This school trip was bubbling with excitement

Bubble soccer and ultimate Frisbee were a few of the activities that headlined the inaugural DSBN Academy Spirit Day, staged at Welland’s Youngs Sportsplex Tuesday.

The school that caters to students in grades 6 through 12 allows students to apply and attend from anywhere in the region.

Formerly located at Welland’s Empire School, DSBN Academy is now at West Park Secondary School on Louth St. in St. Catharines.

Its Tuesday event was used as a team- building exercise to introduce Grade 8 students to grades 9 and 10 students.

“Th e academy is split between elementary grades, which is grades 6 through 8 and high school students, grades 9 through 12,” said teacher Kristen Bastien, who organized the event.

Students were put into teams and assigned a handful of teachers to be team leaders who guided the youths through diff erent activities, such as bubble soccer, ultimate Frisbee, an obstacle course, golf driving range, tennis and pickleball.

“Each team spends around a half- hour at each station and at around noon the students eat lunch and then we fi nish the day off with outdoor soccer,” said Bastien.

She decided the Youngs SportsPlex was the perfect destination for its Spirit Day events because of how wonderful the facility is.

“Playing bubble soccer instead of regular indoor soccer is great for the kids due to the fact a lot of the students never played it before,” said Bastien.

“Th is facility gave us the chance to give these kids the opportunity to create great friendships to start school next year and have the grade 9 students next year familiar with the Grade 10 and 11 students.”

Because not every student is into sports, Spirit Day also had a mental game station.

“We have an activity where as a team you solve brain games for the fi rst 15 minutes,” said Bastien. “Th en they must spell out Argos, our mascot, with their bodies and the whole team must be involved.”

Grade 10 student Josh Wood enjoyed the day out of the classroom.

“It’s really cool,” he said of the River Rd. facility. “I’ve never seen anything like it, especially the bubble soccer. I really like soccer and you get to bodycheck people.”

DSBN Academy wi l l s t ay involved with the event which is expected will be held annually at the Welland sportsplex.