TWU expands athletics

Posted by admin on Jan 18, 2010 in Sports | 0 comments

As early as next semester, Spartans athletics will be offering six new CIS sports teams, consisting of men and women’s cross country, men and women’s track and field, and swimming. Along with the university’s basketball, volleyball and soccer teams, Trinity Western University will soon be competing in 12 of the 21 CIS level sports.

While adding these new sports teams is positive in many different ways, TWU’s Dean of the School of Human Kinetics, Blair Whitmarsh, points to student recruitment as a very important factor. “Adding six new teams is a great opportunity to recruit new students to the university,” explained Whitmarsh. “It also increases awareness of TWU within our community.” Adding these sports is also one of the best ways to increase TWU’s athletic profile among Canadian Universities while adding low cost, high reward sports to Trinity.

As was the theme when the new Langley Events Centre was built, building a relationship with our community is an important part of these new CIS teams. “It is our intention to build a strong relationship with the local swim and track clubs to the benefit of both the clubs and for the new sports at TWU,” noted Whitmarsh. 

Whitmarsh also shed some light on where these new teams may be training and competing.

“The swim team will do most of its training at the Walnut Grove Recreation Centre and they will be involved in the regular Canada West and CIS competitions, while the cross country and middle distance running teams will do their training in the local area.” The Walnut Grove Community Center hosts a 50m pool with also a 3800 sq. ft. fitness center, which will allow Spartan swimmers to be able to train and workout off campus and compete at their highest level.

Now that venues have been set, the next step is to find a capable coaching staff for all six new teams. Whitmarsh adds, “We will work with the local swim and track clubs to assist in the hiring of coaches, but no coaches have been hired at this point.” After the coaching staff has been hired, requirement will be the first priority for Spartan Athletics. Recruiting high performance athletes will need to be done quickly, as Sherbrooke is hosting the 2010 cross country event and the 2011 track and field championships.
Whitmarsh also made note that some athletic scholarships would indeed be available for these new CIS athletes.