School athletics were a topic of discussion at this week's regular meeting of the Chinook School Division Board.

Athletics Co-ordinator Deb Reamer said there are a few challenges that were brought up in her report to the board, not the least of which, declining enrolment in rural schools.

“Situations where we having COOP teams in both our boys and girls in junior sports and of course travel in the southwest is a challenge for everybody just getting to the next town for us isn't 10 or 20 kilometre drive it's often way longer than that so those are the challenges we face.”

Reamer adds three sports seeing significant participation drops are boys' volleyball, golf and curling, but she thinks they can do the best they can to get students to participate.

“The problem with something like a team sport, like volleyball, you've got to have a minimum number to put on the court, so that might for some schools be a real challenge if you don't have 8-10 kids commited to it obviously you're not going to have a team. If you have one kid interested in golf you can have a a kid participate in golf, so that is one thing we can do pure incouragement.”

Reamer did say there is one thing they're looking forward to. It is the addition of an all-weather running track for the Comp High School in Swift Current, after the city set aside money for it in this year's municipal budget.

“I think in terms of hosting any kind of significant sporting event we'd have to have an all-weather surface with at least six lanes in order to do that so that would be one advantage, also with the kind of springs we've had the last couple of years with all the moisture and rain we need something fit to run on”

Reamer says that roughly 20-25% of the coaches in the Chinook School Division are community based and referees are coming from outside the school building.