Greetings parents and students and welcome back to school!
We are so excited in the PE department to see all of the Castle Pines students' familiar faces and smiles again, while welcoming all of the new ones as well. Fortunately, we are returning to CP in August after having to bear the weather of the 2nd trimester here last year.
Coaches Corner-
Mr. Hand-This will be my 8th year at American Academy, and I enjoy it more each year it seems. I have coached every sport we offer, and was the Athletic Director at CP one year, and MB the following year. I love seeing student-athletes accomplish something challenging, and this course is designed to hopefully spark their interest in either a sport or another type of healthy exercise. Finding something active that they really enjoy is paramount. I play a lot of golf and basketball in my spare time, and love all things active in the mountains. This year I will be the assistant Cross Country coach at MB, and be their head Boys Basketball coach as well. The CP middle school students are such a fantastic group, and I am really looking forward to all the fun we will be having in PE this Fall!
Mrs. Hanchett: As the mother of four active boys, I found some of my most rewarding experiences with them were when I coached their sports teams. I loved watching each team evolve from a random group of kids to one unified in purpose to growth. By practicing skills and good sportsmanship they discovered confidence by gaining pride in themselves and our team. After coaching middle school basketball and volleyball at American Academy for three years, I was invited to join as a teacher. This was an absolute blessing, and I've enjoyed transferring my coaching skills to the classroom. I look forward to another year teaching and coaching this great group of students.
Check out the updates below to see what we are doing each week. As always, please let either of us know if you have any questions or need anything. Thank you so much, and it is great to be back to school at Castle Pines!
08/18/25-08/22/25
Coach Hand and Coach Hanchett
Pre-Assessments and FitnessGram
After a quick welcome back, orientation and syllabus presentation, students are fully immersed in pre-assessments in the coming week. To become more consistent and to be able to analyze data even more thoroughly this year, we are using FitnessGram (a national and standardized PE website) to conduct all of our pre and post assessments. Assessments include a mile run, the pacer test, jump rope, the push-up test, and the plank test which measures core strength. Each student's results and data will be available for review by students and parents alike.
8/25/25-9/5/25
Coach Hand
Ultimate Frisbee and Handball
Handball-How fitting it is that Mr. Hand's PE classes start the year off with Handball? This Team Sport is extremely popular in Eastern Europe and is actually a Summer Olympic Sport believe it or not. Students will continue to develop their throwing, catching, and accurate/timely passing. Of course we have tweaked the rules a bit to perfectly accommodate our needs and space. This was voted by the students of middle school CP PE the unit/sport they looked forward to the most this fall.
Ultimate Frisbee is another alternative sport that has really gained popularity across the country, especially across university quads in college towns all over America. Students will develop their abilities to execute a variety of frisbee throws. Spatial recognition and teamwork are primary focuses of this unit. The amount of running and exercise this sport provides ensures improvement in each one of their cardiovascular endurance assessments.
Coach Hanchett
Handball and Flag Football
A naturally great unit to begin coinciding with the start of the NFL season is flag football. Students will become familiar with a plethora of football concepts and common terminology. Each student-athlete will get a chance to play quarterback, running back, wide receiver, and various defensive positions.
9/825-9/19/25
Coach Hand
Flag Football
Coach Hanchett
Pickleball
Pickleball is a paddle ball sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping pong. The sport shares features of other racquet sports: the dimensions and layout of a badminton court and a net and rules somewhat similar to tennis, with several modifications. Pickleball was invented in the mid 1960s, and is the fastest growing sport in the US today. This unit includes a short quiz on the main rules and gameplay that make pickleball unique.