Southampton Intermediate School Unveils New Fitness Course

For years, up to and including her retirement just last year, Southampton Intermediate School physical education teacher Jayne Katz more or less pleaded with school administrators to get more play equipment for students.

It may have taken a little bit, but on Thursday, January 4, Katz’s years-long push finally came to fruition, as school administrators, teachers and students gathered at the new outdoor fitness course that was built at the intermediate school.

The new course features 12-14 climbing elements with a start and finish line. It combines a series of challenging physical obstacles that individual students or teams of students can take on. Additionally, it includes three levels of challenges and multiple options within each level. Following a training session of the new equipment, students will be able to use it during recess.

“My passion has always been nonstructured play for kids. I just don’t think they have enough of that,” said Katz, who was a teacher in the district for 25 years before retiring last year. “Everything that we did have was team-oriented and had some sort of rules to go along with it. For me, I just needed something that the kids could play on. I would go out to recess and see the kids playing on the football sled and think, someone is going to get hurt.

“But this new fitness course is a very, very cool piece of equipment,” she continued. “I am very thrilled the district put something like this out for the kids. It’s beautiful and I think it’ll be utilized. I think it’s still determined how it can be utilized, but I do think the kids will love it.”

Both Katz and Southampton Athletic Director Darren Phillips said that when the committee to create the fitness course first began to meet, one of the first things it did was check out something that the Bridgehampton School built on its campus. What Southampton built is a bit different, but had many of the same aspects.

“What they have over at Bridgehampton is more of a ‘ninja warrior’ type of setting,” Phillips said. “What I would call ours is a physically challenging playground. There are 13 to 14 different elements all built inside the course, and what’s great about it is you can run the entire course, or you can just work on certain elements.

“We figure this will be utilized mostly at recess, but this could also be used in PE class as well,” Phillips said. “Wherever you can challenge yourself. There are beginner, intermediate and advanced challenges that the kids can do. And the kids are excited to get on it. They wanted to get on it right away, but we decided to hold off until we come up with some ground rules for it first.”

Between the new basketball court at the intermediate school, a freshly paved blacktop and the Gaga pit that was installed recently, there are a bunch of alternatives for the intermediate students now, Phillips said.

“We wanted to make sure they had different opportunities to stay active,” he said. “That was what was most important.”