A pair of new football courses for students in Grade 10 and Grade 12 are under development for College Heights Secondary School and Shas Ti Kelly Road Secondary School.
On Tuesday, the School District 57 board of education authorized the creation of Football 10 and Football 12 courses. The programs will expand upon the Football 11 course already available, teachers Grant Erickson and Steve Porter said.
Erickson and Porter created the programs and coach the football teams at their respective schools.
“We want to provide more opportunities to kids who are into this sport,” Porter said. “It’s basically meant to be that off-season training component. (It’s) mostly targeted at students already engaged in the sport.”
The program will be open to boys and girls, Porter said.
“There is no reason we can’t accept anybody into the course,” he said. “We had a junior varsity team at what was Kelly Road with five girls out of 25 players on the team. I would love to see more girls able to take it.”
If there is enough interest, the schools could form girls football teams and look for other B.C. teams to compete against, he added.
The courses will be non-contact, with a focus on developing important football skills using both hands-on and classroom sessions, Erickson said. Physical conditioning and proper training techniques will be a big component of the course, he said, helping the students get “bigger, stronger, faster.”
“It’s really important that we introduce proper weight training techniques,” Erickson said. “With the Grade 12s, it’s more about the kids looking at moving on to post-secondary football opportunities.”
The Football 12 program will also include a focus on leadership on and off the field, he added.
Trustee Bob Thompson said he was glad to see the focus on leadership, teamwork and responsibility in the programs.
“There is a whole underpinning of being a good citizen in this course,” he said.
Trustee Ron Polillo said the timing is right, with the Prince George Kodiaks set to join the Canadian Junior Football League later this year.
“I see this as a big feeder to that program,” Polillo said.
