Loyalist College’s athletic department taking action to make sports safer

By: Jessyka Maliksi ^[1] 

BELLEVILLE – The athletic programs at Loyalist College are taking action to make sports at the college a safer environment for all participants.

On Dec. 12 Loyalist College’s athletic department hosted a safe sports event with Canadian Olympic guest speaker Allison Forsyth ^[2].

The concept of safe sports is to teach athletes, coaches and athletic department faculty how to create a healthy and positive environment that is free of abuse and maltreatment, where athletes can feel safe participating in their sport.  

Forsyth is a former Canadian alpine skier from British Columbia who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics ^[3].  

She’s a strong advocate of safe sports and teaching it to athletes and coaches by hosting presentations, lectures, programs and even working alongside teams.  

Director of Athletics and Recreation at Loyalist College Cristy Latham ^[4] said she wants the college to feel like a safe place.

“We want to understand how we can create a place where people are feeling like they belong,” she said, “And we also want to know what to do if people don’t feel like that, (and) what our steps would be to ensure that we can make a cultural shift.”  

Forsyth touched upon topics such as hazing, bullying, and sexual, mental, and physical abuse within team environments.  

To draw the athlete’s attention, she used real life examples that she’s seen within her workshops or even witnessed at the hands of her own coach and playing experiences.  

First-year women’s basketball player Priya Bhullar ^[5] said she enjoyed hearing Forsyth real life stories. 

“That just made it more realistic and stuff like this happens every day in sports, so that was good to hear,” Bhullar said. 

After listening to the safe sports presentation, Bhullar said it made her think about how she acts within the team she is on.  

“Makes me think about how I am as a teammate, and how I treat other people on my team,” she said, “As well as the relationships I have with my coaches and what that looks like”  

She said she will be going forward keeping the topic of safe sports in mind.  

Men’s volleyball captain Colton Charbonneau ^[6] said the same.  

He said he is walking away from Forsyth safe sports presentation with the golden rule and a few other mental notes. 

“My key takeaways would be to never assume anything, lead with a strong heart, and to treat everyone the way you would want to be treated,” he said.   

“It was cool to see a new perspective on this topic as I am uninformed but would like to become more informed. It is something I hold dear to my heart and needs to be changed in today’s society,” Charbonneau says.  

Making the sport environment safe is something that will be taught for the next few months within the Lancers athletic department.  

According to Latham, over the next few months Forsyth will be going over the college policies that currently exist, such as scholarships and the student code of conduct. Forsyth and the athletic department will be making changes to conduct a safe sport environment.  

In addition, Latham said they will be working alongside coaches and athletes to ensure they’re following safe sports guidelines.  

By providing coaches and athletes with proper safe sports training, this will help bring more awareness to the topic.  

“I do feel like a lot of students will bring this information and not apply it as much as they should,” said Charbonneau, “So, I feel like having her around, talking to all the coaches, will be beneficial to all athletic programs and help make Loyalist College a more safe sport school.”  

The benefit of having Forsyth work with the athletic department will help prepare them for any upcoming situation that has to deal with safe sports, as it’s a recent conversation that only started to take place a few years ago. 

“It’s so fresh…We’re not going to wait for something to happen, we are going to prepare for it now, and we are going to establish a culture now,” Latham said.