Jackson Zuber is an ASU student at the Cronkite School assigned to cover Valley Christian by AZPreps365

Valley Christian High School has just over 400 students. Around 300 are athletes. A new weight room was a no brainer.

Weight training is key to building a foundation for all sports. This presented a challenge for Valley Christian football coach Kirk Sundberg who could not even fit half of his players into the school’s out-of-date weight room. “Our workouts were not efficient in the summertime, that is when it is the biggest deal,” said Sundberg. “It made us end up having to have the guys here for at least an extra 30 minutes every day.”

The old weight room doesn’t accommodate the needs of a growing school with as many athletes as Valley Christian. The equipment and space are not up to par. The old space housing a couple of squat racks was unlike anything Sundberg had seen before. But they will change that this summer.

Boosters raised money to completely renovate the training area. The entire back wall of the weight room will be taken out to expand the area into the next room. The equipment upgrade will include all new weights, squat racks, and a turf strip for sled pushes and agility drills. 

Inefficiency was not the only problem with a small weight room. Summer training can be a way to build chemistry among teammates. Running back Kaden Majercak said, “The new equipment is going to be amazing. We’re gonna all get so much stronger before next year.” 

The football team may be taking the lead on the improvements to the weight room but every sport in the school will reap the benefits. Valley Christian Athletic Director and varsity basketball coach Greg Haagsma believes the new weight room will help athletes in all sports. “It's about being more physical as a basketball player,” said Haagsma. “The same thing is true in volleyball, you know, to be a great hitter, you have to be able to hit it hard, you know, your best outside hitters are that way, they're great jumpers, they explode off the ground, swimmers are bigger and stronger all the time.”

Haagsma believes participating in a sport is a part of a complete high school experience and uses sports to teach students principles for life. The new upgrades to the weight room are going to give them a new tool to grow in more than the obvious physical ways. “We feel that they learn a lot through athletics, about who they are and how to work with people and dealing with conflict and all those things,” said Haagsma. 

Each part of the new weight room is considered a top priority. Blueprints are critiqued and worked on until they are perfect. The plan is to make it so the weight room itself can help motivate athletes. 

All great athletes are competitive and have the drive to get better. The Trojans designed the weight room to work with an athlete’s mindset and build those competitive tendencies. The weight room will feature three separate rows of the same equipment. “There’s gonna be one with black weights one's going to be with blue weights one would be a gray weight and you know from beginning to intermediate to me so you certainly want to you know, pride says and competition-wise as the athletes are going to want to get to in the more advanced section,” said Haagsma.

The athletes' personal records and school lifting records will be put on the wall to motivate. Upgrades are not only being made in ways that work for the athletes at a mental level but the weight room is also designed specifically to not just work on strength but to develop explosiveness. “We're bringing in some specific explosion equipment that's going to help us to become better jumpers, the amount of equipment we have, will be able to just get more kids in there as a single time,” said Haagsma. 

The upgrades to the weight room are just the first step in many new upgrades coming to Valley Christian. The school is raising money for two phases. The weight room and a couple of locker rooms will be built in the first stage. Phase two will be a new gymnasium, more improvements to the football field and a small 20-yard field for speed training. 

The majority of these upgrades will be paid for with a capital campaign.“It's donations from a lot of families that care about athletics.” said Haagsma.

The money raised will also go to constructing a new classroom. Valley Christian has 14 acres of land south of the softball field that eventually will house a junior high and elementary school. 

Valley Christian values the ways athletics enhances a student's education in and out of the classroom. For them, the refurbished weight room will be more than another tool for their coaches to use to improve their players on the field.