SUNDRE – Students have been having a ball going gaga over new gaga pits that over the past summer were installed at River Valley School.
“The students are loving our new gaga ball pits,” said vice-principal Tanya Braybrook.
“They were put in over the summer and the students got to start enjoying them on day one,” said Braybrook.
Although the game’s origins date back several decades, gaga ball seems to have more recently experienced a surge in popularity.
A variant of another classic and more commonly-known game, dodgeball, gaga ball substantially reduces the risk of impact injuries by limiting how the ball is kept in play.
Instead of players running around and throwing the ball as hard they can at any part of another player’s body, which of course can sometimes result in someone being hit in the face or other sensitive areas, players in gaga ball are only allowed to slap or hit the ball and must also aim to hit others at or below the knees.
Players also are not allowed to scoop the ball, and anyone who launches the ball out of play is eliminated from the round. Players that get tagged must hop out of the pit and the last one standing wins.
The game is also more inclusive as running fast is not a requirement, and smaller players may even have an advantage over the taller ones.
“Even our neighbours from Sundre High School are getting in on the action during their competitive sports class,” said Braybrook.
The project was spearheaded by the RVS School Council Fundraising Society, which over the past year worked closely alongside principal Leslie Cooper-Shand to make the gaga pits a reality.
Also contributing to making the gaga pits possible were donations from Pieridae Energy as well as Sundre Forest Products. The combined cost of both gaga pits amounted to approximately $3,500 including material, with the school council putting in $1,500 while Pieradae contributed $1,000 and Sundre Forest Products donated the pressure-treated wood for about $1,000, said Cooper-Shand.
