By Jonathon Brodie/London Community News
London’s Clarke Road Secondary School students are on the ball when it comes to their health.
The east end high school recently received a Sogo Active grant to add KIN ball, a relatively unknown game to even the biggest sports fans, to its intramural activity list.
“It’s a light, non-threatening game,” said Denise Kussner-Jajal, a physical education teacher at Clarke Road. “The ball is really light and because it’s so huge, it just attracts a lot of attention and then the kids get really pumped by playing it.”
Using an inflatable 1.22-metre nylon ball, KIN ball is played with groups of three and as many teams as you can fit in a gym. The team in possession of the ball yells out Omnikin followed by the colour of another team and hits the ball.
The team whose colour is called must stop the ball from hitting the ground; if it fails to do so the other teams get a point. If a team stops the ball from hitting the ground, it has 10 seconds to hit the ball to another team, using the same rules.
Clarke Road received a $500 microgrant from Sogo Active to purchase a KIN ball and an additional latex bladder to go inside of it.
The best part of the game, said Kussner-Jajal, is that everyone can play it.
“You can have four to eight teams, so it maximizes participation, which is our philosophy of intramurals,” she said. “If you’re in a wheelchair you can play it.
It’s an inclusive game and we have a lot of students of all abilities.”
Inclusion is exactly what the people behind the Sogo Active grant program are looking for.
“What we try to do with the program is youth are able to create physical activity challenges that they want to engage their communities in or schools and they encourage their friends to join them,” said Megan Sutherland, provincial co-ordinator for Sogo Active. “Rather then telling youth what they’re supposed to engage in.”
“With Sogo Active it’s up to them based on their own interest.”
Sogo Active is a $5 million, five-year national youth physical activity program sponsored by Coca-Cola Canada and created by ParticipACTION. The aim of the program is to make sure teens meet Canada’s health guidelines of at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day.
“The inactivity crisis is something we’re having a big challenge in Canada addressing,” Sutherland said. “The statistics keep on climbing and that’s what’s scary.”
According ParticipACTION, only seven per cent of teens actually meet Canada’s Physical Activity Guidelines.
The Sogo grant program has handed money to over 1,800 community organizations across Canada with more to be added. Out of that number, Clarke Road is the only London group who has asked for funding.
