While Canmore council has not officially decided on the future of the Peaks of Grassi gym in the Rec Centre, a new recreation group is stepping forward with a proposal to see squash courts added to the facility and the community as a whole.
Canmore resident Brenda Cooke said the initiative to see space for the sport added to the community came as a result of interest shown by young athletes in local schools for the Alberta Winter Games last year.
The Junior Outreach Squash program now has 20 children from Exshaw, Morley and Canmore participating weekly in squash lessons using the courts at Banff’s Rocky Mountain Resort.
“It has been a really good opportunity to get these kids out and we have a coach that comes out from Calgary,” said Cooke, adding she also teaches fitness and health nutrition to them.
The inspiration to start looking at municipal facilities in Canmore to help the program grow came after Cooke met someone involved with Chucktown Squash, an outreach program in Charleston, South Carolina.
Currently, she said, the Bow Valley Squash Foundation is waiting for non-profit status and it is already starting off with funds raised by Ron Coggan, who has been involved in establishing the organization with Cooke.
“The sport can’t grow without infrastructure and infrastructure won’t grow without the sport; you know it becomes a chicken and egg approach,” Coggan said. “But squash is a pretty remarkable, demographically generous sport and Canmore is a unique community with its size and athletic focus.
“It is quite underserved in not having a squash facility.”
Coggan is the president of the Calgary inter-club squash group, consisting of 15 clubs and 1,000 players, and is enthusiastic about expanding squash as a sport in the region. Canmore, he said, is perfect for a facility.
With the Peaks of Grassi gym already having hardwood floors, he said the space would be easily converted to have two courts for $60,000 to $100,000.
With Cooke’s junior outreach program in place, Coggan said there is tremendous growth potential for more squash courts in the valley and potential to include local schools programming as well.
“That is an example of how little it takes to grow the sport and where it needs to grow. It needs to grow by exposing children to it and it is clearly identified as a sport for life,” he said.
Cooke said the Peaks of Grassi gym is big enough to accommodate two squash courts, and possibly other activities like ping-pong. She said considering squash for the Rec Centre would create a great family-friendly space for a sport that is accessible to everyone.
“I don’t think funding will be such a very big issue,” Cooke said. “We already have some funding in place and with grants … we could pretty much pay the bill and being in an existing building, that would really cut costs for sure.”
The future of the Peaks of Grassi gym is still up for debate and is being considered by council next Tuesday night (Feb. 3) at its business meeting.
In the 2015 budget, administration proposed to put $75,000 of fitness and physical literacy equipment into that space. It is a proposal not particularly well received by the private fitness community, which has been in discussions with the municipality regarding the effect of Elevation Place on their businesses.
Bow Valley Squash Foundation has submitted its proposal to the mayor and administration for consideration, however, it has not appeared as a delegation.
The last sports group to do that was the Canmore Tennis Club, which requested capital funding to expand Lion’s Park courts and presented a business plan that included paying back the capital investment.
Council decided to put the project in the 2016 budget, which will be formally approved in December, as the Town is undertaking a recreation master plan this year. The budget also included $35,000 for more equipment at Elevation Place, which will be considered by council in addition to the funds for the Peaks of Grassi gym.
Contact [email protected] for more information, or to get involved with the squash foundation.
