Layne McDougall – Campus Recreation Coordinator
Adam Goodwin – Events and Marketing
The 2011-12 academic year marked a new position for the Department of Athletics and Recreation, and previous student leader Adam Goodwin was ready to take on the new challenge. Adam is currently the Events and Marketing coordinator for athletics at UBCO, and under his direction the campus has enjoyed a heightened atmosphere at sporting events this year.
Adam graduated in June of 2011 with a Bachelor’s of Human Kinetics (major in Community Health Promotion), the first undergraduate class for the faculty. He was heavily involved around campus as a student, having gotten his first job on campus in his 3rd year when he took on the position of Assistant Student Events Coordinator at Campus Life.
“With that job I did a lot of helping […] with events. I helped plan a huge event that raised […] money for the Kelowna Food Bank. Through that, one day […] Athletics asked Campus Life to help promote a game. Before that I came to games as a student, so I knew a lot about the [team].”
Between his 3rd and 4th year he was an Orientation Coordinator, spending his summer planning Create. “I got to meet a lot of people on campus through that […] so that kind of opened the door to connections with other people on campus.
“Then in 4th year I was quite involved again; [I] presented at the Student Leadership conference at both campuses, I was an RA, a collegia assistant, an executive on the [Human Kinetics] student union for three years, I was chair of the [Human Kinetics] graduate committee.
“Then I graduated. In about February I realized that I wanted to work at the University. I love University life, I love what students can do at the university, how universities interact with the community. Students are the heartbeat of a university and give it that community feel.” Looking for on-campus jobs between February and March of last year, he applied for his current position when it opened up, and officially started on July 4th. “The reason I applied for this job [is that] I got to be involved with events, get involved in marketing, [and] work with student athletes a lot. I love sports and wanted to work for the University […] so it kind of added up to wanting to work for this job.”
His position for Events and Marketing entails coordinating all aspects of home games for all varsity sports, promoting the Heat on campus to students and faculty, and promoting the Heat in the community at large. He says that part of his job is to “build relationships with the media […] on the promoting and games side.” He constantly works with all thirteen of the Heat’s partners, who provide scholarships, prizes for fans and the like.
This year he tried developing the social media side of things to a great deal of success. ‘Ogi’ Ogopogo, the team’s mascot—now with his own facebook page and has over 2000 friends—frequently posts updates for games and chances to win prizes.
Adam hired “approximately between fifty to seventy” student staff in Work Study positions this year to help with Events. “They do everything from scorekeeping, keeping statistics, working the front gate, helping sell tickets, merchandise, etc.”
When asked about where he hopes Events and Marketing will move towards for the next year, he said that “I think next year we’ll see a big difference in terms of how we market and promote. We’re going to change it up […] have a lot of active promotion. Next year we’re really going to try and engage in active promotion. I know the student athletes are really interested in that sort of thing. You’re going to see a lot more stuff on social media […] and also just trying to get Heat awareness around campus.”
Layne is now in her second year as the Campus Recreation coordinator, coming to UBCO in the fall of 2009 after graduating from Mount Royal University with a Bachelor of Applied Business and Entrepreneurship.
As the campus recreation coordinator, she oversees intramural programming, Big White Student Days and certain other campus events. She also oversees all fitness programming, including group fitness and personal training. She also coordinates summer children’s programs like U-CAMP and assists with Heat varsity sport camps.
Intramurals remain a big thing for students on campus, and this year in the fall semester there were intramural programs for outdoor soccer, futsal, indoor volleyball, indoor basketball, Ultimate Frisbee, and flag football. This spring, volleyball, basketball, futsal, and dodgeball have been offered.
This semester, intramural leagues were broken “into two seasons because the problem was [that] there were a lot of students who wanted to participate, and not enough space and time. We’re trying to service as many students as possible with what we have.”
It can often be a struggle to find gym time while varsity sports teams are in the middle of their seasons. “When it comes to sharing the gym with varsity sports in the winter, that’s where we become limited,” she commented.
Layne often coordinates with Health and Wellness when it comes to fitness activities. “Health and Wellness was trying to do the same thing [as us], so I thought ‘why not work together?’” Fitness activities offered by either party can be found on either the Campus Recreation calendar or the Health and Wellness schedule.
Group fitness options on campus include, but are not limited to, yoga, Belly-Fit, Bootcamp, dance classes (contemporary/hip-hop), and Body Sculpt. Personal training is also readily available for interested students: “I have four certified personal trainers who are also students on campus,” she commented. “They offer free weight room orientations as well as personal training sessions for $20 per session.”
Campus Recreation has several employment opportunities for students looking for work or student leadership experience. Layne comments that “I think within the last two years, rec and athletics staff have become a part of the student leader group on campus. Being a part of the student leadership boot camp, banquet […] all that has really integrated us into the campus community.
Layne has seen tremendous growth with intramural sports over the last two years. This year the approximate registration tally for both semesters (including both seasons this semester) was nearly 2500 students—for perspective, there are less than 2000 students living in residence this year—and that includes both residence living and off-campus students.
This semester alone there were 76 teams registered for the January-February season, and another 88 for the late February-March season, for a total of 164 teams. Compare that to January 2011 when there were only 80 teams registered for the entire second semester.
Layne believes recreation and fitness on campus are vital parts of the community for a number of reasons, but partly because “it’s an informal learning environment. It’s a place for social development outside the classroom. You become best friends with someone that you’re sitting beside outside the cafeteria with, throwing a Frisbee around with.”
