85 Rainbow Board track athletes got some great news today

Some 85 Rainbow District School Board track and field athletes received some great news earlier this week — they've gotten the OK to compete at the 2015 Sudbury District Secondary School Athletic Assoication city championships on May 20 and 21, despite the fact that their teachers on are strike.

Because of that strike, it was thought that no representatives of from the seven public high schools affected by the work stoppage would be included in the list of entries.

Without a doubt, the absence of athletes from the likes of Lo-Ellen Park Secondary, Lockerby Composite and Lasalle Secondary, among others, would drastically alter the overall competitiveness of the two-day meet.

While he realizes all too well that the board decision will not be without critics, Bruce Bourget, the superintendent of schools for the Rainbow Board, said it's really about making the best of a difficult situation on behalf of the students.

“We’ve looked at opportunities for our students to participate, realizing that with the current situation, there are certain limitations,” Bourget said. “We’ve tried to do our very best to determine which athletes have continued to train, and have put in considerable time and effort into track and field.”

Factors to consider included SDSSAA eligibility guidelines, minimum training requirements that athletes should undertake before competing, as well as feedback received from school principals.

“We’ve done this to the best of our ability, but with obvious limitations,” Bourget said. “Our goal was to give our students an opportunity to participate.

“It was a very well-intended process, knowing that some of these athletes have trained for 50 of the 52 weeks since the time of the last city championships.”

That said, it is a virtual certainty that not all will be satisfied with the board's decision.

“We know that it’s not an opportunity that we can afford every athlete in every sport, or even every athlete in track and field,” Bourget said. “But we hope that people recognize that we’ve done the best we could under current circumstances.”