Rising expectations.

Byline: ANNE WILLIAMS The Register-Guard

THE WAY Jim Hart and Michelle White see it, rock climbing is an excellent sport for the wallflowers.

Just about anyone can do it - the heavy kids and the skinny kids, the natural athletes and the graceless students and the many kids in between. All it takes is a smidgen of courage to get going, and a little practice to really pay off.

And that, say this pair of Kelly Middle School teachers, makes their school's five-month-old climbing wall a perfect fit for a progressive P.E. program that emphasizes lifelong fitness over competitive team sports.

"The way we're trying to gear our program is to offer lifetime activities for the individual," said Hart, now in his 20th year at Kelly, off River Road in north Eugene. "These are activities that can be participated in in an enjoyable manner by people of all sizes, all ages and all abilities."

The plywood wall, which sports approximately 550 different colored hand-holds and textured gray paint with the look and feel of grainy rock, has quickly become a mainstay of Kelly's P.E. program. Measuring 21 feet high and 56 feet wide, it is believed to be the biggest climbing wall at any middle school in the state.

Students love it - that was obvious Friday during White's first-period girls' P.E. class. Wearing harnesses and soft-sided, purple climbing shoes, the girls took turns scaling the wall, a few of them donning blindfolds to intensify the challenge. Each worked with a partner, who stood at the base to "belay" - take up all the slack in the rope and prepare to arrest a fall (the ropes are attached to mechanisms that would lock them into place if necessary, but students are nonetheless taught how to break a fall).

The first few days of climbing were tough, several girls said - their muscles burned and their fingertips hurt so much it was hard to hold a pencil afterward. For some, it also meant conquering a fear of heights.

"But once you get used to it, it's really not that hard," eighth-grader Brittany Sterling said.

For seventh-grader Nida Stegner, it was only her second time back on the wall since a weekend field trip over Mother's Day weekend to Oregon's climbing mecca, Smith Rock near Redmond. She and Sterling were two of 25 kids who went, along with Hart, White and several other experienced adult climbers.

"I was going insane!" said Stegner, taking a break near the end of class. "I needed to climb. I can't live without it!"

While not every student is quite so enthusiastic, Hart and White say they've seen a lot of kids who typically hang back from team sports blossom on the wall. It's done wonders for their self-esteem and confidence.

"It's been really great to see some of these kids just take to it," said White, who is in her second year at Kelly. "Especially some of the heavier kids who tend to stand around a lot, many of them have just flourished."

While White and Hart are in lockstep when it comes to their philosophy and goals for Kelly's program, their own experiences with school P.E. were worlds apart. White was an avid athlete who loved team sports; Hart's skills didn't extend beyond track.

"I was the little scrawny kid," he said. "I was thrown into out-of-control wrestling and all these team sports."

Hart's unhappy memories were part of what motivated him to pursue a career in physical education and to be at the forefront of an emerging national trend sometimes dubbed "the new P.E."

Among district schools, Kelly has taken the lead in emphasizing "fitness for life." While team sports still dominate in many schools, at Kelly activities such as climbing, in-line skating and working out on the school's extensive collection of weight training and aerobic equipment take center stage.

The school has heart-rate monitors and interactive fitness software to help students track their progress and build individualized exercise programs.

The P.E. program also includes an academic unit, with textbooks, assignments and tests, that teaches kids about the science of fitness and nutrition.

Once out of school, few people continue playing football or baseball, Hart points out. But the skills, habits and knowledge students come away with at Kelly can extend well into adulthood.

"Basically what we see ourselves doing is planting the seed," he said.

That's not to say team sports have completely gone by the wayside at Kelly - students still play basketball, flag football, ultimate Frisbee, dodgeball and other sports. But they're a small part of the program, and Hart and White have modified some of the games to make them more accessible and less intimidating.

The P.E. program hasn't come without a price. Hart, and for the past two years White, have sought donations and discounts from community partners and spearheaded aggressive fund-raising drives to pay for equipment. The cost of the wall, along with all the climbing equipment and a security gate to separate the wall from the rest of the gymnasium, was about $19,000, Hart said. The money came from several sources, including student fund-raisers the last two years, a federally funded after-school program that uses the wall and a contribution from River Road Park & Recreation District.

Hart and White have grand plans - they'd like to extend the wall around the gymnasium, and hope to expand the overall P.E. program to include units in backpacking/hiking, kayaking and golf.

But the future doesn't look promising. As part of more than $5 million in districtwide cuts, White's hours will be reduced nearly by half next year, and there's a good chance she'll lose her job altogether because of her low seniority in the district.

While sixth-graders will get a few more hours of P.E. next year, seventh- and eighth-graders - for whom P.E. has long been a required course - will only be able to take it as an elective.

With no immediate hope of better funding, the district soon will apply for a $350,000 federal Physical Education Program grant that would enhance P.E. programs at all grade levels. For example, the grant would pay to build small climbing walls at every middle school, launch dance programs at all levels and create Kelly-like fitness centers - more sophisticated than simple weight rooms - at the four high schools.

Failing that, Hart said, the outlook is bleak. A combination of fewer resources and higher academic expectations from the state and federal government is forcing schools to choose between subjects such as reading and math vs. P.E. and music.

Inevitably, the latter lose out, Hart said - despite alarming national statistics about rising levels of childhood obesity and other medical problems that can be alleviated with regular physical activity.

"We're still fighting the image that P.E. is just game-playing," he said.

CAPTION(S):

Chelsea Casanova scales the climbing wall blindfolded, relying on her sense of touch and concentration to get the job done. The climbing unit is part of Kelly Middle School's approach to physical education, which de-emphasizes team sports and concentrates on getting kids healthy for life. BRIAN DAVIES / The Register-Guard