Spring is the time of growth and new beginnings, and that is what has sprung up at an Okotoks elementary school.
Good Shepherd School students have been running, playing basketball and even singing at the school’s new $2-million Sprung Instant Structures interim gymnasium since the beginning of the month.
“It’s an improvement for sure, it’s bigger than our old gym, we are able to fit all the students in here,” said Grade 6 student Coleton Cossins at an assembly in the new structure on April 12.
It’s a much-needed improvement.
The day before the school started in September, it was discovered there were some structural issues with the former gym’s roof.
“We feel it was from the snow-load from the year before and we did some investigative work and found some trusses weren’t as they should be,” said David Lunn, Christ the Redeemer Catholic School director of facilities.
It made for a tough first day at work for physical education teacher Brent Lendvay – like Stamps coach Dave Dickenson finding out he doesn’t have a football field as it starts to defend their Grey Cup title.
“It was definitely shocking to be a phys-ed teacher and not have a gym,” Lendvay said. “I had to change my plans in a hurry. The first few months weren’t too bad, because I like to keep the kids outside as long as possible.”
However, then old man winter came a knockin’. Lendvay set a cut-off of -20 before moving the students into a classroom for phys-ed.
“I found out the kids became more resilient as the year went on and they began to understand my expectations that we were going to be outside more often than usual,” Lendvay said. “It worked out quite well. There were some units that I tried which I wouldn’t have tried unless I was outside. Now as a result it will change my teaching.”
Some of those units included handball and a game the students’ grandparents might have played.
“Handball was one of them – the kids were going crazy over it. They would slide around, and they wouldn’t have to worry about a hard gym floor to fall on,” Lendvay said. “I tried a lot of different things – kick the can was another one that I wouldn’t have even thought of playing.”
If the mercury dropped below the -20 mark, the students would go into a Good Shepherd classroom.
“It’s crazy how many activities you can do with scarves and pool noodles,” he said. “There’s so many ways to keep kids active. It’s also an opportunity to teach kids leadership and life-skills.”
Cossins didn’t mind too much being outside for winter.
“It was fun, we played soccer, tag, even in the snow,” Cossins said. “It felt good to wake up in the morning and go out. Sometimes I found it even better than a gym because it didn’t get overly hot outside.”
But it’s also nice for a gym class to have a gym. Lendvay enjoyed the past few weeks.
“I love the space, it’s amazing,” he said. “Next week, I will be able to have three basketball courts at once. The kids will be active. The biggest hiccup was once the winter hit we couldn’t do a lot of catching and throwing skills. So, we are going to try and catch up.”
Jim Avery, vice-president with Sprung Instant Structures near Aldersyde, said the gym was a natural fit.
“We pitched the idea of a Sprung structure giving that we are practically in their own backyard,” he said. “They liked it, largely because of the speed and, potentially, the structure can be put up now and repurposed in another location.”
He estimates after the paperwork was done it took about three months to build the 9,600 sq. ft. structure. The previous gym was 5,380 sq. ft.
Lunn said while it is a temporary structure, don’t expect to see it leave soon. He said the development permit with the Town is year to year. He credited the Town for fast-tracking the paperwork to get the temporary gym built quickly.
He said the facility could be there for a few more years. Once a permanent gym is built, the Sprung structure could be moved to another CTR Catholic location.
The larger gym means the school can host assemblies with the entire student body – something that hadn’t happened for more than five years until the new gym was built, said principal Wayne Lorenz.
The sweet-moving Lorenz led the entire student body through stretching exercises to the Archies’ Sugar, Sugar at the assembly on Friday.
