The Sir James Whitney School is very proud of its athletic facilities. 

The exercise room has a number of apparatuses - trampolines, free weight equipment, wrestling and tumbling mats, stationary bikes and steppers, as well as a universal gym.

The pool is 75'X35' with change rooms and storage bins available. It is equipped with a shallow end with a handicapped entry unit and a deep end with a diving board. The pool is marked out for swim meet races and has a large bleacher seating area.

The athletic department is shared by both the residence program and the school program. Students are regularly encouraged to participate and be involved in athletics in some way. Academically, the athletic program is manditory for grades 1 thru 9 and is optional for the higher grades. Residentially, the students are encouraged to participate in any of the offered programs during the evening hours but this is optional.

1) Zero tolerance for drug and alcohol use.

2) Overall marks 60% with discretion from teacher/counsellors,  for both academic            and behavioural marks.

3) Have a positive daily attitude.

4) Punctual.

The following is a general overview of some of the athletic activities offered.

Every school year, the three provincial schools take turns in hosting tournaments. The regular events are Volleyball, Ball Hockey, and Speed Swimming. Volleyball is hosted by Sir James Whitney in late Fall. The three provincial schools - Sir James Whitney, E.C. Drury and Robarts are involved, as well as some of the regular school boards who have deaf programs. Danforth Tech, Metro School for the Deaf, and Northern Secondary School have participated. There are three divisions. Junior Co-ed , Sr. Girls and Sr. Boys. The other tournaments have much the same format. Ball Hockey is hosted in Milton (Ernest C. Drury) in March and Swimming is hosted by London (Robarts) in April .

Students involved on the teams share the entry fee costs. This fee is generally in the area of $10 per student. Team jerseys are supplied by the school, but most students prefer to purchase their own for health reasons and as a keepsake. Practices are normally twice a week. These tournaments are wonderful rewarding experiences for the students.

	The school also enters teams in events such as soccer, baseball, basketball and badminton. These teams also have entry fees that are absorbed by the students involved. Fees vary with each sport. Practices are held generally twice a week. Soccer is offered in the fall.  If enough students are interested, we enter teams into the Friendship Tournament hosted in the United States. We have not only sent teams to play, but also a cheerleading squad to participate in their cheerleading competition. A senior co-ed baseball team is also offered in May. This team travels to Northern Secondary School in Toronto to play. Basketball is popular for the Sr. Boys. The boys have yet to enter a league, but do play exhibition games with local high schools and challenge some of our staff. Next year we hope to develop our own league, with the assistance of the Belleville Recreation, and invite groups to come in and play the boys.  In February, the boys entered a basketball tournament held in Toronto.  Hopefully, this will become a regular event in years to come.
Badminton is another popular sport. It is normally held from March to May. This team enters the local high school competitions. The senior residence program also submits two co-ed teams in the Belleville Recreation Volleyball League which is held at our gym facility every Monday night from the first of October until December.

Through out the year, J. G. Demeza Sports Centre is available to the Junior and Senior Residences, as well as our sister school, the Sagonaska Demonstration School. 

All areas get time in the gym , exercise room, and pool.  Practices for team sports fill most of the time slots, but when there are openings, other interesting fun activities are planned.
Personal Strengths and Interests:

If a students wishes to be involved in community team sports, we do our best to get them involved. We have had students joining hockey teams, ball hockey teams, volleyball teams and swim teams.

Whatever the students interests or strengths may be, we make every attempt to allow them to excel.

This is a new program we recently established in the last two years in the Sr. Residences. The program tries to offer a variety of new and interesting sports the students may want to learn and attempt.

The camping/canoe trip and the downhill skiing have become very popular with the students. We attempt to do the camp/canoe trip twice a year. The first trip is a base camp. Here we break into groups and instruct different aspects of camping: canoe instruction, bird watching, nature hikes, map reading, art and crafts and outdoors photography. During the winter months, we begin the training for our May canoe/backpacking trip. The training sessions are bi-weekly one hour sessions that the students must attend in order to qualify to go on the trip. Sessions include, first aid, food preparation, proper equipment, types of clothing, proper packing techniques, swim tests and more in depth canoe training.

The downhill ski program is offered after Christmas Break from January to March. Every Thursday night we go skiing at our small local hill (Batawa) for basic ski lessons and practice. In February, we attempt to go to Oshawa-Kirby and Devils Elbow in Peterborough for a little more advanced skiing conditions. In March, the final challenge is skiing Mount Tremblant in Quebec, for those who choose to go.

Throughout the year, other interesting and challenging activities are planned for those who wish to join in. We have done horseback riding, rock climbing, played squash, bowling, rollerblading, bike riding, snow shoeing, tobogganing and went to fitness clubs. Other things such as boxing, tennis, scuba-diving have been suggested and we are attempting to arrange contacts so we may try these activities.