Hope Sickels

Pleasant Valley’s weightlifting room, athletes are constantly working hard and putting in the effort to improve.

After a hard workout, it’s important to replenish one’s body with proteins and other healthy foods. Pleasant Valley High school notices that and therefore started a trend. After weightlifting, for the advanced classes which are early bird and 1st period, students were encouraged to go to the Spartan Commons and quickly grab a milk. But it only lasted as long as the fund money did.

The school was funded a certain amount of money to allow each weightlifter one milk but recently the funds ran out. Coach Ryan Arnold explained that many students made use of the option and since that’s the case he said, “Currently I’m working on getting other donors to participate in this fueling program because of the need for recovery and proper fueling after the workout.”

The intent was to give students easy access to a free refreshing milk and the coaches would encourage them to make use of the beneficial opportunity. Many kids appreciated the option, but the school stopped offering the free milk. Luke Peters is a senior and has been involved in the weight lifting program since freshman year. “I’m upset,” he said, “that was the only thing I had to look forward to.” Since the weightlifters are encouraged to push themselves and work hard, knowing that a cold chocolate milk was waiting for them afterwards gave them all something to look forward to.

Senior, Carter Hoskins takes part in the weight lifting program. After the school announced that they are discontinuing to offer a free milk he said, “It’s a little disappointing just because I kind of relied on that for recovery everyday after lifting, but I also need more than just a chocolate milk so not having it now forces me to look for an alternative or even healthier options.” Hoskins went on to say that he wasn’t too worried about it.

The weight lifting program knows how many athletes took advantage of this opportunity. Arnold is currently trying to figure out a way to continue the healthy trend that students started to love. “I hope so, the chocolate milk makes or breaks my day.” said Peters.