The Hillcrest School Hornets track and field team put their schoolmates through an athletics’ challenge last week.
The Hornets devoted last Thursday afternoon to helping their peers from kindergarten to Grade 8 learn the intricacies of shot put, discus, relay, long jump and high jump while manning various track and field stations spread out across the school yard. Hillcrest School teachers Stacey Lang and Alissa Klassen put the second annual track and field day together, but occupied a supervisory role with their fellow teachers while the action unfolded.
Hillcrest School principal David Gillingham said the purpose of the day was twofold because it not only helped members of the track and field team become better leaders through their role as mentors to their schoolmates, but also allowed the entire student body to build upon the different skills they learned in phys-ed classes during the past year.
“It’s something that our community has been asking for as well,” said Gillingham. “It’s a tradition among many schools to have a track and field day of some sort, so it’s something that we’ve reinstated over the last couple of years.”
Taylor Stang, a Grade 8 student at Hillcrest School, said he finished near the top in each of the different events despite not participating as a member of the Hornets track and field team this past season. He said this showing came in part through the great lessons given at each station by members of the team as well as the time each kid had to try their hand at each event.
Gillingham said kids at the school seem to be taking a bigger interest in track and field lately. He said this momentum may have come from having members of the Estevan 2016 Saskatchewan Summer Games committee come to the school to talk to the students about the tournament and the opportunities they had in participating in it as well as having the Hornets compete at the citywide meet at Estevan Comprehensive School late last month.
“Across all of these various avenues we did something to promote our part in track and field because it had been dying in terms of interest and participation,” he said. “We’re using the Summer Games as a springboard to build it up again.”
