Green Hope’s sports teams will experience a major upgrade to their conditioning experience, transferring to a new weight room. The weight room will contain 10 squat racks for athletes to utilize while under the instruction of a coach. The weight room will not only supply racks, but also 35 and 45 pound barbells, deadlift hexagon bars, weight plates, medicine balls, resistance bands and dumbbells.
The new weight room was originally used for Green Hope’s woodworking class. With woodworking no longer offered at the school, the class’s facilities were turned into a weight room.
Each team will have a designated lift time so that members can share the same workout and the room can be used evenly by different teams. Multiple sports, such as football, lift out of season and had to compete for the previous weight room.
Green Hope’s weightlifting teacher and assistant football coach Mr. Garratt Brannock was heavily involved in the transfer of equipment and preparing the new weight room.
Mr. Brannock described the transfer of equipment from the old room to the new room. “Most of the equipment is going to be the same unless we get some funding from other places like if people want to donate money or something like that to get new equipment. All the weight room equipment we have from the current weight room is just going to get transferred over there,” he said.
A larger weight room allows teams to lift together. “If we have teams that want to come lift they can do it together instead of splitting them up,” Mr. Brannock explained. “With the space we have right now we can’t fit more than 30-35 people safely.”
Mr. Brannock emphasized the biggest benefit of the new weight room: space. He said, “So with more space you can utilize different exercises and floor mats. We won’t be as close, we won’t be as crowded so we can do more like olympic lifts, more AMRAPs and stuff like that.”
Nolan Sullivan (’26) wrestled as a freshman and currently runs cross country and outdoor track and field. He described the frequency he would weight lift with his team. “During the wrestling season we would go in twice a week or maybe three times a week.”
Sullivan finds lifting through school sports an enjoyable and valuable experience. “You can get a good workout in for whatever sport,” he said. “The weightlifting coaches know what they’re doing and it’s fun to do their lifts.”
Green Hope sports teams look forward to utilizing the new space as it comes to completion.
