September 2014

Issue 54 September 2014 A publication 21-Time Frank Davis Cup Dancevic Team member 8-Time Daniel Grand Slam Nestor Doubles Champion Milos World Top Raonic 10 Player 2014 Vasek Wimbledon Pospisil Doubles Champion TEAM CANADA IS HERE - Page 6 2 September 2014 Issue 54 Sport Nova Scotia Education, Activity Editor Managing Editor Chad Lucas Carolyn Townsend JAMIE FERGUSON Go Hand in Hand CHIEF Athlete’s Column Cover Layout & Desktop EXECUTIVE OFFICER Adam Harbin Paula Yochoff Cover Photo: Tennis Canada s youth across the province head back to school this of things like coordination, balance and movement skills to our Senior Staff Amonth, I thought this would be a good time to talk about youngest students, we are giving them the tools to take part in the relationship between sport and education. We speak often sport for the rest of their lives. Chief Executive Officer about the positive impact sport and physical activity can have The Canadian Sport Policy identifies the relationship between Jamie Ferguson on education in terms of improved academic performance, but sport and education as a significant one. We believe it’s vital Director of Finance & Administration there are some other important considerations as well. Sport for all involved, as it can provide benefits to both sectors. In Debbie Buckoski opportunities in schools eliminate many of the participation June, Sport Nova Scotia provided a submission to the Minister’s barriers that exist in other settings, most importantly Panel on Education, and I wanted to share some of it with you Director of Public Relations transportation. Additionally, if we can teach the fundamentals in this space: Carolyn Townsend Director of Marketing As the provincial Thrive initiative acknowledges, in Nova leading to improved performance. Jeff LeDrew Scotia, physical activity levels are disturbingly low. Less than • School-based physical education has been shown to improve 30 per cent of Grade 7 students and 5 per cent of Grade 11 school performance, even when children spend less time on Director of Sport Development students (and less than 1 per cent of Grade 11 girls) now meet the other school subjects. Amy Walsh minimum guidelines. And the decline in activity from Grades • The largest impacts of physical activity on school performance Director of Coaching 3 to 7 appears to be growing, especially for girls. are in math, IQ and reading. Mark Smith We all know that youth who participate in sport and physical The bottom line is that physical activity and education activity fight these statistics outcomes can – and should and lower their risk of – go hand in hand. To Sport Quarterly, Youth who participate in physical a publication of Sport Nova Scotia. preventable chronic disease. increase the quality and But there is much more. activity programs are less likely to quantity of physical activity, Letters to the editor must include Youth who participate in some specific ideas for name, address and phone physical activity programs get in trouble with the law, more consideration include: number. are less likely to get in trouble likely to have higher self-esteem and 1. Integrate grade-specific with the law, more likely to academic learning objectives Sport Nova Scotia feel “included,” less likely to struggle 5516 Spring Garden Road have higher self-esteem and with age-appropriate feel “included,” less likely to physical activity; 4th Floor with mental illnesses, more likely to struggle with mental 2. offer more intramural Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 1G6 illnesses, more likely to volunteer in their community, less likely activities in schools; Tel: (902) 425-5450 volunteer in their community, to do drugs, smoke and have unwanted 3. provide training for Fax: (902) 425-5606 less likely to do drugs, smoke volunteer coaches; E-mail: [email protected] and have unwanted teenaged teenaged pregnancies, more likely to 4. provide schools with age- sportnovascotia.ca pregnancies, more likely to demonstrate pro-education values, and appropriate equipment; and demonstrate pro-education 5. educate teachers on the values, and more likely to do more likely to do well in school. principles of physical literacy well in school. and fundamental movement Now consider the following skills. facts, taken from the Alliance for Healthy Eating and Physical Activity in Nova Scotia: At many different schools in communities across the province • The school is a key setting where we can help children to eat there are already great examples of partnerships between sport better and be more active. and education. Working together and taking a strategic • Physical activity helps children to think and