Canadian Rockies Public Schools is moving forward with a proposal to create a sports school at Canmore Collegiate High School.
Darren Dick, co-ordinator of instructional technology, presented the proposal for the Canadian Rockies Sports School to the school board earlier this month.
He said the idea stems from the Inspiring Hearts and Minds work and in consultation with local sports groups.
“There was interest in seeing if we could better meet the needs of student athletes,” Dick said, adding there is also potential to grow student enrolment through the program and see underutilized school space used. “We are looking through this proposal to provide a complementary structure of long-term athletic development with a life-long learner.
“I think it is a synergy we are well positioned to do.”
Dick said some parents are already looking to other schools and programs in the region for their high performance student athletes.
After a survey on needs assessment in fall, a steering committee was formed to investigate the idea further and included Biathalon Alberta, Alberta Alpine Ski Association and WinSport Canada.
Adam Hull, president of Alberta Alpine, said the sports school is incredibly exciting for the future of sport in the Bow Valley.
“It essentially comes down to using the local advantage that biathlon, cross-country and alpine have in terms of proximity to world-class facilities,” Hull said. “This has the capacity to serve the community of athletes in the Bow Valley, with them not having to sacrifice their educational goals.”
He said he is impressed with the direction the school board has taken to address the educational needs of youth athletes, which has been part of the association’s strategic plan since it was headed by Thomas Grandi in 2009.
Hull said within the sport of alpine skiing there are already a number of local athletes who are commuting to a Calgary-based sports school for a more flexible learning environment.
“The hope is this program will allow those athletes to stay in the Bow Valley,” he said.
Andy Trow grew up in Canmore competing in Alpine while completing high school through outreach and distance learning.
He said having supports and flexibility built into the system to support student athletes is a great idea because it will keep them in a classroom environment, which he found was more conducive to learning.
“That sounds like the right idea to me,” Trow said. “I think there are a lot of sports that would be great for.”
He added the school proposal will help make life easier for parents and teachers as well who also support students and their athletic endeavours.
The program will be academics focused, operating within the regular programming of CCHS but will have enhancements,” Dick said.
Those enhancements include twice a week morning training blocks and with the rotation of the high school schedule on a monthly basis that means students will not always miss the same class. Those training blocks will not be sport specific, but based on input from student’s coaches
The program also proposes to give students an option of a decreased course load based on needs, summer school opportunities, after school access to study hall, flexible time on Fridays and an assigned teacher advisor.
“We have an opportunity to really create something unique and create something that has a competitive advantage not just based on the facility we have here, but the program we can offer,” Dick said. “The teacher advisor is key for flexibility and co-ordination of the overall picture for a student athlete.”
He added the supports are also there to help students with academic conditioning, or in other words, creating habits and building skills to keep up with course work while missing classes for training or competition.
WinSport Canada has been at the table with the school and athletic groups working on the idea and Mike Norton, Canmore sport manager, said there are supports WinSport can offer the school as it opens and grows.
Norton pointed to the organization’s national sports school at Canada Olympic Park that has grown and developed in partnership with the Calgary Board of Education as an example of how education and athletics can work together to support young people.
He said they have shared a number of WinSport’s existing agreements, policies and applications with CRPS for them to use in developing their school system.
“Our manadate and philosophy is promoting high performance sport and athletics at all levels,” Norton said. “We support and recognize how important education along with sport is… and we are excited to see this happening.”
In addition to providing those supports, WinSport may also be involved in marketing the school into the future, registration processes and collecting fees the public school cannot collect.
Norton added there are advancements and training equipment at their location in the Bill Warren Training Centre that will also benefit student althetes in their development
The long-term focus for competitive sports for youth is to be fit for life, Dick said, while in the short term it is to own the podium.
He said Canmore is particularly well suited to pursue the idea as it is within close proximity of several world-class sport facilities, including the Nordic Centre, and the high school is under capacity. As well, he said, the high quality of academic programming in the school district is a selling point.
In addition, Alberta Education has a flexibility enhancement program for high schools that will recognize parts of the program as fundable. Currently, the province funds high schools based on student credits achieved and providing flex time or training time would not apply except under the enhancement program.
School board chair Kim Bater said being able to apply for the flexibility enhancement program is an advantage of the proposal. He added the school may be able to learn from the program.
Superintendent Brian Callaghan said international athletes have already expressed interest in linking training in the valley with high school.
In the first year of the program, biathalon, alpine and Nordic skiing will be the focus.
“We are going to start with what we know has a solid foundation here in the valley,” Callaghan said.
Budget implications for the program will be dealt with as part of the board’s normal budget process in May or June.
“The essence of any sports school is to identify what is known as long-term athletic development,” Dick said. “There is 10,000 hours of development required to become an expert at anything and sport in particular uses this model of long-term athletic development.
“There are times of training that are higher intensity and school life needs to be mindful of that.”
Dick said a marketing plan is being put together, as well as a registration process. Staffing and program development will begin in June and over the summer. It is expected that a 0.1 FTE (full time equivalent) is needed for a program administrator, 0.5 FTE for a teacher advisor and 180 hours a year for a training facilitator.
