With no track and field club in Airdrie, members of the community are banding together to form a new club that will help in the personal development of athletes.
After the Airdrie Aces Track and Field club disbanded in 2020 due to financial shortcomings, athletes had no other local athletic clubs to turn to. Recognizing a need for one, Ellisa Podemski, alongside previous Aces coach BobbiJo Waite Lang, began the process of forming a new club named the Rocky View Athletics Club.
In order to stir interest in membership, the club will be hosting a meet and greet at the Genesis Place Recreational Centre track on Aug. 20 at 12 p.m. for athletes over the age of 12.
With two of her children being former participants of the Airdrie Aces, Podemski said after the previous club shut down a sense of community was lost.
Even though track and field is offered as a competitive sport in middle and high schools, Podemski said often athletes continue to train alone. She added there are several track and field events outside of school that athletes could be accessing.
“Although my kids were able to still do the training themselves that were provided by a professional coach, the camaraderie of running with other people, and being part of a team and getting pushed in team workouts was really missing,” she said. “There's tons of opportunities for kids to compete in non-Rocky View high school events.”
After her 16-year-old son, Logan Massey, competed in the 2023 Alberta Summer Games for Zone Two, Podemski said it reminded him of the team atmosphere he had once been a part of.
Recognizing the positive impact it had on her son, Podemski and Lang felt it was a good time to look for other athletes in the community who could benefit from team training.
To raise awareness of the new club, Podemski made a public post about it on Facebook. Since then, she said, several parents began expressing a desire to get their children involved. She added that track and field is a broad sport that provides athletes many opportunities to explore.
“We just decided that it was time to reach out to the community and see if there was any interest,” she explained. “There's so many different facets of track and field for different kids to get involved in.”
Podemski emphasized the club will be open to both Airdrie and Rocky View County athletes. She said they recognize a number of athletes in the surrounding communities may be interested in athletics, and therefore made it a priority of the new club to make it regional and inclusive.
Starting off, the Rocky View Athletics Club will focus on a youth program, but after that Podemski said they are open to adding a junior development program in the future. She added they have another former Aces coach who is also interested in taking on a junior program.
“It's clearly a need that's in the community that needs to be filled,” Podemski said. “Just stepping up to fill that and hope that we have other athletes in the community who grow up learning to love running and track.”
