At Victor J. Andrew High School’s fitness and nutrition class, it’s not unusual to find football players in aprons, skinny kids pumping iron and students getting points taken off for consuming unhealthy food.
Students learn about what’s healthy and what’s not in the two-hour class. They eat their lunch in the classroom, where they sometimes also cook their meals. The other phase of the class involves working out in the weight room.
Sometimes they go on field trips, such as jogging to a nearby Jimmy John’s to eat or heading to Rudy’s Gym in Shorewood to learn how to properly weight lift. The class is a marriage of the Physical Education and Family and Consumer Sciences Department and has been a work in progress for 10 years.
Andrew football player Thomas Wilbur, right, finds the right spoon for the cooking portion of his Fitness and Nutrition class while Stu Landin looks on. (Jeff Vorva/Tribune)
“A lot of schools are offering classes like this. But we’ve been doing this a long time and think we have it down,” said Family and Consumer Sciences Chairwoman Natacia Campbell. “It took getting out and talking to coaches and getting the staff in place to be able to do things like running to Jimmy John’s. As the teachers change and the focus of the class changes, you have to have enough people to support the program. Not all staffs have the people to do what we’re asking our teachers to do.”
Rich Contaldi handles the fitness portion of the class in the gym. Tycee Sasso, Julie Ziel and Jen Knezz handle the classroom work.
Sophomore Lauren Beatty said taking the class makes her feel better.
“You learn about healthy food and at the end of the day you feel good,” she said.
“You don’t feel bad like you sometimes do when you don’t eat right.”
She said she isn’t a great cook but has fun trying to prepare meals in the classroom. Earlier this year, the class made a Mexican pizza consisting of low fat shredded cheese and whole-wheat tortillas.
Sophomore Matt Davi, who plays football, said he can cook “decently’’ and learned a few surprises in class.
“I always thought (the food at) Chipotle was bad for me but I actually learned that it’s good for you,” he said.
Both athletes and non-athletes take part in the class and Contaldi makes sure all their needs are met in the weight room.
“Hopefully we’re steering them all down the right path and getting them to like being physically fit,” he said.
