Fiona Sullivan is a grade eleven student currently enrolled in Smithers Secondary School, as well as Hazelton Secondary, her hometown.
She recently moved to Smithers to pursue more wrestling opportunities, that was until BC School Sports, the governing body for school athletics across the province, notified her that she was ineligible to compete this school year (2021-2022).
According to BC School Sports regulations, when a student moves to a new school district that student must wait one year before competing at elite levels. However, Sullivan argues that those rules are largely in place for bigger school districts with more students in the Lower Mainland not rural, northern schools.
“I think it’s a flaw in the regulations,” Sullivan said. “There needs to be fair rules for all student athletes in BC.”
Sullivan is a wrestler but also plays several others team sports including volleyball. She said BC school sports has also been very vague about the reasoning for the regulation in lower populated districts.
“When I moved to Smithers I was told partway through my volleyball season that I wold not be able to participate in high level competition for the rest of the year,” she said.
“We then discovered that was for all my sports not just volleyball. We started fighting it a couple months ago, but they’ve just been denying it over and over.”
BC School Sports didn’t respond for interview requests.
Assistant Superintendent for School District 54, Matthew Monkman said in a statement, “We understand the need for this bylaw in urban centres to keep the sports system fair, however it does not take into consideration the inequity of sport opportunities in the North. There is no competitive edge to gain in Fiona’s transfer. The programs she needs access to aren’t available in her home community.”
Sullivan said she has received lots of support from her parents, teachers, her teammates and others and will keep fighting the BC School Sports regulations, advocating for a governing body just for northern BC school sports.
But for now, Sullivan just wants to get back to playing volleyball.
Listen to the full episode below.