Horns Recreation programming now in full swing

By Lethbridge Herald on April 26, 2023.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The University of Lethbridge’s Horns Recreation department officially kicked off its spring/summer programming this week.

Horns Recreation began the spring and summer programming with adult and kids karate and fencing, as well as first aid and aquatic programs and climbing wall options.

“So we have those regular programs that we would typically run in the fall and winter semesters, (and they) will carry over into what we call the spring or early summer piece which is more May and June,” said Bill Halma, Horns Recreation executive director.

“And those are things like our fencing and karate. I know Athletics runs some junior Horns camps as well too during that period of time. Because the students are not in school, we tend to (move) towards a community programming  model in the spring/summer months versus what I’d call a student-centric model in the fall and the winter.”

The focus for programs is more of the youth engagement side.

“We don’t have as much adult programming that goes on,” said Halma.

Halma uses the example of the U of L pool running private swim lessons in the summer and spring.

“We’ve got a session that’s going on right now that kind of runs through May/June, and then we’ll pick up with what we call our weekly lessons in July and August,” said Halma.

“So lessons that would run at a certain time during the day — usually a half hour (or) 45-minute session —  and they would run during the entire week, so like Monday to Friday. Whereas our May/June pieces run … either 30 or 45 minute lessons  and they run usually once a week on a Monday at 4 to 4:45 p.m., for example.”

For the private lessons, Halma said these tend to be one to one and they’re not group lessons.

“And we found our niche in the market with that,” said Halma.

“These private lessons tend to have a lot better skill retention and the ability to pick up the skills  a lot quicker because it is a one-to-one basis.”

The Lifesaving Club runs in May and June.

“And then sort of a mixture of aquatic certification programs that sort of gets people, if they’re  interested, learning how to life guard or renewing their lifeguard certification,” said Halma.

Those courses run May through July.

The usual Adventure Youth and Rock Stars climbing programs are back for another year in May and June.

Lead climbing and introduction to climbing are available for adults.  

The Horn Recreation’s focus is to provide high quality programs.

“If there’s opportunities…   and I’ll use our private swimming lessons as part of it, is we try to add more classes if the space is available to us,” said Halma.

“But again, because our pool is the only competition pool in the city, we our constrained by user groups like the Pronghorns, Lethbridge Amateur Swim Club, synchro, diving, those types of groups that are always looking for what I’d consider that prime time ,which is that very  late afternoon to early evening. We’re all fighting for that same time, so we’re trying to find the best balance of offering programs within that time period alongside of being able to keep our user groups happy as well.”

Approximately 50 to 60 per cent of the programs are fully registered.

Other programs like the art camps and drama camps are full, while a couple of soccer and basketball camps are nearly full.

Programs and registration information can be done at go.uleth.ca/sportrec.