Schools exercise online rivalries
SCHOOL sporting rivalries continue online despite a national lockdown which has shut down regular sport.
Otago Secondary Schools Sports Association (OSSSA) events and competition manager Nicole McLaren has come up with a way to keep the competitive spirit alive.
All OSSSA competitions have been suspended until further notice but the internet offers an opportunity for the fun to go on.
‘‘ISO’’ championships got under way earlier this week and are gathering momentum. ‘‘ISO’’ is short for ‘‘ isolation’’ and the idea is pupils and teachers log their ‘‘intentional physical activity’’ minutes.
‘‘We just wanted to put something in place for schools to compete against each other because we’ve heard the kids are pretty gutted that all the sports events have been cancelled,’’ Mr McLaren said.
Intentional physical activity is defined as anything people might do with the purpose of exercising.
You log how many minutes you spent exercising and which school you are representing on the website.
The minutes are converted into points and put into a graph and posted each day.
Logging the minutes is a ‘‘hightrust model’’ and the competition has taken off.
‘‘We’ve had a lot of schools sharing our posts and trying to really rally around their students to get their school to get some more minutes in so they can beat so and so.
‘‘It kind of creates online camaraderie and competition among the schools, which is what is missing at the moment.’’
McLaren said there were more than 150 logged entries on the first day and that had ballooned to more than 550 by yesterday afternoon.
The championships will run until the end of lockdown.
No prizes have been announced, it is just for school glory at this stage.