Olympian Brings Fitness to SOMS

Joetta Clark Diggs is a four-time Olympian, author and businesswoman and runs her own charitable foundation.

She's also a local girl.

Clark Diggs grew up in South Orange, attending South Orange Middle School and Columbia High School, before heading off to the University of Tennessee and Olympic fame (her is also an Olympian and her brother Joe Clark Jr. was their coach).

Now Clark Diggs, through the Joetta Clark Diggs Sports Foundation, Inc., has teamed up with UnitedHealthcare to give back to her home town with a free, fun and productive fitness program. Over the last several weeks, students at South Orange Middle School have been enjoying the Head 2 Toe Fitness program — developed by the Joetta Clark Diggs Sports Foundation to introduce nutrition, fitness and life skills training to students.

“As someone who takes pride in my health, we are very fortunate to have the Head 2 Toe Fitness program and the program is even more special because it is coming from or very own Joetta," said SOMS legend and physical education teacher Johanna Wright (Wright taught Clark Diggs when she was at South Orange Middle School — then South Orange Junior High School).

"We also appreciative UnitedHealthcare for making the community better by bring quality programs to our children,” said Wright.

“By partnering with UnitedHealthcare, we are in a position to send a message that there are healthy alternatives to achieve a fit body, starting with our youth and extending to the families and communities,” stated Clark Diggs. 

Patch was on hand for the last installment of Head 2 Toe at SOMS on November 15. Students were drilled on fitness and anatomy questions, then put through a warm-up, followed by some relays and another educational component. Head 2 Toe also provided students with bags, t-shirts, stopwatches and other goodies to enhance the experience and help them carry the life lessons of the program well beyond its last day.

Sixth grader David Hill spoke for many of the students when he told Patch, "I really like this program. It's really fun and Joetta Clark Diggs is a real professional runner. It's cool to have her as our coach."