High school and post-secondary students to learn sport leadership at today’s conference

By Lethbridge Herald on November 5, 2024.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Local high school and post-secondary students will learn more about leadership in sport through local speakers in their respective sports organizations  during the second annual Lethbridge Sport Council’s Southern Alberta Sport Leadership Conference today at the Rocky Mountain Turf Club.

“We know from experience that many of our leaders in our community became leaders because of the skills and the things that they learned through their experience with sport,” said Tanya Whipple, Lethbridge Sport Council’s communication manager

“Sport is proven to be kind of a catapult for leadership skills. And so, those students who are interested in becoming leaders in their community, either in the sport community or outside of the sport community, this is just an opportunity to help them with some of the paths they might be able to take.”

LSC hopes the students are left feeling inspired by the speakers.

“And hope that they’ve made some connections with like-minded community members and that they want (to) continue in sport because of course sport for life makes for (a) healthier community,” said Whipple.

“It’ll have a positive impact on not only themselves but also their communities.”

Lethbridge Polytechnic’s athletics and recreation services director Todd Caughlin is speaking volunteerism in sport, while U of L’s director of athletics Spencer Pommels talks about leadership opportunities that come with sport .

“The athletic directors really can cover a great deal of area,” said Whipple.

“They have experience with athletes transitioning into coaching or administration and all of those different options that they have.”

Former University of Pronghorn rugby captain, Keegan Brantner, will speak about being a  leader in and out of sport.

“She always got valuable insights and she can see it from a little bit of a different perspective,” said Whipple.

Niko Saler and Matt Okrainec of The Bridge-Sports and Therapy Training highlight sports healthcare careers and Michael Barwegan will discuss his journey of becoming a world-class official and making it to this past summer’s Olympics.

A change from the last year’s inaugural conference is the inclusion of post-secondary students.

“We did get a lot (of) feedback from post-secondary athletes that they were quite interested in the topics as well,” said Whipple.

Whipple anticipates there will be around 100 students in attendance for today’s conference.

Speakers will be at the conference all day between 9 a.m- 3 p.m. at the RMTC.