Former Body Builder Helping WHS Physical Education Program Gain Attention

The physical education staff at Windham High School has been offering a revolutionary curriculum that gives students the tools for good fitness and nutrition habits as they move on to college or into the workforce.

A lot of the credit goes to teacher Brian Fillion who teaches Human Performance in the Human Performance and Wellness Program.

“Whatever this country is doing about good health isn’t working,” Fillion said. “One-third of American adults are obese.”

A former body builder, Fillion teaches advanced sports nutrition, weight training and personal fitness classes at the high school. The programs are designed to provide students with lifelong wellness knowledge and to promote the physical fitness skills needed to develop and maintain a healthy lifestyle beyond high school.

In order to meet graduation requirements, all students are required to take Human Performance I freshman year and Human Performance II sophomore year. 

“In high school, a lot of kids might play sports and they keep active,” Fillion said. “But when they go to college they might not play a sport. This gives them the knowledge and skills to create their own individual program of exercise much like adults do.”

The Human Performance I course provides an opportunity for each student to assess his/her fitness level and formulate a personal fitness program.  The school offers a both weight room and cardio room for exercise.

Human Performance II provides an opportunity for students to continue their personal development in various fitness components, including cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, and body composition.  Basic nutrition is also taught to support a healthy lifestyle.

Windham High students are required to have 1.5 physical education credits for graduation and Human Performance I and II add up to one credit. Over the next two years, students can take a course that is of particular interest to them such as personal cardio fitness (that includes activities such as power walking, low impact and step aerobics, tae bo, jazzercise, yoga, Pilates and tai chi), or Advanced Sports and Nutrition for an additional half credit.

“The key is to find something that works to set up life-long fitness goals,” Fillion said.

Windham High senior Alex Khoury said Fillion’s experience in the weight room has been very useful. Khoury is taking Advanced Sports and Nutrition as an elective and said the course also has 20 minutes of classroom time to learn about nutrition.

Khoury is headed to Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., in the fall to study sports medicine.

“Brian has done amazing work since joining us four years ago,” Principal Tom Murphy said. 

“We have been visited by other schools that are interested in running our HP program, and, most recently, Lebanon has received approval to change their program to ours.”

Murphy said both parents and students comment on how impressed they are with the offerings and the way WHS approaches physical fitness.  

“More students are engaged in the learning as it is based on individual goals and outcomes and we are seeing the older grade levels that have gone through the program being more physically active in the weight room and cardio room,” Murphy said.  “One parent, Ross Arnold, just commented on how great the program is and on the benefits he has seen his own children receive.”

Murphy said when the program was designed in 2008, WHS researched the best practices and expected outcomes.

“We had the advantage of designing the program from the ground up and then were able to hire the current Human Performance and Wellness department staff with our philosophy and expectations in mind,” Murphy said.