If practice makes perfect then expect a lot of perfection.
Athletic departments at high schools in the Okotoks and Foothills County are rolling with the punches with the Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association’s practice only mandate not curbing the enthusiasm of coaches and athletes.
“We had no idea what they were going to do to be honest with you. I really didn’t know what was going to happen,” said Holy Trinity Academy Knights co-athletic director Matt Hassett. “But I’m kind of thankful for it. Just talking to parents and kids, they just want to get back to some sort of semblance of normalcy and I think kids need to be active – whatever it is, whatever the sport is and whatever their interest is, they want to get back to those things a little bit — even if it’s practice only right now.”
Hassett, the head coach of the Knights’ defending Tier II provincial football team, would, in a normal year, have a pre-season camp occurring during the middle part of August with games getting underway at the end of the month.
Additionally, the Knights were also planning on heading to California for an exhibition game in Los Angeles before the pandemic put the trip on ice.
Due partly to the team’s success in recent years, Hassett said the Knights are looking at over 75 players interested in playing football and there could be a JV program in place to help split up those numbers into two cohorts with the maximum being 50.
The plan is to practice roughly three times per week with some training in between.
“The school board has been supportive and is helping us try to provide support because I think they know the value of extra-curriculars,” Hassett said. “It means a lot to a lot of kids and to the spirit of the school.”
For the fall sports of football, golf, cross-country and volleyball one of the other changes in place right now is the cohort system which doesn’t allow an athlete to be part of multiple sports cohorts at the same time.
That includes both school and club sports.
“If you’re sports overlap, you can’t play them at the same time,” Hassett said. “Let’s say, school sports of football and volleyball, you can’t do that. But you can still do football and basketball, you would (just) have to wait 14 days after football ends before you can start practising with the basketball cohort.”
While Alberta remains in Stage 2 of the relaunch, those sports will not be involved in competition with the fall season provincials postponed.
“(The players) are really excited about things getting started,” Hassett said. “And I’ve talked to the coaches of other sports, some of our volleyball coaches, and they’re all really excited about getting going again, even if it’s just in Stage 2 here with the practice formats the way they are.”
The stalwart coach and teacher said he’s looking forward to getting back into the classroom despite the challenges schools are facing with the return.
“For me, I would like to be back with the students,” Hassett said. “That’s why I became a teacher because I love my job and love going to work every day and the interaction and every day is a little different.”
Spartan pride
At Strathcona-Tweedsmuir School (STS) sports will remain an essential part of the experience.
“We’ve got lots going on and everything is going to be with Alberta Health and ASAA, we’re going to be abiding by that and putting in some of our own protocols too just to keep everybody nice and safe,” said STS Spartans athletic director Ken Zelez. “Basically what we’re doing is we’re not starting for two weeks. Within those two weeks we’re simply going to assess and take things nice and slow and see how things are going and let the teachers and coaches concentrate first of all on teaching and learning.”
From there, athletics will be introduced slowly with in-school practices and training.
“That’s super important to us,” Zelez said. “A lot of people don’t think that about STS, but athletics and the co-curricurals are super important to the school.”
Even physical education classes will look a little different this year with as much of the activity as possible occurring outside.
“Athletically speaking we definitely want to provide an engaging athletic program still,” Zelez said. “We’re actually taking all of our grade teams for middle school and keeping them in their cohort and for senior school keeping them in their cohort.
“We’re going to practice, we’re going to train as well and probably bring in some guest coaches whenever possible.”
Zelez said measures are in place for athletes who want to play more than one sport which will allow for at-home training before they’re able to safely join a new sports cohort.
“If any of those kids do want to train we have the ability to help them train at home with that, so they wouldn’t have contact at school,” he said. “That’s a big advantage we have with me looking over the athletic department and all of our coaches are just spectacular coaches – some of the best I’ve worked with in my entire life inside and outside of school.
“We’re set up nice and I think the kids are really going to enjoy what we have set up.”
