Athletic Director, Chris Quinn, reflects on what the school’s sports programme looks like post-Covid, and the importance of social health.
As we all know, it’s been a tough 20 months or so, not least for our students. Sport is an area that has suffered, but we’re keen to get this going again. However, the reality is that we’re still dealing with the back end of Covid so it’s really important that we introduce our new sports programme in a careful way. We opened our landmark new campus in August 2020 and can’t wait for our students and the wider community to be able to use our fantastic sports facilities.
I’m currently working with my counterparts at other schools to look at is how we re-establish sports leagues and competitive forums safely for students to access sport, so I’m hopeful we can look forward to starting this again soon.
In the meantime, there is progress. This autumn, we started to open up basketball in Middle and High School, and have also started try-outs for 12 boys and girls’ sports teams, where we’ll be having weekly training sessions. Any children that make the squad will need to commit to morning sessions, and we’re starting a 6am pre-school club which could be an interval or HIIT session on the track.
We’ve also opened up after-school activities in the Lower School, which includes sports and hobby-based activities. We’re continuing to remain Covid-safe and take our responsibilities seriously, so we haven’t completely opened our doors to our campus, but this is an area where we will incrementally add new sports. The idea is that we have a campus that is open from 6 a.m. until late at night, for activities including yoga and track, around the formal school day.
After 4pm, we have specially selected partner organisations using our facilities, such as BE Basketball. We also work with Rebel Angels, who do gymnastics, cheerleading and parkour; ORX Boxing Academy, and Molecular, who run science and cooking activities.
Wellbeing is, of course, a huge reason why sport is so important.
As well as our students’ wellbeing, we encourage our staff to use our facilities. At the end of the day on a Thursday, we open up our facilities to staff who want to come and relax, just to get together. It could be a game of table tennis or badminton.
Another big part of wellbeing, and something that is relatively untapped, is social health – people doing things together and interacting within their community. There are so many benefits to social cohesion, not least promoting positive mental health and increasing brain health. Research suggests that you’re more likely to live a happier and longer and there is evidence to suggest this is the case in many countries.
Covid has driven many people apart and people are yearning to be back together. Sport, and our outstanding facilities at ACS Doha, play a key role in this making this happen.
Chris Quinn, Athletic Director
