Skip to content
Sponsored Content

School balances sport and academics to take athletes to the next level

PISE continues CSI’s program for youth athletes in Victoria
29245495_web1_copy_220530-Impress-GNG-PISE-_1
CSS gives elite high school athletes the edge they need to go to the next level.

For youth in Victoria looking to go to the next level in sports, whether collegiate or national, the Canadian Sport School offers a high-performance culture that provides support, coordination, and advocacy between student-athletes and their teachers and coaches.

Established in 2011 by Canadian Sport Institute Pacific and now delivered by the Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence (PISE), the sport school provides athletic and academic support for secondary school students who are balancing their educational and high-performance training demands.

This helps to alleviate the pressures felt by our future National Team members, Olympians, and Paralympians, by giving them the skills and resources needed to continue to develop and excel both on the field and in the classroom.

“The Canadian Sport School offers a tremendous opportunity for the development of student athletes on their high-performance sport pathway,” says CSS Manager Stacy Lund. “Many of the athletes in our program go on to receive substantial scholarships to universities, transition to national teams and become overall talented future leaders.”

The Canadian Sport School offers a unique opportunity where high-performance high school athletes can achieve balance between their athletics, academics, and personal life.

“It’s an honour to be a part of their journeys as they continually push themselves beyond their limits and also support one another to be the best version of themselves,” Lund says.

The school welcomes approximately thirty students per year, in Grades ten to twelve, from a variety of schools in the Greater Victoria area, and from a variety of sports backgrounds.

Students spend half a day at their regular high school where they take their core courses, such as math and sciences, and half the day in sport school at PISE, which is again divided into one-half study and one-half training, including speed, strength and gymnastics.

Not only do the students get to experience the social culture of high school, they can train during the day, which leaves more time outside of school.

Students must take the full suite of courses, and can earn academic credit for 6 high school classes, such as Physical and Health Education, Active Living, Career Life Education, Leadership and Career Life Connections.

The training portion is delivered in first-class facilities at PISE, with highly qualified and educated high performance coaches, which creates a superior training environment and experience for the student-athletes.

Students experience premier weekly seminars in sport, health and leadership with world renowned experts from the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific and the business and sport community. They share advice and guidance on a range of aspects, including nutrition, mental performance, sleep, leadership and career and sport development.

As program ends the students prepare a final project to cap off their experience as they graduate from the Canadian Sport School.

Find out more about CSS Victoria on Facebook and Instagram or fill out an online application.