Mar 2, 2017Stronger Athletics
The Santa Cruz Valley (Ariz.) Unified School District is working to build a stronger athletic program. This includes a new “speed” room, a revamped athletic training facility, and year-round training for student-athletes.
“In our district, in our community, athletics is a very important part of what we do,” David Verdugo, Santa Cruz Valley Unified School District superintendent, said in a July 2015 meeting reported by Nogales International. “And my feeling is that, rather to just focus on one part of what we do, focus on everything and be the best at everything. Athletics to me is co-curricular, it’s not an extracurricular thing. It’s a co-curricular item.”
Along with providing a solid program for current student-athletes, the district’s intent is to bring in more students. In the last year and a half, this has included creating an athletic training room, upgrading the football field, retrofitting the baseball and softball field scoreboards, and finishing an exercise path that is open to the community.
Up next, a “speed” room will be created and an old locker room will be remodeled in order to serve as a full-sized athletic training room. “We’ll be one of the only schools for our size that has a speed area (for students to) work on the whole explosive part of athletics,” Verdugo told Nogales International.
In order to enhance a year-round program, the school district will offer summer camps and clinics. For its facilities, other future goals include updating the high school gym’s flooring and resurfacing the track.
