In the midst of having a newly hired athletic director, Mr. Mike Emendorfer had all eyes on what he could do immediately to make Rock Island Athletics better right away.
After accepting the Athletic Director position at Rock Island High School in May of 2022, Mike Emendorfer felt that one of the first things he would tackle would be upgrading the much needed fitness center. He explained, “It was one of my number one priorities taking the job, to upgrade the fitness center.” There wasn’t just one reason as to why these upgrades were necessary. Emendorfer explained, “One, I felt for the safety and well being for our students and staff that use the facilities. It was over 20, 25 years before the fitness center has been upgraded. It was for safety reasons. It was also if you’re going to have a competitive athletic department, it all starts in the fitness center. It’s a performance area that needed an upgrade. To improve morale, culture, but also the overall fitness for the students that use it.”
The fitness center isn’t just a space for the weight room, but it is where the athletic training room is, as well as the wrestling mats. Rock Island Athletic Trainer, Kyle Hoffman oversees the fitness center, and felt that after the upgrades were needed, stating, “ One, it’s much safer. We’ve also tried to make sure that we create a space conducive for different exercises, that’s tailored towards the needs of different sports and different abilities.” With Mr. Emendorfer and Kyle Hoffman’s support throughout the whole process, all updates were a success, but it definitely couldn’t be done without the support of each other. Mr. Emendorfer stated, “Well, I worked with the administrative office when I was hired 2 years ago. At that time, they knew that that was one of my top priorities, so I communicated to, at the time the superintendent, the CFO and Mr. Whitaker that I felt that this was an important tasks and they entrusted me to evaluate and access, which I did then months later to secure funding for and after through the distinct. Kyle and I worked together to pick out the equipment. Kyle assisted as far as what type of racks and benches and weights and all that stuff that we needed that we felt that was necessary for us at Rock Island.”
In the 2022-2023 school year, Kyle Hoffman took over the strength and conditioning portion of the fitness center, as well as being the only Athletic Trainer for the whole school. After all the updates to the fitness center over the summer break, both Kyle and Mr. Emendorfer decided it would be best to hand off the torch of the lifting program to Coach Jake Scudder, who is the Head Coach for Varsity Baseball. Coach Scudder had been planning the lifting schedule for his team many years before this past year, which really made the role easier to take on. Mr Emendorfer stated, “I think Jake and Kyle have made a tremendous impact in developing a program, and communicating and teaching proper technique. I think that’s the key thing. I think a lot of our students have a general idea, but more injuries can occur in the fitness center if there isn’t proper instruction, and I believe that Jake and Kyle have provided that for us.” With the equipment being used by many sports for many years without being replaced, an upgrade was long overdue to refresh the look, as well as functionality of the equipment. Kyle stated, “I think they definitely visually look better, again the biggest component of why we did it is because our equipment was outdated, it became unsafe, it was beyond warranties, we had equipment falling apart, so from a visual aesthetic standpoint, it looks obviously a lot nicer and it provides a sense of pride for our athletes, as well as obviously much more safer, and mitigating any sort of hazards, such as tripping or improper use of equipment. So, overall, it’s much safer. So it was definitely necessary to upgrade our equipment, but just like anything, when you have something nice as new and shiny, you tend to be a little bit more proud of it and tend to take better care of it.”
With a new look, layout, and equipment, the fitness center was ready to be used for the 2023-2024 school year. Immediately, it was a huge hit with many students expressing that the upgrades made lifting more fun, as well as feeling like a place they could really get better. Mr. Emendorfer expressed, “I think our physical education class for the seventeen hundred students walking into a facility that’s well kept up and updated will improve their moral, but also improve their participation. It’ll also allow them to be exposed to a weight room and fitness center that they might see if they go off to college, and know how to use the equipment. For our athletes, if we want to continue taking strides winning Regionals and Sectionals and State titles and Conference Championships, we’ve got to develop our athletes, and the fitness center is one of the main ways of doing that.” Overall, the new fitness center upgrades were not only needed, but will forever leave a lasting impact on Rock Island student athletes and athletics.
