to be able to have a bunch of different teams use it at the same time,” said Druckenmiller.
‘So many more options’
So far, the response to the new facility has been overwhelmingly positive, said Druckenmiller.
Senior Ayden McClurken, a football and track athlete who is also in the strength and conditioning class, said the new facility is a huge upgrade over the previous weight-training area, which was a cramped room adjacent to the school gym.
“I’d say just from a spatial standpoint, it’s been really nice. Over there in the other room it was really crowded,” Ayden said. “There’s just so many more options, training-wise, that we can do.
“Also, we have the turf space over here, which is really nice because now we can have people in the weight room and over there at the same time, so it really spreads things out so it’s a lot less crowded.”
Ayden said access to a high-quality fitness area and brand-new equipment is a major draw.
“I think kids feel a lot more motivated. Like, you want your training space to feel like it’s legitimate,” he said. “This is all state-of-the-art stuff; it’s all brand new. Kids come in here and they want to train. Whereas the old weight room, it was functional, but this is just a completely different atmosphere.”
Druckenmiller concurred, noting that the new facility is sparking interest throughout the school, reaching students who may not have thought much about fitness before.
“The kids that you wouldn’t normally anticipate coming here are becoming more interested just because it is a new space and it’s different and people are talking about it,” she said. “So I think that’s a great thing — for people to feel welcome to start something different that they might not have done before. Like, it’s not just the football team in here.”
Strength and conditioning teacher Derek Ash said the fitness center allows his popular, ever-growing classes to run more smoothly.
“The fact that I can get 40 to 60 — even after school we’ve had upwards of 70 — kids in there at one time, efficiently and safely, that’s been the biggest benefit,” Ash said. “This new space is exactly what we needed.”
Read more from Cedar Springs:
• His secret to music success? ‘Don’t let perfect get in the way of better’
• She’s on the lookout for that ‘OMG moment’ of understanding
