With the school year well underway, the Yorkton Elementary School Sports Association (YESSA) has started it annual program of activities for area youngsters.
The YESSA executive for the current school year includes president Mark Schendel from M.C. Knoll School, representing the Good Spirit School Division (GSSD) and vice-president Bri Borden from St. Paul's School, representing Christ the Teacher School Division (CTSD).
Cross country races kicked off the elementary school sports calendar this year with the recent Run for Peace, hosted by the Yorkton Regional High School (YRHS). Upcoming meets include the The annual Deer Park cross country meet for the GSSD students, the CTSD cross country meet at Sacred Heart High School (SHHS), the Autumn Summit at Saltcoats, the biggest cross country meet in the province and the district meet in early October.
Along with the cross country, volleyball season has officially started, says Schendel. Typically open to students in Grades 7 and 8, numbers continue to increase each year, this year being no exception. "It really is a good problem that we have in that we too many kids coming out for volleyball," Schendel says. As a result each of the participating school need to have more than just two teams in the building, he reports.
The volleyball season which started in September will wrap up about mid-November , Schendel states.
The Badminton season and basketball season have been switched. Badminton will start in January, following the Christmas school break and run throughout the month to wrap up in mid-February.
Basketball will start up in early February with the final tournament taking place in April.
The basketball season will be followed by indoor track and field which will give way to the outdoor track and field season which will finish the YESSA sports year.
New this year, Schendel announces, is the initiation of an elementary school curling program for the first time in December.
The curling program will be started at a very grass roots level and be very adaptive in terms of activity, Schendel says. He would like to see each participating YESSA school enter at least one team for the final bonspiel in December. The teams may be made up of boys, girls or co-ed.
One week consist of teaching curling skills at the Yorkton Curling Club. The following week will be devoted to the first ever Rock 'n Roll YESSA Funspiel Schendel reports.
Schendel says Neil Weinmaster and the Yorkton Curling Club are more than happy to accommodate the elementary school program. The curling club will also help with equipment such as sliders and brooms.
Some schools may not have a curling coach in the building. Grant Bjornerud and several other local curlers will be on hand to provide curling instruction the week before the bonspiel, Schendel notes.
"Saskatchewan is known as the mecca of curling. Yorkton is the mecca of curling, so it only makes sense that we're going to get out kids out on the ice to do some curling this year," Schendel declares.
Sports activities teach so many life skills, he suggests. "We're going to be teaching our kids about leadership, teaching the about commitment, teaching them about team work. These are skills they will be using for the rest of their lives. A lot of education takes place in these various sports that we're going to be doing throughout the year and I know as coaches we're very, very proud of that," Schendel closes.
