Students at W.C. Miller Collegiate in Altona can now enjoy one of their favourite classes outdoors.

"We're super excited to open up our new outdoor cement pad," said Athletic Director Tim Brock. "It gives us the opportunity to essentially have phys-ed outside. It allows us a little bit more space, especially when we have two groups at the same time during the same class. It gives them a little more freedom. Even if we're running one class, we can have a group inside and a group outside. In previous years, we used to have a couple of groups maybe sitting off just to allow the real game to take place so there's going to be more participation in that regard."

Brock says the multi-use pad has six basketball stands with two glass backboards for the main court. The pad, which is 100 feet by 40 feet and is the same dimension as the basketball courts in the indoor gymnasium, was made a little wider to allow the side courts to have a little more length to them.

"We're hoping to paint some lines, and then it becomes more than a basketball court," noted Brock who is into his eighth year with the phys-ed department at the school. "In the winter, we're even excited about the possibility of flooding it and having our own ice rink."

Time will tell how many basketball enthusiasts take advantage of the multi-use pad and league's start sprouting up.

"I know a couple of individuals in the community that's really been pushing it," said Brock. "I myself am a huge basketball fan, so it is nice to just give that possibility to people. If you don't have a spot at your house it's hard to do. Now with the space within the community, it's open for just about anybody outside the school time. The hope would be people continue to follow the COVID rules as everybody has been told in terms of who can be out there and the number of people. Once COVID rules open up, by all means, if I walk by it and see a number of people playing, that should be a good sign."

Brock pointed out that the administration team at W.C. Miller Collegiate played an important role in kick-starting the project, and what followed next was a conversation between a number of people throwing some ideas around.

"Ultimately we decided on the cement pad just because it's multi-functional," said Brock. "We can do a number of things on it, and it just allows us more of an opportunity to continue to increase our phys-ed program. We had a number of activities this year based on COVID that did not happen, so our administration team were able to allocate some different funds to help us out, and then we had the generous support of the Border Land School Division as well to go ahead with the project. As a phys-ed teacher, it's nice to have the backing of both our school division and our admin team to be able to continue to promote our program and really appreciate and put time into our athletics."