Beginning this basketball season, bragging rights at Knoxville High School in Iowa take shape before a final score is posted on the scoreboard — in fact, before fans even reach the gym. That’s because visitors entering the building through a new activities corridor pass by the school’s brand new weight room, visible to their left through roughly 70 feet of windows.
“It’s really strategically placed to get a lot of eyeballs on it,” says Ryan Paulsen, who’s in his fifth year as activities director at Knoxville Community Schools. “That was all part of the thinking and what we wanted to get at. Let's make sure that it looks the part when people walk by, especially kids from other schools: ‘Whoa, look at that weight room!’ Parents are like, ‘Wow, that weight room is awesome!’ ”
There’s plenty of “whoa” and “wow” factor within the 2,750-square-foot facility, which is actually part of a $28 million middle school that was adjoined to the high school earlier this year. The weight room represents an expansion of the high school’s previous space (now storage) by nearly 1,000 square feet, with the Knoxville Panthers brand prominent on pieces of Matrix and Xult Fitness equipment — from Olympic racks and flush-mounted platforms to individual dumbbells.
“Let’s get a lot of branding in there and let’s put our primary marks in some really good spots, whether it be on the racks or the wall, on the dumbbells or the plates themselves,” Paulsen says, recalling the design process. “That was really important to us to put our mark, our school branding on those pieces just so that we could further make a splash with this brand-new space.”
Backing up the style is plenty of substance. Two of the 10 total racks accommodate two lat pulldown machines each, while others feature adjustable cable systems for biceps and triceps work. Moreover, certain aspects of the racks, such as pullup bars and handgrips, as well as storage capabilities, have been customized to meet Knoxville’s specific needs. Cardio and functional fitness pieces — including treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, rowing machines, plyo boxes, stability balls and medicine balls — complement the weight training offerings.
Just as the room was strategically located, every piece within it was chosen and positioned for maximum efficiency by Des Moines-based Matrix distributor Johnson Commercial Fitness, whose vision was vetted by three experts Paulsen and his team had consulted regarding the project. The space accommodates 30-plus students during each of four separate daily strength-and-conditioning classes as part of Knoxville’s physical education curriculum. “The overall layout of the room really lends itself well to a lot of kids being able to get a lot of work done and not have to stand around and wait,” says Paulsen, who envisions easily accommodating 50 football players next fall.
The goal all along, according to Paulsen, was to create a facility capable of training “the 21st century athlete,” and in that sense, the space meets every expectation. “We are very pleased with everything about this — the design, the layout, the equipment, the space, the functionality, the look of it,” he says. “We absolutely love everything.”
As it turns out, today’s teens — able to easily follow the one upmanship of pro and collegiate weight room design on social media — are pretty sophisticated fitness consumers themselves. The new Knoxville facility passes their muster, too.
“They love it,” Paulsen says. “They understand that the community made a big investment in this new middle school, in this new weight room. We have kids who are ultra-competitive, who want to win and have aspirations of playing college athletics. They want to train in first-class facilities with awesome equipment, because they want every advantage to be successful and win. And this weight room truly does that. It gives us a great advantage.”
