Itineris Early College High School just completed building a new gymnasium and PE teacher Lisa Hammond, who has been holding classes outdoors for 10 years, is thrilled to have the indoor space. 

“I am not going to have to be outside when the air quality is really bad, I can teach all winter long, and I can incorporate a lot more games,” she said. “We have had to be really creative with our limited space, and now I just have a lot more freedom with games. We’ve already played floor hockey, and the kids were totally excited about that. So that’s something we weren’t able to do before.”

For the past 10 years IECHS has not had a space for indoor PE classes, so Hammond has adapted PE classes to outdoor spaces by partitioning off small areas in the parking lot or having students walk to nearby parks.

Victor Saleido, a senior, said his sophomore PE class was simple.

“We’d go outside and go on a walk or play some small game,” he said.

PE classes were also previously only held during fall and spring.

“Fitness classes normally lasted about half the year, first quarter and final quarter, because the rest of the year had too bad of weather,” Tyler Needham, a senior, said.

Last year, when the school opened to ninth-graders, who required a full semester of PE instruction, Hammond organized a partnership with Gracie Barra Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

“We bused [students] to jiu jitsu and we did self-defense for half of each semester during the winter months,” Hammond said. 

Even during the spring and fall, weather complicated outdoor PE activities.

“We couldn’t do a lot of sports because sometimes there’s a lot of wind, so we can’t really play badminton,” Quyen Lam Nguyen, a senior, said. “So having a gym is really nice.”

The freestanding gymnasium, built by Stout Construction and AJC Architects, not only houses PE classes and additional classroom space, but it has become a gathering place for students during lunch and after school.

IECHS Principal Renée Edwards said the building became a priority when freshman and sophomore classes, both of which have required PE credits, grew quickly in size.

“With us doubling the size of those younger grades, it just wasn’t conducive to doing PE without a gym anymore,” Edwards said.

Hammond is excited to have the gymnasium and expand her PE program for her students.

“We had such a focus for so many years on our reading, math, science—which is important—but if kids don’t have their health, none of that is going to matter,” she said. “So finding a way where they love to move their body, finding ways to play, ways to recreate, to support their mental and physical health—that’s going to give them the longevity to reach their goals, to find their dreams and to live the life they want to live.”

To engage all types of students, Hammond focuses her classes more on recreation than sports. Students enjoy pickleball and volleyball but also nontraditional games such as spike ball, 9-square-in-the-air and even making up their own games. When playing sports, Hammond often adapts game rules, such as widening the goal area in soccer to make it less intimidating and more enjoyable for all students.

“My goal is for people to like moving,” she said. “And I think a lot of kids get a bad taste in their mouth with PE, feeling like they’re not good at a sport, and I never want that to be a reason for someone to not find a way to love moving their body.” λ