THE ECHO

by Jacob Vereb

As dumbbells and plates slam on the ground all around him, senior Rion Bolden lifts a barbell upon his shoulders. He plants his feet and begins to squat down. Suddenly, the tension in his legs moves down to his feet, and he explodes upwards. As he looks up, his face illuminates with a green light from the screen in front of him. Bolden has just set a new record for himself. 

With AHS’s new weight room features, like the Elite Form software on each squat rack, students are now able to see how they did during their sets. Bolden said that instant feedback helps to encourage athletes to push themselves. 

“We’re trying to get our numbers higher, and thinking in our brains ‘we have to beat this number’ is actually helping us get better on the field, on the court,” Bolden said. 

However, the data is only half of the story. The new APC curriculum, along with the variety of equipment, has improved players’ talents in their respective sports. As a member of the AHS Football Team, Bolden said that he had noticed his teammates’ performances have improved. 
“I noticed that as an offensive line as a whole, we were getting guys moving,” Bolden said. “I can definitely tell that it’s working for us.” 
This is not an uncommon sentiment among students and staff. Coach Chris Stevenson, an APC coach in his second year at AHS, shares the same opinion that student athletes are overall stronger and faster due to the new technology in the weight room.  

“When you add in Elite Form, you add another coach at every rack, so you’re getting coached on every single rep,” Stevenson said. 
Even though Stevenson has been at AHS for a considerably short period of time, he has already taken notice of how students that are involved in all kinds of sports have improved their abilities. 

“We’re stronger and faster than we were a year ago,” Stevenson said. “Data shows that, but it’s also showing up on the field.” 

Stevenson is one of two coaches who have joined AHS within the past couple of years; the other is coach Craig Ray.  Stevenson and Ray previously worked together at Mooresville High School, where they had helped design the weight room. When designing Avon’s, Stevenson said that they had more opportunities to implement the equipment that they wanted. 

“We designed this one around what we wish we would have gotten in our previous space,” Stevenson said. 

While the performance of the student-athletes is the focus of APC, the impact the coaches and their class have on the students extends beyond the field or the court. Ray said that the way that students act outside of games has changed. 

“There’s a noticeable difference as far as not just their strength and speed, but how they’re carrying themselves, what their body language is like, what their confidence is like,” Ray said. 

Ray said that the culture that students have developed along with the relationships with their coaches pushes students, such as Bolden, to work harder. 

“They were pushing us to extents that we’ve never been pushed before, and it’s good for us,” Bolden said. “We’re getting out of our comfort zone. We’re getting better.”