Wakefield-Marenisco students enjoy group exercise again

WAKEFIELD - After a school shutdown in March of 2020, followed by fluctuating restrictions ever since, students at Wakefield-Marenisco K-12 School have just begun enjoying their regular activities in recent months.

As the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be winding down, one of those activities is the freedom to play disc golf, which enthusiasts describe as a cross between regular golf and tossing a Frisbee back and forth.

Persons driving past the school might notice the bright yellow disc stations, which include a cluster of hanging chains, at which players aim discs that then drop into an underlying basket.

According to Lauren Korpi, the school's health and physical education teacher, the aim of the game is similar to that of regular golf, with players trying to win by using the least number of throws as they move from station to station around the school.

The nine stations are scattered from the school's back yard, facing Sunday Lake, to the perimeter of the football field, to the front yard facing U.S. 2, to the playground on the southwest end.

Korpi detailed the process as seventh and eighth graders circled the route in groups of three on May 19.

"They all start at different places so it's not so crowded," she said. Stations have a broad amount of space between them so that, in Korpi's words, "they don't take each other out with the discs."

She said they use three different types of discs: a driver, designed for distance; a putter, designed for a short accurate glide; and a mid-range, which is a happy medium.

According to Korpi, students usually can travel through the nine holes in about a half hour or twice in a single class period.

Even when all students were attending school virtually, Korpi said they still completed physical education activities. "That was one of their assignments," she said, explaining that they could cycle through the school stations on their own.

When students attend school in person, Korpi said those in Grades 7-12 meet for physical education daily and spend three weeks on disc golf.

By contrast, elementary students meet for physical education two or three times a week and play disc golf about six or seven times a year.

"The little kids just use regular little Frisbees," said Korpi, explaining that the regular disks are "kind of heavy."

While in virtual status, Korpi said students also did "a lot of live videos." For instance, she said they would do some activities together, but she added that she also sometimes sent them videos of an activity that they then completed on their own and submitted proof via video.

They also used distance trackers to record their activity.

Some of the activities that they normally would have done as a group - such as hiking, snowshoeing, biking - were not possible during pandemic times. Even though they were outdoor activities, there was gathering involved.

"With COVID, we didn't get a chance to do that," said Korpi.

Now, she added, "I'm just so happy we got to be in person for as long as we did this year. We're just catching up on everything we couldn't do."

That means students can resume some of their normal activities such as whiffle ball, volleyball, soccer, tennis, badminton, pickle ball and tennis.

Korpi said the disc golf stations have been up for a couple years in Wakefield. "We wrote a grant to get this," she said, citing the U.P. Health Project as the source.

By this summer, she hopes to arrange for a few sets of discs to be placed in the Wakefield Visitors and Information Center. That way, she said, the general public also will have the opportunity to play.

Other sites on the Gogebic Range also offer disc golf, including Norrie Park in Ironwood and Whitecap Mountains Resort in Upson, Wisconsin.