An Alberni high school PE course emphasizing basketball skills keeps students physically active while upping their game at the same time, instructor Nick Seredick said.
PE 11 with a basketball emphasis is running as an elective course for credit at Alberni District Secondary School for the first time.
The course is being taught daily at the Alberni Athletic Hall until January.
The 23 boys and girls who are enrolled in the course learn ball handling, shooting, passing, defense, as well as conditioning and team work.
“It’s like a week-long basketball camp but for a whole semester,” Seredick said.
The course has its roots in the growing basketball culture at the high school.
“Students had expressed a real interest in a sports-specific program like basketball to stay physically active,” Seredick said.
Seredick assembled the course and it received school board approval earlier this year. The divided was immediate as 23 students — enrolled.
The course is only available to students in Grade 11 and 12. While there are Grade 10s there is a caveat.
“They have to take PE 10 first, it’s a mandatory course and we don’t want to interfere with that,” Seredick said.
“We have a couple of Grade 10 kids but they’ve scheduled PE 10 for next term.”
Part of the course will see students donate their time to go into elementary schools to give an introduction of the game.“It’s a way of giving back to the community and to pique the interest of the next generation of players,” Seredick said.
The athletic hall society allowed the gym to be used for the course. Canadian Tire stepped up by contributing two new hoops to the hall that now makes it possible for players to practise on six hoops and to play cross-court.
reporter@albernivalleynews.com