The West Bend Current

By Mia Herdeman, Current Staff

When he saw a group of disc golf baskets collecting dust under the football bleachers, West Bend East High School special education teacher Ryan Olson had an idea.

The nine baskets were originally part of a disc golf course installed 10 years ago, but within a year one of the baskets was stolen and another was broken. The course fell into disrepair, and the remaining baskets were stored under the bleachers. While walking the track recently, Olson saw them and thought the WBHS student environmental group Saving Earth Every Day (SEED) could use them as a starting point for a new and improved on-site disc golf course.

“I have been disc golfing for 25 years and I always thought it would be cool to have a course on the school property,” Olson said.

One reason the baskets were removed is because they were not properly installed the first time. Now SEED, advised by West science teacher Paul DeLain, has worked to set up the baskets again, this time in a more stable way.

Once SEED started the project, the city of West Bend gifted WBHS 18 more baskets for a grand total of 26 baskets. Last summer, the bottom posts of eight baskets were cemented in as part of a course at the high school campus. SEED installed baskets on Thursday and the course will soon be open to the public, sunrise to sunset.

DeLain says the remaining baskets still need a home and SEED is exploring options.

Phase two of SEED’s plan is to make the baskets look nicer by mulching the surrounding area. Phase three will be to create some signage, a map of the course and a description of the habitat.

“It goes through a prairie, an oak savannah, an upland woods, a lowland woods, a marsh and some retention ponds,” DeLain said.

SEED president and West senior Elena Lohr-Kougl emphasizes how installing the baskets may help students to learn outside rather than within.

“I’m very excited for us to set these up because I hope this will finally get more use out of our outdoor classroom, and this will hopefully increase the love of our woods for the people in our school,” Lohr-Kougl said.

Olson jokes that this new local disc golf park will change the way he educates.

“Personally, I will probably spend all of my school day out there with my students and abandon all of my traditional teaching methods including everything I learned in college,” Olson said.

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(Top image: East senior Oliver De Cuester, left, and East teacher Ryan Olson install a disc golf basket on Thursday. Photo by Mia Herdeman, Current Staff.)