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Jaden Fielding

The Spartan Scoop: Spring Sports, Bad Weather, and Summer Hobbies

SENTINEL SPRING SPORTS

After a little over a month of entertaining matches, vanquished rivals, and wins celebrated together, the spring sport season is wrapping up for many of Sentinel’s best athletes. The spring season has so far included notable performances from Sentinel’s junior badminton team winning the North Shore playoffs, the senior badminton team who came an oh-so-close second place on the North Shore, as well as the ultimate team who won the Spirit Banner. The track team also enjoyed a successful season, with strong individual performances from Alexandra Tenn, Marten Dommann, Sofia Day, Karissa Kirkwood, and Sidney Clement amongst others. Due to the pandemic, for many of the athletes, this was the first time in two whole years that they could experience proper competition, making every moment on the field, court, or playing surface that much sweeter—especially for those in Grade 12 experiencing their final taste of high school sports. In all, another successful season of school sports was realized due to the support of the coaches, teacher volunteers, and parents who made this all possible, so a big thank you to all of them.


WHERE IS THE SPRING WEATHER?

In typical Vancouver fashion, it wouldn’t be right to not spend at least 5 minutes complaining about the weather, so here goes. It was a cold and rainy May—not so unusual for Vancouver weather any month of the year to be honest. However, this spring has been historically so, with May 5th being the coldest day in May for over two decades. Beyond just sucking that extra bit of joy out of us Vancouverites, this cold trend has some experts worried. The cold weather kept the mountain’s snowpack quite frozen despite being the midst of May; in a time in which the snowpack should already be ~18% melted, only 2.6% melted by mid May this year. The risk of this scenario is the weather taking a sharp uptick back towards seasonal averages, thus melting this built-up snowpack all at once and potentially causing catastrophic flooding. While the risk of this happening is low—only half a year removed from devastating flooding across the lower mainland last November—the risk remains real.

SUMMER HOBBIES

With AP season finally over, many older students are rediscovering a little something called free time—and despite the weather outside, summer is fast approaching. With the extra bit of freedom the summer months bring, many people look outside for activities to fill their spare time. There is no shortage of outdoor activities to enjoy on the North Shore so, with that in mind, here are a few summer hobbies that might just be worth your time.


Geocaching

Geocaching is a global hide-and-seek adventure game, where millions of cleverly-hidden containers (called Geocaches) are tucked away in secret locations outside. Use a GPS device or the Geocaching app to see rough coordinates and a few hints to help you locate the so-called “caches.” Then, when you find them, sign the log book, trade some swag, then put it right back where you found it for the next person! The Geocaching community is well-established, being over 20 years old and with over a million active geocachers world-wide. Just ask Mr. Plant, a seasoned geocacher himself—with over 3000 caches found in 8 years spent geocaching. “It's the hide-and-seek nature of it, that's just fun to do,” he says, “knowing that something is hiding there, right in that place I have walked right by many times before.”


Geocaching can also be the tour guide to discovering all sorts of cool locations you might never find otherwise. Geocaches are frequently placed in areas other people find interesting, whether it be particularly beautiful scenery or a partially hidden area no-one knows about. The geocaching community also gets very creative with how they hide their caches, sometimes flawlessly camouflaging the geocache in with its surroundings making finding it a puzzle or a true challenge for even the most experienced. “Whenever I go to a new location,” Mr. Plant says, “I’ll open up the map to check where the geocaches are.” Geocaching is a great way to get outside and explore, even right in your own hometown.


More than just a game, Geocaching can also be a great way to promote physical activity. As a fun alternative to organized sports, it’s a great way to get outside. Plus, if you are someone who likes to go on hikes, runs or bike rides, it can add incentive to do these activities if you plan a route to pick up a few caches along the way. Besides, geocaching is for all levels of physical abilities, you might find a cache at the top of an eight-hour hike, but you can also find many just off the Seawall.

If this is something that you might want to give a shot, you don’t have to go very far. Mr. Plant and a few of the Sentinel Staff have placed caches within walking distance of the school—you might have even walked right past them. So before you next go out for a walk or run, take a look at the hidden community of Geocaching and consider what might be secretly hidden just out of your sight.


Mr. Plant in front of a geocache.

Gardening

Whether it be in a spacious backyard, in a greenhouse or just on your windowsill, springtime is a perfect time to start thinking about planting a garden. A great way to go back to your roots, gardening can have a therapeutic effect on many people. It allows me “to de-stress and feel the day’s problems wash off me,” says Megan Gray, who along with her sister, runs Sentinel’s “Garden Guru” club. Studies back up this claim, suggesting that gardening can have positive effects on both mental and physical health. It gives both the instant gratification of a day's hard work as well as long-term satisfaction as you watch that hard work transforming into food on your table. Plus, with the rising price of food lately, the benefits of growing a few of your own fruits or vegetables is becoming even more appealing. A small packet of seeds can go a long way towards supplying you with fresh produce in the summertime. Additionally, as the Gray sisters explain, gardening can be a great way to alleviate the “climate anxiety” many people experience as we just don’t know what we are supposed to do as single individuals to help fight against some of the major problems affecting our environment. Through the production of sustainable, local crops as well as the supplementation of pollination and other natural processes, gardening is a fun, physical activity we can all do that has an actively positive effect on the environment we all share.


Finally, as Ms. Gray puts it, the gardening community is “much more than just your grandma’s garden.” You have probably seen a communal garden in your neighborhood and this community-orientated aspect is what the Garden Guru club hopes to achieve: a chance to spend some time outside with friends, planting all sorts of fun herbs, vegetables and plants while working towards achieving a beneficial goal, whether it be helping the local bee population or growing food to donate to those in need. If this is something that sparks your interest, consider contacting the Ms.Grays or check out the Garden Guru’s weekly Tuesday meetings at lunch!


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