Redmond High School’s strength and conditioning program has been named a program of excellence by the National High School Strength Coaches Association.

The program began about five or six years ago, said Redmond gym teacher Tim Peterson, its head coach since 2020. Since his arrival, the program has grown dramatically and Peterson, who teaches throughout the year, has 30 to 50 students per class.

Peterson’s program is open to students in all sports and students who aren’t in sports at all. His goal is to teach them how to work out and leave them comfortable enough with the process that they can keep themselves fit, Peterson said.

Peterson has taught students who have had negative experiences with physical education classes. Three or four weeks into his class, those students felt a huge boost of confidence, he said.

“It lights a fire. And I’ve got some of those students who return year after year and semester after semester, and I know that they’re going to go on and keep working out for the rest of their life, and that’s my number one goal,” he said.

Peterson, along with his assistant coach Brent Wasche, put a lot of work and approximately $40,000 worth of grant money into making the program as comprehensive as it can be, considering the constraints he’s working under compared to professional programs. High schools have strict bell schedules, so workouts aren’t as long as they could be, and it’s impossible to get an entire sports team into one class.

The National High School Strength Coaches Association was founded in 2016 to focus on educating and empowering high school coaches so their strength and conditioning programs can improve the lives of their student athletes.

Redmond’s program is divided into three levels: an introductory strength and conditioning class, an intermediate class and an advanced class. Peterson works with students from a range of academic backgrounds and levels of fitness.

The intro class mainly has freshman students and focuses on proper lifting techniques. The intermediate class moves into more advanced conditioning and lifting, while the advanced class works on athletic performance. The Redmond High program was evaluated by the association in six areas to ensure that it operated at a high degree of professionalism. Peterson and Wasche sent videos of their students working out and of themselves answering questions about their work as part of their application.

The weight room is well-equipped and can efficiently accommodate 50 students at once, Peterson said. It has two full sets of dumbbells and 13 exercise racks. Around 75 kettlebells rest on a shelf. The room boasts barbells, pullup bars, medicine slam balls, a trap bar and more.

Mostly, his students perform time-based workouts, Peterson said. If students work on a series of lifts in groups, then they can rotate between exercises easily.

The room also contains three different sizes of boxes for jumping. They were built by the high school’s wood shop students.

“The Redmond High School administration were athletes,” said Peterson. “They see the value, and are willing to invest in sections. The award shows recognition of what we’re doing and validates what we’re doing day in and day out.”

As a teenager, Peterson worked at summer camps and biked, swam and ran in his spare time. His uncle suggested he become a physical education teacher.

Peterson took his advice, and said, “I’m on a set path for the rest of my life.”

This is Peterson’s 17th year teaching, and he’s known students to go into power lifting and the military, where prior experience in conditioning makes basic training easy, he said. At one point, one of his students set the record on the Army physical fitness test.

This upcoming summer, Peterson will host a program for a few hours each morning so students and athletes can stay in shape by training with weights when they’re not in school.

“I want students to have confidence and a positive self-image,” he said.

Redmond High School will receive a banner for the weight room and the gym, and the strength and conditioning program will be recognized at the association’s national conference at the end of June, which Peterson will attend.

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