The future of sports in Port Coquitlam is entering into a whole new arena.
The Port Coquitlam Sports Alliance was formed last year to develop a vision for the future of sports in the community while at the same time providing a voice to local sports clubs and organizations.
"Having a strong sport culture is part of what drives families and new people to move to an area and to stay in an area. It becomes part of recruitment and retention for an area," said Ryan Clark, executive director with the alliance. "If you have strong sports clubs, good sports amenities, good sports facilities, people tend to gravitate to that. If you don't have it they'll move 10, 15 miles to the next catchment area."
Clark said while it's well recognized that sports improves physical health, the benefits to mental and social well-being aren't always as readily apparent.
"Sport builds up healthy communities, it builds community pride," he said. "It brings people together, it helps people to meet new friends and new peer groups, it brings self-confidence and helps keep younger people away from detrimental practices."
The idea for the sports alliance began in 2010 when a sports summit brought together local politicians and city staff with leaders of sports clubs and school district senior administration. That led to Clark being hired as executive director last summer, with work on a new centre for sports excellence expected to wrap up later this year.
"They've realized that sport is such a very important pillar of a community it shouldn't just be left to chance."
Clark has spent much of the past year getting his finger on the pulse of Port Coquitlam's sports community, meeting with leaders of sports clubs and identifying needs for local facilities.
"Our job as a sports alliance is to go in and work with these clubs to help them thrive, and for each club that's a little different," he said. "When we're working with the clubs we find out what their needs are for facilities. It's not just what we need right now but also what's coming down the pike. Because obviously if you're doing a capital build it's a long-term process."
One of the more immediate aspects of the alliance has been its work with local athletes. Clark says he has already helped a handful of student-athletes with their transition to post-secondary institutions.
"We have two of the best schools for high school athletics between Riverside and Terry Fox. And we can help their athletes transition to get into top-tier post-secondary schools. That's where I can really see us giving added advantage to our student athletes," said Clark, who previously worked with a sports management agency.
"I'll sit with them and their families and map out a plan. Where to look, how to do it and manage the communication process throughout. Basically it's guiding them through this whole process."
Clark said the concept of the sports alliance is something that's unique to Port Coquitlam.
"There are sport groups but most are based on sports tourism. This is different. Growing tournaments and events will be part of this down the road but that's not the leading driver. The unique part of this is that it's internal, not external. It is bottom-up, not top-down."
And Clark said the real benefits of the alliance will begin to be seen later this year with the centre for sports opens at the new Pitt River middle school.
"When that opens you're going to have a lot of teams training out of there, they'll have their meetings out of there, they can use the new conditioning room there," he said. "When you're going to have a whole bunch of teams having meetings and doing training, that's going to be exciting. It will be good to see when all those athletes from different sports are going to be around each other."
