St. Luke’s Helping Condition Young Athletes in Safe, Novel “Fitness Center”

During the winter months, skaters at the Municipal Ice Rink in Bethlehem race, glide and twirl around the frozen oval, unmasked, close together and unconcerned about getting ill.

But since mid-June, this massive concrete-floored hall, with open sides and a high steel roof, has been transformed by St. Luke’s University Health Network into a vast, well-ventilated fitness center. Here sweating and panting young athletes from across the Lehigh Valley region are invited to train safely for their upcoming fall sports.

For the next six weeks, the 17,000-square-foot facility will host a bevy of pre-teen and teenage boys and girls—all keeping physically separated at marked workout stations. They will hoist barbells and kettle bells, do calisthenics, stretch muscles, bend and pump to a soundtrack of loud, up-tempo music while preparing for their school’s football, soccer and basketball seasons. Speed and agility drills take place at a nearby tennis court.

This rink repurposing was the brainchild of Bobby McClarin, St. Luke’s Community Ambassador and Sports Performance Coach in the Sports Medicine Relationships division. The idea came to him in early May as he pondered the plight of kids who might have to miss training because of the restrictions and risks from the COVID-19 crisis.

“I thought, ‘We need to do something for these kids to get them in shape in a safe setting,’” says McClarin, a former linebacker for the US Naval Academy football team. High schools haven’t yet announced their plans for sports training or competition, he adds.

He proposed his vision for a COVID-clear strength and conditioning facility at the rink to City of Bethlehem and St. Luke’s officials, who both jumped at the idea.

“St. Luke’s focus is committed to keeping our community healthy, and this program is a great way to help meet that need,” McClarin says.

Between 20-80 athletes can train there at a time, coming from a variety of middle and high schools from Bethlehem, Allentown, Easton, Northampton and Nazareth.

Collegiate athletes and high school grads transitioning to college sports are coming here to work out, too.

The rink is leased from the City by St. Luke’s through funding provided by the Department of Orthopedics and Sports Performance. Freedom High’s Strength and Conditioning Coach Imad Azar and McClarin lead the sessions, with assistance from Liberty’s Strength and Conditioning Coach Adam Sankovsky and Coach Roberto Diez.

Azar says this facility gives student-athletes “a huge opportunity to be in good shape before their schools start formal team workouts.” Freedom Athletics held four sessions on a recent Monday consisting of 180 student athletes in total. “This is a credit to the relationship and rapport that Coach Azar has built with coaches, staff and student-athletes alike,” says McClarin.

Each time they arrive, the kids’ temperature is taken with a digital forehead thermometer, and they are asked about exposure or symptoms of the coronavirus. Antiseptic cloths are used to wipe down the equipment after each exercise or drill, and participants are reminded often to pump out and apply hand sanitizer.

The makeshift facility is a win-win adds McClarin: “The kids love it, and parents love it,” and he has received many “sincere thank-yous” already for this unexpected and safe service.

Come the cold weather, the skaters may return to frolic on the frozen ring in Bethlehem, masked or not. Meanwhile, St. Luke’s is helping build young bodies into stronger, leaner and faster athletes in the safety of this unusual and healthy setting.

To learn more and register for training, visit: https://go.activecalendar.com/sluhn/event/bethlehem-ice-rink-sports-performance-training/

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Media Contact:

Sam Kennedy, Corporate Communications Director, 484-526-4134, samuel.kennedy@sluhn.org

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 15,000 employees providing services at 11 hospitals and 300 outpatient sites. With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke's is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke's created the Lehigh Valley's first and only regional medical school campus. It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 34 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 263 residents and fellows. St. Luke's is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system with Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital. In 2019, three of IBM Watson Health's 100 Top Hospitals were St. Luke's hospitals. St. Luke's University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health seven times total and five years in a row. St. Luke's has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program. Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN's information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. St. Luke's is also recognized as one of the state's lowest cost providers.

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