Medicine Hat College has received the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Community Service Award for the second consecutive season.
The CCAA’s Community Service Award recognizes a member institution that has successfully developed and administered a community relations program.
The Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) institution earned the honour with its ‘Celebration of Women and Girls in Sport’ initiative. Medicine Hat Rattlers Athletics hosted back-to-back conference championships – Women’s Volleyball followed by Women’s Basketball – which was unprecedented in the ACAC. The organizing committee planned several special events throughout the two weeks with the goal of providing a strong community connection and celebrating women and girls in sport.
“Medicine Hat’s special event celebrations of women and girls in sport was a great example of commitment to advancing gender equity in sport,” said Brittany Tierney, CCAA VP Sport Development. “Working with the ACAC to host both the Women’s Basketball and Volleyball championships in the same year to add guest speakers and other events to promote female participation was a year-long commitment for Medicine Hat in promoting gender equity.”
More than 7,500 fans came out to Medicine Hat College for the two championships, and the accompanying special events directly influenced approximately 400-600 young girls in the community.
The special events included:
FILL IT WITH FEMALES: With the goal to attract as many young local female athletes as possible to attend each respective Awards Ceremony, more than 160 girls were at the Women’s Volleyball event, while more than 150 participated at the Women’s Basketball event. The girls in attendance were presented with a championship t-shirt and were paraded into the venue, while three lucky girls participated in the award presentations. Afterward, student-athletes from all eight teams held meet and great as well as question and answer sessions with the girls.
GET BENCHED PROGRAM: Two young girls from the community got a true ‘sideline’ experience by sitting on the team bench during every game of the Conference Championships. This was well received by the players and coaches, who did their best to make each girl feel part of their team. The program involved more than 60 girls and created ever-lasting memories.
AWARD PRESENTATIONS: A prominent female from the community presented the Player of the Game award at the conclusion of each game. In total, 22 female role models and women of influence from the community were recruited. The group of women included: business, community and academic leaders, as well as national level coaches, record-breaking athletes, distinguished teachers and many others.
WINNING EDGE SEMINARS: A pair of seminars were also presented at the Conference Championships. The seminars were designed as presentations of evidence-based information from experts in nutrition, mental skills and exercise physiology. Megan Nagy, a former CCAA Women’s Volleyball Player of the Year and Team Canada Beach Volleyball member, presented Live Your Potential – Becoming a High Performer at Women’s Volleyball. Meanwhile, Sonya Brown, a former national level figure skater and track athlete, presented Practice Planning – Road Map to Success at Women’s Basketball.
GUEST SPEAKERS: Dr. Sue Higgins, a former head coach at Medicine Hat, was the Women’s Volleyball guest speaker. Dr. Higgins, who earned CCAA Men’s Volleyball Coach of the Year honours in 1991, spoke of her journey through volleyball and how she was able to learn from some of the early adopters of the game in Canada. Meanwhile, Krysten Hager was the Women’s Basketball guest speaker. The former member of the Kansas Jayhawks and Canadian national team spoke of the trials and tribulations that shaped her into the player she was and the person she is today.
The overall impact of the ‘Celebration of Women and Girls in Sport’ initiative was far reaching. While Medicine Hat College’s goal was to highlight women’s collegiate sport while providing young girls in the community with role models, the initiative also enhanced the student-athlete experience for the participating ACAC teams.
Most importantly, the event gave young girls the opportunity to see role models in action, hear personal stories from them and get to know and be active with many of them.
“I can honestly say that during the operations of these two conference championships, we changed lives – that was impactful,” Terry Ballard, Sport and Wellness Manager at Medicine Hat College. “Some girls will remember this experience forever and will now stay active and stay in sports for life.”
