For Gerald Small, instructor of health, physical education and recreation, it’s all about getting youth outside and doing things they might not normally get to do. That was why he started Missouri Western’s Adventure Sports Academy last year, and is offering it for a second time next month.
Last year, ASA was held the same week as the Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation’s long-running Lifetime Sports Academy, and the two will run concurrently again this year. While the Lifetime Sports Academy is for children 8 to 12 years old, Small’s academy is for youth finishing sixth-grade through eighth-grade. Missouri Western students will again help run both academies.
Small said most of the activities from the first ASA were a big hit, and he will repeat the most popular ones this year, including SCUBA diving in the University pool, the ropes challenge course at William Jewell College, skeet shooting, canoeing, lacrosse and a handmade cardboard regatta race.
Last year, rain spoiled plans for a campout, but the group improvised by using the Griffon Indoor Sports Complex for flashlight games and sleeping, and the nearby Chris Faros Pavilion to cook out.
This year, Small hopes they can hold their campout outside and maybe add paddleboarding to their activity list.
Small said the ASA not only gives participants the opportunity to try new activities, but also helps youth learn about themselves and develop leadership skills. “They find out about their strengths, their weaknesses and their passions, and they overcome fears. Kids begin to say, ‘hey, I can do this.’”
He noted that most youth believe that if they don’t play an organized sport, they are not an athlete, or are not athletic. “That’s just not true,” Small said. “A lot of times, the best ones in these activities were never in organized sports.”
Adventure Sports Academy and Lifetime Sports Academy will be held June 6-10. For more information, go to missouriwestern.edu/hper and click on Adventure Sports Academy or call (816) 271-4991.