UW-Platteville strength instructor lives stewardship of place motto by training senior citizens

Humans are meant to move. We're dealing with sedentarism and diseases of excess. We can combat that with motion, and we have an express responsibility to the community to help them partake in things that can help them.

- UW-Platteville Health and Human Performance lecturer Davoncie Granderson

For 77-year-old Joyce Eveland, gloomy fall days have been tough since her husband died two years ago. 

But thanks to a partnership between a UW-Platteville strength instructor and a local Platteville gym, those days are a little brighter for the retired teacher. She's spent much of the past year slinging weights and bashing punching bags as part of UW-Platteville Health and Human Performance lecturer Davoncie Granderson's Fountain of Youth fitness class along with a dozen or so of her fellow senior citizens at Impact Fitness in Platteville.

"It just makes me feel good physically and mentally," Eveland said. "I feel better after I do it."

Granderson's class is another example of a College of Liberal Arts and Education instructor living the school's "stewardship of place" mantra. The college adopted the motto four years ago as part of a new emphasis on collaborating with community members to solve the tri-state region's critical problems as well as protect the area's physical, cultural and environmental heritage. 

Art instructor Scott Steder, for instance, has started hosting a chili cook-off event to benefit the Platteville Food Pantry, using bowls crafted by UW-Platteville student sculptors. Education professor Austin Rickels has partnered with the Platteville Public Library to deliver audience-appropriate public lectures on human growth and development. 

Environmental scientist Evan Larson regularly works with area landowners on prescribed burns and Health and Human Performance lecturer Susanna Swenson regularly brings in students from across the region for a day to work on wellness and exercise with HHP education majors. The college's Department of Performing and Visual Arts puts on plays every summer through its Platteville Summer Arts Festival program, providing the region with a cultural experience that showcases local talent during the quietest part of the academic year.

"Our faculty and staff are here because they want to teach these students in this place," LAE Dean Travis Nelson said. "Whether it is our partnerships with rural schools, our relationships with local artists and audiences, our service to area non-profits and agencies, or our engagement with the Driftless landscape, the concept of stewardship of place is woven throughout the college."

A responsibility to help

Granderson has just started his second year at UW-Platteville, but he's already doing his part to carry on the stewardship of place tradition. 

"Humans are meant to move," Granderson said. "We're dealing with sedentarism and diseases of excess. We can combat that with motion, and we have an express responsibility to the community to help them partake in things that can help them."

A former wrestler and cross-country and track athlete at East High School in Rockford, Illinois, Granderson was inspired to study kinesiology, the science of human movement, after he dislocated his knee during pre-season wrestling practice his senior year. He earned a bachelor's degree in kinesiology from Northern Illinois University in 2016 and followed that up with a master's from NIU in exercise physiology two years later. 

He bounced around a bit, managing Northwestern University's medically integrated gym, working at Planet Fitness in Rockford and coaching cross country, track and middle school wrestling at Genoa-Kingston High School. His passion, though, was teaching. He applied for the lecturer spot at UW-Platteville and got it, moving his wife and young children to Platteville ahead of the fall 2025 semester.

"It's phenomenal," Granderson said of the campus environment. "We're like a large family here, bouncing ideas off each other. Everyone is so friendly. People look you in the eye and say 'hello.'"

Fountain of Youth is born

He immediately started looking for opportunities to work as a personal trainer on the side. He landed on Impact Fitness in the Platteville Armory community center. Gym owner Christina Sonsalla and Southwest Health physical therapist Trina Marone were looking for a coach to help senior citizens continue exercising after their insurance coverage for physical therapy ends. Together, the three of them came up with the Fountain of Youth class. 

The program began this past January. The schedule consists of multiple six-week blocks, with an upper body day on Tuesdays and lower body on Thursdays. It's not a CrossFit session, but with Granderson's focus on functional strength and maintaining mobility, it's not far off. 

'They've come so far'

On a recent November morning, Granderson took about a dozen clients, including Eveland, through an hour-long lower body workout. On the agenda: torso rotations, wall squats, monster band walks, Romanian barbell deadlifts, dumbbell sit-to-stands, stationary cycling, farmer's carries and training to get up after a fall.

As strains of the iconic Rocky theme came over the speakers, he unleashed the crew on the gym's punching bags, working through jabs, hooks, sidekicks and knee strikes to maintain memory and cognition.

Granderson was everywhere during the session, coaching, spotting and smiling.

"Final three minutes! We're working through that fatigue! We're going to cause some great adaptations!" he shouted before turning to a reporter: "They've come so far from where they started in January."

Indeed. These seniors can get after it. Eveland was on a mission, striding between stations with a steely determination, effortlessly repping 65 pounds on her deadlifts with perfect form before whaling on the punching bag. 

Thomas Goodney, 91, came to class leaning on his cane. That didn't stop him from getting his monster band walks, cycling and deadlifts in, and with textbook form. 

Bob Harding, 77, started warming up on his own. Like Eveland, he attacked the exercises, unleashing fury on the punching bag. His sweatshirt was stained dark with sweat by the time he was done. 

A retired University of Iowa power plant project coordinator, Harding was a competitive cyclist until a truck crashed into him and he suffered a traumatic brain injury. He said he's been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, and the class helps him focus. 

"I feel good," he said. "It does help. It's a great way to start the day. I make believe the (punching) bag is Parkinson's."

Making a difference

Granderson beamed like a proud father as the class filed out. He said training senior citizens takes patience, but nothing's more satisfying than hearing success stories, like the time one of his trainees said he heard a thump in another room and discovered it was his wife using her get-up training to catch herself during a fall.

"I'm very fortunate to be able to make a difference in people's lives," he said. "I have the opportunity to both instruct the future and then on the other end I have the opportunity to apply it. It's walking the talk and practicing what I preach."

Eveland, who said she could have done 70 pounds on her deadlifts if Granderson had just loaded the bar with it, said she's grateful UW-Platteville shares experts like him with the community. 

"It's wonderful," she said. "He tells you why you're doing it and how to do it so you don't get hurt, and works it into your life, like getting off the floor," she said. "We're really lucky to have UW-P here."