Camaraderie Meets Competition on the Preschool/Lower School Obstacle Course
by Kate Auger
2-minute read
The pressure is on, the clock is ticking, and there’s one chance, one track and one goal: Complete the Preschool/Lower School PE obstacle course as fast as you can. For fourth grade students, this means everything is a blur as they race to beat their previous times. Second graders are slowly getting the hang of it, but focusing mostly on precision. Kindergartners face the challenge of learning teamwork — someone has to reset the scooters and pass equipment to competitors.
But for PE teachers Eric Block, Courtney Hexter and Costen Irons, it isn’t a singular simple goal. While each teacher may describe the objectives of the obstacle course differently, they all agree: It teaches teamwork, camaraderie and measurable athletic growth.
Camaraderie includes the interchange of about 40 students — split into two groups — who take turns operating the whole show. When they aren’t running the course, they’re running the course. That includes monitoring runners for mistakes, organizing materials and cheering for classmates. There’s at least one student at each station resetting the foam balls, picking up the bowling pins or tidying up the hurdles.
“The people who help are just as important as the people on the course,” Block says. “And if you didn’t have the helpers, the course wouldn’t run.”
Things move at a fast pace, so it’s no surprise when the clock stops ticking and a call for time rings out. The gym day may be over, but the impact of the course is long-lasting. Upper Schooler Harper Vick ’27 still visits her former gym teachers to assist with the course, and when second grade teaching assistant Isabel Gutierrez ’17 comes to lead the Hinton Heroes back to their classroom, she smiles and reminisces on her own obstacle course days.
“It’s one of those core memories of the Lower School experience,” Hexter says. “It’s stood the test of time.”
The course might change year to year, but two things remain the same: “Ole Bessie” standing proud, and the spirit of the game. Bessie — a pommel horse who hails from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, according to the still-legible branding on her side — has stood the test of time for at least 30 years. She teaches students balance and precision as they launch themselves across, ready to make the large leap from her elevated side.
That athletic prowess translates to another lesson.
“When you practice things, you get better,” Irons says. “We will time them, and then they’ll practice for a couple of days, and then [we’ll] time them again. And if you focus on that process, over time, when you stick to things, practice things, you will perform better.”
For the athletes, that practice comes over the week or so that the obstacle course is set up. Every run is meant to improve upon the last. Increased accuracy, more speed. After the fourth graders have run the course repeatedly, they take one day for a timed race — and when they return for their next PE class, they aim to speed through, refine their form and set new personal records.
Whether it’s the camaraderie among students, the joy of former students returning to help, or the simple thrill of balancing on a beam, the obstacle course continues to be a defining moment in the experience of Preschool and Lower School students — one they carry long after crossing the finish line.
From left to right: Eric Block, Courtney Hexter and Costen Irons