There have been many smiles on the faces of student athletes in Burnaby with school sports back on.
Athletic directors at the high schools and district staff collaborated to ensure that health and safety remained at the forefront 鈥 all while getting students back to what they love.
Jennifer Oatway is the Athletic Director at Burnaby North Secondary and coach of the Senior Girls Basketball Team. She鈥檚 also President of the . Ms. Oatway says seeing community and staff come together to make sure students are offered as many sports teams as possible has been heartwarming.
It takes such a massive team to run the athletic program from the athletic directors, the administration, staff coaches, our community coaches, to our student leaders. And to have everybody working so hard together to restart this 鈥 collaborating across the District about what鈥檚 working in your school, how we can all help each other and get as many kids back being a part of their school program 鈥 has been pretty incredible.鈥
Speaking from outside her school鈥檚 gymnasium after helping to set up a four o鈥檆lock volleyball game, she apologizes for the noise and squeals of laughter in the background.
There鈥檚 nothing like the excitement of two courts side by side of Grade 8 girls. It鈥檚 their first high school sport experience. It鈥檚 awesome. Some of our kids, like our Grade 9s, have never played high school sport, so that鈥檚 pretty incredible even to think that their whole Grade 8 year they didn鈥檛 know what this was about. They didn鈥檛 know what it was like to be a part of this culture.鈥
Oatway says the return of what, before the pandemic, she 鈥渄idn鈥檛 realize could ever be taken away鈥 has had a positive impact on the school community with the friendships and school spirit that come with being part of and supporting sports.
High school competitions for the fall season are underway in sports such as volleyball, rugby, field hockey, soccer and cross country running. Across the three seasons of play, as many as 19 different sports are offered to student-athletes in Grades 8 -12.
You can see some of the excitement in the photos below.
Posted October 2021