By: Christopher Pierce

Wesleyan’s overall student body contains 60% student athletes. The weight room and green room are used by all of these athletes. The addition of more weight racks and newer equipment would enhance the overall performance of our student athletes. 

Here at West Virginia Wesleyan we have a large student body that are also athletes. Some teams have so many players they have to put 3 to 4 people on a rack. The addition of more racks and dumbbells would speed up the time spent in the weight room so we can get more teams in and out. In addition to new equipment a new flooring would also be put in, in order to ensure athletes safety with many holes in the missing pieces in the floor. For this project the green room would need to be shortened by a couple of feet to ensure space for the new racks. 

The first student athlete interviewed was Royell Salmon. Salmon stated “If the school had a newer weightroom I believe it would attract more recruits with them seeing a nice, clean and organized weightroom. This could also bring the university more money and increase the overall student body. Salmon also stated that athletes could get more “work in” with the amount of racks that would be added. Although Salmon opposed the idea of having a smaller green room for his track team, he believes it would be more beneficial for the rest of the teams with higher roster numbers. Salmon believes that the older barbells and racks are falling apart and also thinks the weights could be inaccurate due to pieces of the weight falling off. 

The next athlete interviewed was Dane Sykes. Sykes stated “I believe the green room is perfect the way it is, the weightroom on the other hand is old and run down”. He believes the floors are coming up with pieces up the floor missing in some areas. Sykes and Salmon’s answers were quite similar especially when it came to the dumbbells and racks. Sykes did state that it would be nice to have all of the bumper plates the same color and brand. Sykes also believed the teams would benefit from a velocity barbell tracker that would track how fast the athletes move the weight and with the average power that athlete is pushing the weight. Following the interview he told me Wesleyan would benefit hugely from an increase in student athletes if they see a new weight room on their visit, similar to Salmon’s statement. 

Coach Anderson, the assistant track and field coach, believes that athletes would see much better results from newer equipment and new flooring. He also stated that it may draw the athletes to want to be in there more often. Although he did state that taking space from the green room would be unideal. Coach Anderson thinks that it could take away from his team’s indoor abilities when it is cold outside or rainy. Teams such as baseball and softball would also have to move some of their pins that are close to the wall in order to accommodate for the extra space in the weight room. Coach Anderson also stated the track team could benefit from a velocity barbell tracker as well, to measure how powerful his athletes can push the weight off the rack.

Photos by: Drew Pierce