Wright College Offers Open Gym Hours for all Students

By: Arielle Canchola

Every Monday through Thursday, the Athletic Department hosts open gym hours for all students from 12 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. 

Basketball is organized on one half of the court while volleyball and soccer alternate throughout the week on the second half of the court. Mondays and Wednesdays are focused on volleyball, while Tuesdays and Thursdays are soccer.

Brian McKinney supervises the open gym throughout his ongoing three-year tenure with Wright’s Athletic Department. The gym is closed off to students on Fridays due to falling outside of McKinney's availability. 

When McKinney first joined as Wright's weight room attendant in 2022, it made sense that he would be the one to oversee open gym due to the hours and also because of the flexibility within his job description.

Having an open gym available to students offers them the opportunity to fit important aspects into their busy schedules, such as physical activity, socializing and mental health, etc.

“I was a college student a while back. I know this is beneficial to them. It’s relaxing to me just watching, as long as everything goes smooth,” McKinney said.

A first-year student, Armando Delgado attends open gym every Tuesday and Thursday to play soccer with the same students who join him every week.

While one of Delgado’s main reasons for attending open gym is to socialize and make friends, he said, “It’s more exercise but I think they(other students) use it more to relieve stress in classes after long hours.”

McKinney said an open gym allows students to “just come in and escape from class, play a little ball, get a little exercise, some physical activity, socialize.”

While there are plenty of benefits to having an open gym available on campus, there are a few opposing concerns that are included. One of the larger issues that McKinney recognizes is students attending open gym when they should instead be in class.

“We don’t want students to hear the basketball dribbling and decide to skip class and come here instead. That’s the only downside that I can really see. Having students using this to skip class. And it has happened,” McKinney said.

McKinney is not the only one with this particular concern. Derrick Robinson, a second-year student, visits open gym hours sometimes twice a week where he looks forward to the basketball and volleyball set ups.

“I know some people would skip class to come to open gym so, if there’s any issue it would be that,” Robinson said.

He raised an additional point that people are competitive and “are going to get rowdy.” Neither of Robinson’s cons toward open gym are enough to have him change anything about the student experience, just that everyone remains “respectful”.

Delgado said if he could change anything about open gym, he would want soccer to be offered “more than just Tuesdays and Thursdays,” similar to the basketball setup.

If students have any suggestions for what they want during open gym hours, Athletic Director Gabriel Billings wants students to feel welcomed in reaching out to him or McKinney to express them.

Brian McKinney spends time with a student who regularly visits open gym hours on March 20. Photo Credit: Arielle Canchola

Billings said that the department is “always, always open.” While he has no current plans to change anything, Billings does want to explore the idea of “expanding some intramurals” into something more organized, such as a basketball tournament.

The students are just as aware of the benefits provided to them through an open gym as McKinney and Billings are. So much so that it doesn’t sound like Wright’s open gym is going anywhere anytime soon.

The plans in store seem like just the beginning of diversifying its options to reach an even larger group of students.