No wimpy kids in NB

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a really big hand and a really strong grip.

That’s the impression left with Newport Heights Elementary sixth-grader Jack Maurer, who recently met the governor.

Schwarzenegger visited Los Angeles with Kurt Suhr, recognized recently as California’s top principal by the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.

Maurer said meeting Schwarzenegger was “indescribable. It felt good meeting such a good leader, actor and body builder.”

Suhr apparently isn’t so bad himself. Schwarzenegger presented him with the gold medal for increasing students’ physical activity.

Maurer met the governor because he won the school’s essay contest about why he likes its P.E. program.

He laid it out in his essay: He wants to be a professional surfer. To do that, he has to be strong and exercise more.

Maurer said his school’s CATCH program (coordinated approach to child health) is much better than the P.E. he remembered five years ago.

Suhr borrowed the CATCH program from a Texan colleaguefour years ago, and it has spread to more than 1,600 schools in California.

“Instead of having a fragmented P.E. program, it really is a school-wide program. It’s well structured, which really makes it possible to do,” Suhr said.

CATCH is built on four pillars: focused P.E. lessons in smaller groups; involving kids in all activities; giving kids proper nutritional education; taking those eating habits home; and having the school change what kind of food it offers.

There are “no” foods, “slow” foods and “go” foods, Suhr said. No foods are things high in fat and sugar like candy bars; slow foods are things like juices or peanuts, with some dietary value but still high fat or sugar. Go foods are of course, the ones kids always leave on the plate — things like vegetables or fruit.

While Suhr had nothing but praise for the program, he spoke even more highly of Newport Heights faculty and Newport-Mesa Unified administrators.

The school was awarded $10,000 for Suhr’s accomplishment. He said he plans to use that money to continue funding the CATCH assistant on campus.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.