Multisport program introduces children to different sports.
CBRM to offer seven-week multisport program
Jonathan Penny is hoping a new program helps kids become well-rounded athletes.
The Cape Breton Regional Municipality is offering a youth multisport program. The pilot project will allow kids in Grades Primary and 1 to try out seven sports in 21 sessions over seven weeks.
The sports offered include rugby, track, skating, soccer, basketball, swimming and tennis. Each session is facilitated by recreation program co-ordinators and delivered by community sport organizations.
Penny, the recreation program co-ordinator with the CBRM, and Dean Morley, Sport Nova Scotia’s community sport development co-ordinator for Cape Breton, came up with the program to get kids playing multiple sports instead of being sport specific.
“Starting with the young kids, we wanted them to learn how to have those fundamental movement skills so they’d be able to be successful in any kind of physical activity they want to participate in,” said Penny.
Penny said a similar pilot was held successfully in Antigonish. It’s based on the Active for Life national program. A new website, Active for Life Cape Breton, will be launched soon that will include healthy living information for parents.
“It’s going to be the first stage of, hopefully, a big movement that hits the area and eventually, the nation,” he said. “We’re sort of pioneering it, so it’s pretty cool.”
Along with the CBRM and Sport Nova Scotia, Cape Breton University is a partnering by providing many of the sport venues. Funding is also coming from the provincial department of communities, culture and heritage and the RBC Learn to
Play project.
Registration will be held today at the Centennial Arena in Sydney from 5-7 p.m. The cost is $200, and all abilities are welcome.
“It’s cool for parents because enrolling their kid in, say, baseball for $250 and finding out the kid didn’t really like it, in this, they’re going to be able to try seven sports and maybe go into one or two of them,” said Penny.
A maximum of 60 participants — 30 for each age group — will be accepted on a firstcome, first-served basis. Sessions begin Sunday with rugby and run until the first week of July.
If it’s successful, Penny said they’re hoping to expand the program in the fall and look at including older age groups.