1 day Ago By Natalie Beneviat
Alumni who used North Allegheny’s rock climbing wall can relive some memories at an open house from 6 to 9 p.m. April 9 at Newman Stadium on the high school campus in McCandless.
The wall, built in the 1980s, is located underneath the homeside bleachers of the stadium on the high school campus, according to Randy Hart, who worked at the district for 38 years, retiring in 2008. The rock wall also was part of the North Allegheny Lifetime Activities student club, Hart said. “Lots of kids got in really good physical condition,” he said.
“It’s the challenge of doing something you didn’t think you could do. It’s a step-up process. When a kid starts on a climbing wall, they find they can do it.
” While the 25-foot-high wall has been modified and grown since its inception, it still is being used, Hart said. Each climbing wall is roughly 8 feet wide. The wall was partly funded by a $150,000 Title 3 grant the district received in 1975, Hart said.
The grant also funded other outdoor equipment for the North Allegheny Lifetime Activities Program, which featured cross-country skiing, rock climbing, fishing, biking, kayaking, canoeing and more. The program also focused on outdoor activities for students with special needs. The wall started as a rappelling deck in 1982.
The climbing segments were built starting in 1984 and continued to be added to throughout the early 2010s. Hart, who was a former technology education teacher, used his technical educational classes to help build parts of the wall, such as the hand-holds. Hart also wants to recognize local groups that supported the student activities program, including local Kiwanis clubs, the McCandless Rotary and North Hills Jaycees.
“They can see the fruit of their labor that is still here. That’s important,” Hart said. He will have photos and other memorabilia over the years on display during the open house.
Hart, now 73, fell in love with the outdoors and climbing from Boy Scouts. The NA Lifetime Activities Group was special to him and the community. “Every Saturday night, we used the pool at the high school to teach canoeing and kayaking to the community and children with special-needs kids,” he said.
He said it couldn’t have been done without the support of the district when it came to helping students. “North Allegheny was extremely helpful. For the entire 38 years of my career at North Allegheny, we were never told no,” he said.
The rock wall has been used in physical education class since it was constructed in the early 1980s as part of the senior year lifetime activities curriculum, said current senior high physical education teacher Lynn Roman. “To think that is how this wall came into existence — (it’s) great to see the climbing club coming back as an opportunity for our students,” Roman said. Muscular strength and endurance, flexibility and balance are the primary physical improvements the students will see over the course of their time climbing, she said.
“There are so many tremendous benefits our students get from their experience at the wall — physically, mentally and socially. The experiences are unlike any other unit we teach here at NASH,” Roman said. Students often are so determined to conquer the wall that the maximum effort they put forth catches them by surprise.
It’s rewarding to see students, who think they can’t do it, get to the top, Roman said. And while the extracurricular lifetime activities club has since stopped, Roman said some students are interested in starting a new rock climbing club under the supervision of health and physical education teacher Lucas Hook. “As an alumnus of North Allegheny (2011), the rock wall is a very fond physical education memory for myself and a lot of my friends that I graduated with.
I have NA friends who still ask me if the students get to rock climb, and they tell me stories of the fun times they remember having down at the wall. I believe the rock wall is a unique and beneficial physical activity experience that the students at NA get to enjoy,” Hook said. Hart said many individuals helped to get the initial climbing wall and lifetime activities program off the ground, including Carl Sinkula, assistant superintendent in 1975; Joe Drazenovich, athletic director in 1975; and Rick Williamson, a high school teacher who initially ran the lifetime activities.
Former student Eric Wanner eventually took over the program, later returning to North Allegheny as a teacher and wrestling coach. He has since retired. Now it’s handled by other physical education teachers.
In 1993, Hart was the U.S. World Cup climbing coach for the youth team and coach for the U.
S. climbing team that went to the International Federation of Sport Climbing World Cup in Leipzig, Germany. The six-member team consisted of competitors from the country, including two students from North Allegheny.
They used the wall at the stadium and one at Jewart’s Gymnastics in Hampton for regional competitions, Hart said. Hart, who lives in Zelienople, also was the 2024 recipient of the Pennsylvania Principals Association’s Service to Children Award..
