As sophomore Anastasia Armbrecht evaluates her experience in the fitness elective new moves last semester, she said the calm atmosphere relieved her stress and created a sense of community among the students involved.

“(New moves was) just like a gym class, and it was kind of chill,” Armbrecht said. “We did a lot of dancing, swimming (and) yoga. (I loved) being with that whole group of people. It was a nice group of people (and) family.”

According to physical education teacher Rich Keith, new moves includes female varsity athletes, as well as female sophomore, junior and senior students that want  to live a healthy lifestyle.

“We have the all-female option, which is new moves, which is setup to accommodate either a non-traditional student or to put them in a least restrictive environment where they don’t have to worry about mixed-gender classes and the stereotypes associated with some of that,” Keith said. “It fits the student’s needs.”

Keith said in addition to new moves, Park offers a recreational sports class, a fitness elective designed for sophomores and juniors.

“It says rec sports, so we do some team activities, (and) we do some individual activities. Some of the individual team sports may be Frisbee golf (or) croquet,” Keith said. “We do some group activities as well, obviously depending on the clientele of the student body, which determines where we go with it.”

Sophomore Morganna Oberdorfer said the description of new moves sparked her interest.

“(I) saw the description of (new moves), and it just sounded really fun, like a nice (and) easy class that would also not just be a study hall,” Oberdorfer said. “It was just an easy class where you didn’t have to do much.”

Keith said the fitness courses available to students include team sports as well, a course that mirrors new moves with a competitive twist.

(Team Sports is) not designed to be an all-male class, but it ends up being an all-male class, which is the mirror class to the new moves,” Keith said. “I really become a (recreational) director in the sense that we’re setting up tournaments. I’m doing brackets, and team-type things like that.”

Oberdorfer said the group exercises in new moves allowed her to meet different students within the high school.

“We did a lot of group activities too, so sometimes we played kickball, and also sometimes when it was nice outside, (Knutson) took us for walks and we went to parks,” Oberdorfer said.

Keith said his goal remains to keep the students in the courses active and contented with the activities.

“These electives are set up for kids that want to continue an active lifestyle and it becomes more of a class setting,” Keith said. “When I’m running the (fitness electives), I run it in such a manner that, in a sense, I’m a glorified (recreational) director. I set up, and I do the things that the kids want to do to keep everybody happy.”