Former Buckeyes coach, lt. gov. talks fitness at Donnell

FINDLAY — The energy was palpable. It may have been early in the day, it may have been February, but students and adults alike left a Donnell Middle School assembly Tuesday morning more energized than they had entered it. The guest speaker was Ohio Lt. Gov. Jim Tressel, visiting the school to encourage students to improve their fitness as part of his Team Tressel Fitness Challenge. Tressel, former Ohio State University head football coach, told the students that about nine months ago, Gov. Mike DeWine had spoken with him about creating a program like this to encourage youths to become healthier. He emphasized that it is not a contest, or a race. The goal is to practice good form. "It's a challenge to become the best version of you that you can become," he said. He urged students to select an activity they enjoy doing, set goals and then raise those goals over time to keep challenging themselves. Tressel emphasized that this process involves discipline, along with cheering each other on. "We get excited for each other's success," he said. Throughout, Tressel talked about the importance of finding exercise that you like to do, building discipline, gradually setting higher goals for yourself, and supporting each other in achieving these goals. He led a group of student volunteers who demonstrated exercises. The student volunteers were clearly excited beforehand, holding up their "Team Tressel Fitness Challenge" signs for a photo before the assembly started. Many students and adults present were wearing OSU apparel. Throughout, Tressel appealed to students' pride in their school and community, repeatedly mentioning Donnell and Findlay by name and getting the Findlay City Schools mascot, Tommy Trojan, involved in leading the exercises. He went over the fundamentals of cardio, strength, stretching and balance, offering a demonstration of a couple of exercises for each. Donnell students took turns leading their fellow volunteers in the exercise demonstrations, and Tressel introduced each by their first name and encouraged all in attendance to cheer, as in, "How about a hand for Gracie?" after student Gracie Allen led others in jumping jacks. He said cardio could include jumping jacks, running in place or dancing, among other activities. At one point, a student led other students in dancing, Tressel dancing along with them. "Choose your activities, but just get the heart going," he said. He encouraged students to start small and then keep raising their goals. Maybe today you dance for just 20 seconds, but tomorrow you might raise it to 25 seconds, and then 30 the day after that. Strength exercises demonstrated included pushups and holding a plank. Next was stretching. To demonstrate balance, Tressel asked Donnell teachers to demonstrate tree pose and airplane pose. Ohio Director of Development Lydia Mihalik, former mayor of Findlay, joined this group, leading the other adults along with Donnell's assistant principal, Matt Harp. Several were laughing as they struggled to maintain their balance. But Tressel pointed out that, with balance exercises, you can literally lean on and support one another. "You might need your buddy," he said. "It's OK." Here, too, he said, it doesn't matter how skilled you are at doing the exercise, only "are you going to get a little bit better every day?" Tressel told the students that nutrition and good sleep are just as important as exercise. He encouraged them to put down their electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime. He said students who learn about nutrition might encourage their parents to read labels when grocery shopping. Since starting the fitness challenge, he said, his team has been hearing about youths encouraging the adults in their lives to develop healthier habits. He added that it's also important to take time to notice what you are grateful for, whether that be friends and family, or the opportunity to learn from teachers like those at Donnell. "Everything they do all day long is so that you can reach your potential," he said. Afterward, Tressel said he especially enjoys watching the students encourage and cheer for one another. "We hope that what the parents see is that they're excited about being active and doing something positive," he said. "And then the real thing I hope for is that they start feeling better," perhaps finding that once you start working out and feeling better, you find yourself wanting to do it more. "And then we hope it affects them in the classroom," he said. "We've already heard that it affects school behavior as a whole." He said he enjoys working with the students. Sometimes the student volunteers are a little quiet at first, he said, but not at Donnell. "This group, they were fired up and they were ready to go. ... You can see why it's a great school," he said. He said the fitness challenge was created with the goal, "We want to reach people where they are." If an individual can't run, or is in a wheelchair, the challenge will work to find ways to exercise and improve their health. "We wanted to create something that, you decide what you like, you set some goals," he said. "We want to work with you on having the discipline to keep getting a little bit better… We wanted to make it comprehensive. We wanted to make it all-inclusive. We didn't want anyone left out of the conversation." Asked about school funding, he said it has become apparent in his time as lieutenant governor that the state's needs are about 10 times the resources available. "I wish we could fund schools better … But there's a lot of things that I wish we could fund better," including roads, mental health and the foster care system, he said. "I think we're going to need to get creative, because I don't know that revenue's going to get easier. And so we're going to have to get creative about how can we most effectively use that revenue." He said everyone in Columbus is clear, however, that "Kids are our future." "We're going to have plenty to do," he said of the remainder of his, and DeWine's, time in office. "We have 335 days to go and we're going to fill every day." Tressel's own priorities also include working on higher education and workforce issues. He said DeWine and former Lt. Gov. Jon Husted worked to raise awareness of career and technical education opportunities in Ohio to the extent that there are now waiting lists for many of these programs. "On the other hand, we have hundreds and hundreds of jobs we need filled for college graduates, too," he said. "We don't have enough veterinarians. We don't have enough accountants. We don't have enough nurses. So, working across the entire continuum in education is what we're working on."