INUVIK
Kids were showcasing their flexibility and walking a fine line at East Three School last week.
Grade 11 student Sarah Andre walks a fine line May 2 at East Three Secondary School. - Shawn Giilck/NNSL photos
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Yellowknife gymnastics coach Kevin Corrigan was in town for two days working with students from East Three at both the high school and elementary levels. Although gymnastics isn't one of the primary sports at the school, he was impressed by what he saw.
"There's definitely an interest," he said. "I've seen a lot of kids over the last two days that could do very well in gymnastics, and there's definitely an interest.
"I coach and I manage the club in Yellowknife," Corrigan said. "I'm trying to give the kids here some interest in gymnastics and to teach some of the basics. I want to give them the experience they won't get throughout the year."
The primary difficulty with establishing a gymnastics program at East Three, he said, is that the new school wasn't designed with the sport in mind. Storage is limited, and some retrofits would be necessary to mount and secure the equipment to the floor of the gym.
"Obviously, the ideal would be to have a permanent gymnastics facility, but that's easier said than done," Corrigan said. "The next best thing would be a gym like this with more storage space. Right now it's pretty tight for space."
Corrigan said the capital cost for purchasing equipment isn't exorbitant, and he said there is "funding out there."
"There's already equipment here. We've got a lot of mats – the basics of it is here, and it seems like there is funding out there."
Corrigan was working with East Three physical education teacher Dave Halpine, who is a true jack-of-all-trades when it comes to sports. He runs or helps coach virtually every sporting activity at the school.
"Kevin Corrigan has a tremendous amount of talent and ability with the students," Halpine said. "He's gotten everyone doing every sort of things you can think of, starting with elemental gymnastics. It's just been really fresh and inviting."
Halpine said he was also surprised at the level of talent and potential displayed by the students.
"We don't have a high-performance coach or a team to compare ourselves to but we've seen great backflips and wall flips. I'm always astounded that when you do some individual sports like this that you find some kids who you don't normally think of showing shoulder strength, abdominal strength ... it's so important to have those building blocks for the rest of their lives.
"We've tried to give every student from both school a chance to try the equipment and it's been a real overwhelming success."
Halpine said he's been part of the Inuvik Gymanstics Club for two years, but the program wasn't offered this year due to the design of the new school.
"We just didn't do it this year, so it's been a really great opportunity that just arose in the last few weeks to have Kevin come up and work with us. It's something I'm passionate about."
Grade 11 student Sarah Andre said she started practising gymnastics last year. Her favourite is the balance beam.
"I like landing and cartwheeling off," she said.
