Students Help Get Weight Room
Coach Christopher Kane started a weight lifting and leadership program at Noel Junior High School with the help of students.
Kane teaches physical education at Noel Junior High and coaches football at McDonald County High School. Last year was his first year at Noel, and he noticed a need for a weight lifting program. He talked to the administration, and they were on board.
“Noel is one of those places where kids don’t necessarily get to be in sports or they need encouragement,” Kane said. “The weight room was a good way to help encourage kids to be involved athletically and help with recruiting for football.”
He started looking for a place for a weight room and found a space in the school’s bus barn.
“We had to get maintenance out to help us get the roof fixed,” Kane said. “The students and I cleared out the stuff that was in there — a big pile of bricks and other random stuff. After we cleaned it out, summer school students helped me paint it. When we got approved for equipment, some of my football players from the high school helped us get about 60 cow
“... we believe the best way to lead is through servant leadership.” Christopher Kane Noel Junior High School Coach
stall mats for the flooring. Once all the equipment was in, more football players came and built all the racks and distributed the weights.”
The class is an hour and a half elective class at the end of the day, Kane said. For the first 20 minutes of class, they focus on leadership skills and community service. In the second part of the class, they split the class into two groups. One group does speed and agility training, and the other group works in the weight room on all the core lifts they will need in high school athletics and physical education, Kane said. Then they switch about halfway through.
For service projects, they have worked on cleaning the school and gym to improve their own environment, Kane said. They also talked about showing appreciation. To do that, they wrote notes to every teacher in the school and purchased pens, candy and other small gifts for them.
“We’ve also done work in our outdoor classroom. We helped with landscaping,” he said.
He added that they may help a local church next with packing backpacks with food to be sent home with students from Noel Primary School and Noel Elementary School.
“The whole reason we do service projects is we believe the best way to lead is through servant leadership,” Kane said. “You’ve got to be willing to invest before you can expect those people to follow you.”
A few eighth-graders shared what they like about the program.
Maria Gonzalez said, “We all work together.”
Gissele Reyes said, “I like the program because we learn about leadership and we get to work as a team.”
Amy Montoya said, “I like the program because we get to learn how to help others and how to make the world a better place. Getting to work out with weights helps you relieve some problems you might have.”
Alberto Valdez said, “It helps with football and wrestling.”