New HHS Personal Fitness Course Meets Student Interests

Huntington High School’s new Personal Fitness course launched last month and its appears to be well on its way to meeting the needs and interests of the students who enrolled in it for the fall semester.

Five sections of the course are taught daily by Alex Nelson with a sixth section being taught by Eric Mininni. The new course was approved by the Huntington School Board during the previous school year after earlier being given a green light by the district’s physical education subject matter council as well as the Educational Development Committee.

“This course is designed to improve the personal fitness level of participants through anaerobic and aerobic conditioning exercises utilizing the fitness room, rig room and weight room as well as outdoor facilities,” reads the course description. “Students will learn how to create and follow through with workout plans for a variety of goals that meet their personal needs and interests. Nutrition, principles of fitness, anatomy and a variety of training methods will be explored. Students will be empowered to train and monitor themselves after school, on weekends and during vacation periods.”

The course utilizes the new weight and cardio room as well as the rig room, fitness room, main gym and outdoor facilities. The department strives to keep class sizes to about 25 students to insure full participation throughout each period.

Mr. Nelson has been a Huntington physical education teacher since September 2017. A graduate of Smithtown High School East, he obtained his undergraduate degree at Adelphi University, where he dual majored in physical education and accounting. He earned a master’s degree in coaching and exercise science at Concordia University Irvine in California.

Licensed by Eastern New York Youth Soccer as a professional soccer trainer working for Long Island Professional Soccer, Mr. Nelson has coached middle school and JV soccer and middle school basketball and is the founding coach of Huntington varsity boys’ and girls’ badminton teams. He trains travel soccer teams for the Long Island Junior Soccer League.

Mr. Mininni has been a Huntington physical education teacher since September 1998. A graduate of Oceanside High School, he obtained an undergraduate degree at Towson State University in athletic training and physical education and a master’s degree at Adelphi University in health. He has coached middle school, junior varsity and varsity boys’ and girls’ volleyball, varsity softball, middle school boys’ track and field, junior varsity girls’ tennis and middle school boys’ tennis.