Since last school year, students have had access to a weight room where they can work to build their physical prowess through workouts supervised by Head Strength and Conditioning Coach Nick Hryekewicz.

While the main patrons of the weight room are student athletes, a few non-affiliated students frequent it and the facility is also available for faculty and staff to use during the day—2-5 of which use it consistently.

Winter D. ’29 enjoys the intense focus the weight room provides him every Monday and Wednesday. “At first I went to weight room to fill the P.E. requirement, but it’s evolved into a therapeutic space for me,” Winter said. “Once you hit the right level of weight, it’s like you can focus on nothing but the physical aspect of it.”

David O. ’28 has similarly noticed how weight training develops his focus. “I like lifting, I think it’s good for self improvement. It helps me build focus and is just fun in general!” David said.

For student athletes, the weight room strengthens muscles their sport doesn’t use, helping them get a leg up in competition.

“If you can just get 5 % better or 5%stronger before the start of your competitions, you’re going to be in a much better place than your competition. Someone that may have been tough to compete against the previous season now probably won’t stand a chance when you come back a little bit stronger,” Hryekewicz said.

Hryekewicz noted that Nueva cross country and track athletes frequent the weight room the most on and off season. This fall, cross country runners weight train every Tuesday and Thursday, using it as a time to cross train and further connect with their team.

“I like the really big sense of community, a lot of the stuff that we do is really challenging, but we’re forced to do it together which makes it a lot more bearable,” runner Neela P. ’29 said.

Cross country girls co-captain Lila P. ’26 echoed this sentiment. “Nick always explains the workouts and makes them very positive and clear. If you know how to do it you can know how to make yourself stronger and it’s just fun to be with the team and do the workouts together,” Lila said.

Whether for student athletes or non-athletes, the weight room provides students a space to work together to build focus and strength.