New Partnership to Offer Alpine Ski Racers Improved Academic Options
Collingwood, ON (August 14th, 2018) – Alpine Ontario Alpin (AOA), in collaboration with the Southern Ontario Division (SOD), is excited to announce a new opportunity for members to earn high school credits while training and racing in the Southern Georgian Bay area.
Pretty River Academy, an award winning independent school with 20 years educating athletes and local students, has partnered with AOA to offer a flexible education program specifically designed for skiers at the regional FIS team level, as well as U14 and U16 Club programs beginning this September for the 2018/19 season.
The partnership is designed to increase on hill training time while reducing transportation time for families, all while experiencing a first-class education. The dryland training program will be designed by the experts at Active Life Conditioning based in Collingwood.
Athlete retention continues to be a high priority for AOA’s Athletic Committee. Since its inception, the committee has identified the need to provide more flexible academic programs that integrate on snow training and racing especially at the U16+ age groups.
In recent years AOA has worked hard to create an Education Document (click here) which outlines options, resources and tools at the secondary level as well, provides post-secondary pathways across Ontario and North America. We encourage families to become familiar with the document for planning purposes for both the short and long term.
“Our school is extremely excited to be a part of this new partnership. It builds on the years of success we’ve had working around the schedules of students with high level achievement outside the classroom,” said Dr. Judy Osmond, Headmaster at Pretty River Academy.
Pretty River’s alumni include three Olympians who earned credits while being completely immersed in elite training.
“It’s a perfect evolution for AOA to partner with a local educator that is already in place and has a strong track record ensuring athletes graduate and prepare for university in the midst of their competitive season,” added Scott Barrett, Executive Director of AOA.
For more information on the Pretty River Academy Athlete Program, please click here.
For more information on the on-hill training program coordinated by the SOD Ski Team, please click here
– END –
Alpine Ontario Alpin (AOA) is the provincial governing body for the sport of alpine ski racing in Ontario. Alpine Ontario’s newly refined mission is to provide leadership and structure for high quality, sustainable and affordable programming and to communicate the competitive, recreational and lifestyle benefits of ski racing to the community. AOA represents four divisions, 44 member clubs and over 30,000 active athletes, coaches and officials (volunteers). AOA coordinates several successful programs across the province and continues to foster the development of “state of the art” ski-racing programs from the grass roots level to the elite level.
For more information contact:
Kristin Ellis
Communications Manager
Alpine Ontario Alpin (AOA)
705-444-5111 x132
communications@alpineontario.local