High school sports: The perspectives of the school principals

Abstract

The Canadian School Sport Federation, responsible for interscholastic sport, provides a mission to extend physical and athletic development, as well as, moral and social development (Canadian School Sport Federation, n.d.). To reach this mission, participation is needed not only by the coaches, who's role is central to the athletes experience (Roy, Trudel, & Lemyre, 2001), but also the school principals. As part of a research program examining the practice of interscholastic sports, we conducted interviews with 11 school principals and documented 'who' are the high school principals i.e. documented their past experiences and their role and perspective regarding high school sports. The main results showed that (a) most school principals had experience in sport as an athlete or a coach, (b) being a physical education teacher often led to the position of school principal, (c) the principals were conscious of the importance of school sports, and (d) they preferred to select coaches from within their school. Keywords: school sport/interscholastic sports, school principal