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When Montcalm Community College launched its new exercise science degree this fall, the program gained immediate traction.

Dual enrollment in local high schools quickly emerged as a cornerstone of the initiative, allowing students to earn college credit while building athletic performance and training skills before graduation.

With strength and conditioning classes already established in area high schools and qualified instructors in place, expanding those courses into college-level sections through MCC proved to be a natural next step.

“High school students are packing the weight room if they have a robust strength and conditioning program,” said MCC Dean of Health and Human Services Tracy Zamarron. “Most of the schools around here are getting there, the word is really getting out that it’s fun and feels good to work out, and that their bodies can make positive changes through appropriate and consistent exercise.”

To help realize the dual enrollment aspect of the program, Rick Court, the Coordinator of Athletic Strength and Performance at Greenville High School, and Joel Madsen, a longtime athletic performance instructor at Belding High School, were brought on board prior to the start of the fall semester. They have each been teaching one section of dual enrollment strength and conditioning at their high schools and have seen encouraging results.

The dual enrollment sections involve an online lecture and assignments from MCC Exercise Science and Biology Instructor Dr. Alex Montoye. The added lab component is done through the students’ high school weight rooms.

Greenville’s section has five students and Court, a former NCAA Division I strength trainer, says the results are positive.

“The biggest difference is they have weekly assignments that they need to complete, and some of those assignments focus on time and agility, getting an understanding of different energy systems,” Court said. “They calculate metrics like max heart rate and VO₂ max — topics rarely covered in high school.”

Students are tasked with specific workouts of focus or areas of the body to work on during the lab portion. Court also mentioned they are challenged to think about how to curate a workout plan for people of different ages and varying levels of activity and athleticism.

At its core, the dual enrollment class gets more into the “why” element of the workouts and what benefits it has on the body.

“There’s a little bit more critical thinking involved because they have to put pen to paper to answer questions about why we’re doing what we’re doing,” Court said.

Madsen, who is in his 30th year at Belding High School, where he’s spent 25 years coaching various levels of track and football, leads a class of 11 in his dual enrollment section. He was happy to be involved in the process of creating the content for the dual enrollment section, which can vary in the early stages of the class.

“Normally, we stick to our schedule, but on certain days, I’ll change it to what the MCC class is doing if I think it would be beneficial,” Madsen said. “And my students love that; it’s a great recruiting tool.”

Madsen has seen the most enthusiasm from the competitive nature of some of the assignments in the classes, which has helped to grow interest among students who are not currently enrolled in the class.

“Dr. Montoye did a unit on agility and testing where the kids set up some cone drills and timed them,” Madsen said. “They had to test their vertical jump and their grip strength. I had everybody do those tests and the kids love to compete when the watch is going. Some other kids that weren’t in the class have shown a lot of interest in the class just because of what we’re learning and how we’re teaching it.”

Both Court and Madsen praised the partnership with MCC, highlighting in particular the expertise and depth of knowledge Dr. Montoye brings to the collaboration.

“He’s extremely smart and he’s extremely passionate about what he does — I think that rubs off on me,” Court said. “Anytime he and I collaborate, it’s very beneficial.”

“I think it makes me a better teacher for the rest of my kids because of this partnership,” Madsen added. “It made me look at myself and what I’m doing and how I can be better.”

Simultaneously, the dual enrollment partnership has been a benefit for Dr. Montoye and MCC.

“Our dual enrollment instructors reach so many students with really good information about how to be active,” Dr. Montoye added. “I think getting access to some of those students and providing education on why we do these things and what they do to the body has been an important piece. That plays a big role in having a healthy community, assuming many of these students stay or come back to this community.”

Dr. Montoye and Zamarron hope to expand dual enrollment opportunities by forming additional partnerships with area high schools in the future. Court and Madsen agreed that any local school with an established strength and conditioning program could benefit significantly from such a collaboration.

“These are seniors who will be freshmen and they’re learning how important strength training is in life,” Court said. “I hope they learn what they should or could be doing with their training at certain ages and stages of their life. I’m hoping they see this as something to keep part of their life and how important physical activity and physical training is. This is another avenue of emphasis, and I think that’s why this’ll start being incorporated into the other area schools.”

“I would strongly recommend it to other area schools,” Madsen added. “MCC has some special things going on, they’re really growing. Alex and Tracy are both passionate about what they do; if I recommend that someone go and talk to them about it, their passion would sell you on it if you were on the fence. It’s a growing field and there's growing number of high-paying jobs in this professional realm.”