process approach would allow for even more of these opportunities. information, concentrate and behave appropriately in class, We believe the benefits are worth it. Senior Funding Partner of Sport Nova Scotia 2 3 Sponsored by Finding Confidence, On and Off the Water Athlete’s Column The advice I’d give any young athlete is to find someone you trust. It helps to start talking. For so CONNOR TARAS many years I held it inside. I lost my confidence, and KAYAK I think that took away from what I was doing on the water. There’s so much more energy I can put into Waverley kayaker Connor Taras has tasted the joys and my performance that I was using to try to hide being agonies of sport, from winning a world junior silver medal gay. Now I can focus on training and racing. at age 16 in 2007 to just missing out on qualifying for I’m working hard toward the Rio Olympics in 2016. the London Olympics by 0.66 seconds. The 2012 Ricoh The Pan-Am Games and the world championships Male Team Athlete of the Year has succeeded nationally next summer are my next goals. and internationally, but he made headlines this summer Over the last two years, I’ve looked at things over when he became one of the few openly gay elite athletes in the long term. It’s going to require some discussions Canada. His story has inspired people across the country. with coaches this fall on whether I’ll focus on the 1,000 or the 200. It’s a little stressful trying to figure tried paddling at Cheema when I was 11 and fell that out. Whatever decision we take, there’s no going “ Connor Taras (Contributed) back.” I in love with it right away. It was 2000 and there were lots of Olympians around the club that summer—Karen Furneaux, Richard Dalton, Mike Scarola. It was an inspiring place to be. Once I switched from canoe to kayak, I really started to progress. I made the Canada Cup team at If we can help 14 and the following summer I made it to junior worlds. small marketing From 2004-2008, I was making really big gains ﬁ rms increase every year. I made the K4 crew for the world championships in 2010 and won a silver in the K4 sales by an average at the Pan-American Games in 2011. of 10 percent, I was a 500-metre athlete, but in between the Beijing and London Olympics the international body eliminated the 500 and introduced the 200. I’ve been training half in both the 1,000 and the 200. My partner Austin Denman and I went for a K2 200 spot in London and narrowly missed. After 2012, I did a lot of thinking. For years I’d known I was gay but I built up this sort of fictional world where I thought everybody wouldn’t accept me. I came out to family and friends in November 2013 and that was the first big step. That winter in training camp I started talking about imagine what we can do for you. it with one person and by the end of the conversation there were 15 people sitting around, asking me questions. My fellow paddlers are basically family to me and it ended up being easier than I thought. They were just happy I wasn’t hiding this anymore. The more I talk about it, the more I realize people are open to talking. The support I’ve received is tremendous, and I almost get a little angry at myself for hiding so long. Hopefully, in the future, it won’t ricoh.ca be a big deal at all for an athlete to come out. But to come to that, people have to step up and show it’s OK to be gay in sports. 4 Using Sport as a Force for Good sums up the thinking behind Mandela’s Sport for development is tapping into and supporting quality sport words. Any program that uses sport the power of sport to build healthy opportunities. intentionally to help improve or communities, to train the next generation - Pioneering the Youth Leadership strengthen a community or person in of leaders, to influence government, and Program, which used sport as a AMY WALSH need – that is what sport for development the list goes on. vehicle to offer at-risk youth the DIRECTOR is all about. There are opportunities to do more. opportunity to gain skills and OF SPORT Many people think of this as I recently attended a national Sport leadership training to improve DEVELOPMENT something that happens in under- for Development leaders’ gathering to confidence and employability. developed countries (think Right to Play celebrate achievements, take stock of the - Using funding opportunities to link Nelson Mandela said, “Sport has the or UNICEF). But it’s amazing to current ecosystem of sport, physical sport initiatives with social outcomes power to change the world. It has the power recognize how much we’re already activity and recreation and, most and encouraging sport groups to re- to inspire.

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