WGHS: New Auxiliary Gym Set to Open in Fall 2023

photo by Brayden Downey

Walnut Grove High school is looking forward to the 2023 -2024 school year improvements in organizing our athletics and health education programs in the new auxiliary gym, although it has caused controversy with parking issues among students.
by Brayden Downey and Jordan Wolff

The recent construction of a new auxiliary gym at Walnut Grove High School is underway. The student population of Walnut Grove is around 1400 students. Coach Abner, a PE/Health teacher, explains that with only one gym located in the basement, it can be quite difficult to get physical education worked into students' schedules who still need the class. 

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In addition to physical education, he says our new auxiliary gym will also hold a basketball court, a new weight room, and new classrooms for our physical education teachers and athletic coaches. Coach Abner explained, “Our new weight room is extremely valuable to our weight training program because it  will give us more space for our athletes to train and for the machines they may train on.”

He further states, “teams at younger age groups may no longer need to practice until 9 at night because we’ll have the ability to hold more practices at 1 time.” He states that he’s “looking forward to the new gym as it will decrease the level of organized chaos that he currently handles.”

Likewise, Ben Thurman, a student at Walnut Grove, is open-minded about the new gym as he mentioned,” it's kinda just there, not in the way. I can still park.” Ben believes that the gym construction has “actually been pretty quick.” Ben recalls, “it's got walls up already. Probably will be done soon.” When asked if he thought it was a good use of school resources, he stated, “I mean, yeah. What else would we use it for?” He talked about how there'll be more for students when the gym is done. Ben believes the issue with parking “is fine as long as students can park.”

On the contrary, Annaleigh Tullis, a student at Walnut Grove, thinks "it's alright, but it takes up more parking.” She further explained that she thinks the construction is taking too long. Furthermore, Annaleigh expounds on her opinion, “it wasn’t really a good use of resources. We already have one [gym]." When posed the question about parking, she explained that she didn’t like the walkway.

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​As we get closer to finishing the construction of the auxiliary gym, many students in fact seem supportive and interested in what next year will look like with the gym complete. Overall the outlook on the new gym seems divided here at Walnut Grove High School. 

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