By Sue Moore
Vicksburg High School’s strength and conditioning coach, Kurt Phelps, is using his $1,000 Bardeen Grant from the Vicksburg Community Schools Foundation, to take a week’s internship at the U.S. Naval Academy this summer.
Phelps will work with the Academy’s strength and conditioning coaches to learn how they teach and train students. He will observe new ways of doing things in the world of exercise and conditioning. The techniques of using muscles and how they work and get stronger are tops on his list to keep up on as they constantly evolve, he says.
Last summer, Phelps took his family to visit the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. They toured the training facilities and marveled at the kind and welcoming reception they received from the staff. That led to an inquiry about this summer and the possible internship.
He was invited back to train and work on new techniques, but he would need funding to stay there and make the trip, this time by himself, thus the Bardeen grant application.
Phelps has taught strength and conditioning in Vicksburg since 2002, when he was hired as the football coach. He is a graduate of Taylor University with a master’s degree from Western Michigan University in exercise science.
| Bardeen Requests 2014 | |||
| Grant Writer | Item Requests | Bardeen Requests | Award |
| Cara Brink | Nutrition Conference | 1,468.00 | 1,000.00 |
| Steve Fryling | Video Camera for WAY Program | 800.00 | 800.00 |
| Wendy Gebben | ipad, cover, shield and insurance | 1,056.00 | 600.00 |
| Patty Heintzelman | Orff Training | 1,500.00 | 600.00 |
| Katie Kay | Scientific iPad Probes | 2,856.00 | 2,856.00 |
| Pat Moreno | PLC Conference | 1,255.00 | 649.00 |
| Kurt Phelps | US Naval Academy Internship | 1,000.00 | 1,000.00 |
| Katie Smith | Android Tablets (2) | 2,694.00 | 900.00 |
| Allison Taylor/Terri Negri | Tech Conference | 1,146.00 | 1,146.00 |
| Leslie Trayers | iPads (3), covers, shields, insurance | 1,215.00 | 1,800.00 |
| Krista Wilson | Audio Books | 890.00 | 500.00 |
| Melissa Wilson/Marta Northam | iPad (1) cover, shield, insurance | 1,000.00 | 600.00 |
| April Zapata | Early Intervention Reading | 506.00 | 506.00 |
| Kathy Forsythe | PLC Conference | 649.00 | 649.00 |
| Total Requests | 18,035.00 | 13,606.00 | |