Wrestling room debate stirs up student petition

By: Caitlyn Rawers, Reporter

For most students, the weight room is a place they go for Physical Education class (P.E.) or for training. The rooms are for workouts, but for sophomore Riley Vanik, it is where he grew up. He has been using that room since he was six years old.

A proposition for the weight room to be split apart and create separate facilities for different workouts is in the planning stages. The upstairs wrestling room would be dedicated to cardio and plate loaded machines, while the downstairs would be dedicated to free weights.

P.E. teacher Ernie Colombe believes that the wrestling room could be used during the day to minimize the number of students in the gym during class.

“From a P.E. standpoint, we’re out of space. Its a big room that’s not being used for the school day. We’re going to use every space possible,” Colombe said.

Vanik doesn’t want the weight rooms to change because the new rooms could possibly be smaller and split up the people doing cardio and the people weight training. Besides the smaller sized room, there has been a proposition to put in a chain link fence instead of padding on the walls.

A petition has been started by Zach Parker and some students to stop the weight room from changing.

“It’s [the petition] a good idea, just to get us noticed,” Vanik said.

Parker also created “Save the Wrestling Room” stickers for students to wear on May 11. One of those students, freshmen Thomas Kumar, thinks that the wrestling room change is pointless.

“What’s the point of moving it? It’s been there for 30 years,” Kumar said.

He feels that new room would impede training and workouts, especially for wrestlers. The room, Vanik says, is built for wrestling.

Colombe says that the school is looking at other spots, it is not guaranteed that the room will change at all.

“Nobody would to lose their space, the school is trying to make sure no one loses space,” Colombe said.

P.E. Teacher Brian Johnson believes that the change would help every single athletic program.

“The finished product will hopefully be really nice with top athletic facilities,” said Johnson.

Whether or not the change is actually executed for the next school year will be decided during the week of May 11.