The cement floor is so cracked and crumbling that it has to be covered with mats so people won’t trip. There’s no air conditioning. And the equipment is old and battered.
The old weight room at Rancho Buena Vista High School – before the Chargers grant
“You go in there and it looks like a mishmash of things that have been accumulated over the years,” Rancho Buena Vista Principal Charles Schindler said in describing his school’s weight training room. “It looks like pieces that have been cobbled together over many years.
At Vista Design & Innovation Academy (VIDA), students had what pretty much amounted to a brand new swimming pool but no equipment to use in it, said Cindy Anderson, founding provost.
All of that is changing, thanks to a $70,000 grant from the San Diego Chargers Community Foundation’s Chargers Champions program to Rancho Buena Vista and a $22, 000 Chargers Champions grant to VIDA.
At the high school, everything will be redone, from the flooring to freshly painted walls, said Jason Tootikian, Rancho Buena Vista director of athletic performance training.
Rubberized flooring will cover the room, making it easier and safer for everyone to use, including handicapped students in wheel chairs, Tootikian said. The new flooring is easier to clean and protects the weights and other equipment from damage if they’re dropped.
The mishmash of battered old equipment will be replaced with modern equipment that will give students and others more room to work out safely. The new equipment will include portable adjustable benches with wheels so they can be rolled about for use inside or outside the training room, Tootikian said. “By incorporating the new design, the training will become more functional and efficient, allowing us to accomplish more work with more individuals in less time safer,” he said.
When Rancho Buena Vista High School was built in 1987, nobody gave a thought to including a weight training room. Over time, it became apparent that one was needed, and the demand for the room has steadily increased.
A crowded weight room at RBV
From school sports teams to special education students, “all the kids at some point in their career use the weight room,” Schindler said.
Remodeling and upgrading the weight room will take several months, but Tootikian said it will be worth the wait. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we are extremely grateful for and want to make every effort to plan everything carefully,” Tootikian said. “We are only going to get one chance to do this thing right, so we will take our time in order to see it completed to perfection.”
At VIDA, the swimming pool was completely rebuilt in 2013. “They had to actually dig the hole back out,” Anderson said. The old pool had deteriorated to the point that it was unusable and maintained only for safety, Anderson said. “The sides were crumbling,” she said.
The new pool is terrific, Anderson said, but without equipment, there were limits on how it could be used. “When the Chargers grant came, we thought, ‘wow,’” Anderson said. “They gave us everything.” Everything included water polo nets and balls, water weights, diving rings, kickboards, water basketball hoops, water volleyball equipment, snorkels, swim fins, equipment for water aerobics and even floating ropes to mark lanes for lap swimming, Anderson said.
“We are now a Chargers Champions School,” Anderson said.
