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Central Alberta Sports Authority announces CEO

Scott Robinson will be the first CEO
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Scott Robinson is the new CEO of the Central Alberta Sports Authority. (BYRON HACKETT/ADVOCATE STAFF)

Scott Robinson will be the first CEO of the Central Alberta Sports Authority (CASA).

In an announcement Friday morning, the group said Robinson will help facilitate its vision of the region becoming a leader in the sports community provincially, nationally and internationally.

Robinson was most recently the CEO of the 2019 Canada Winter Games and spent 23 years with Hockey Alberta, including 10 years as the executive director of the Hockey Alberta Foundation.

“It’s brand new and we’re excited. It’s a legacy from the 2019 Games. We envisioned that we needed a group to really lead sport in the community and be the voice for sport,” said Robinson.

“Through the Games experience, we learned that sport, although it’s great in this community, it needs support at times and coordination at times in terms of initiatives. This was the vision post-games and with the legacy being awarded, this is an opportunity to get this up and running.”

In addition to drawing major events to the area, the group will try to help get local sports back on track after the COVID-19 pandemic put a dent in sports participation.

“With COVID and everything, the timing couldn’t have been better. Sport has struggled big time because of the fact that we’ve not been able to have kids on the field or in gyms or anything. Our goal coming out of this will be to listen to the sport community and understand how we can better support them going forward,” Robinson said.

“As well as start to look at down the road, where we can look at in collaboration with the city and others on bringing more events to the city. Also, the celebration of sport is important and there’s been a void in Red Deer over the last number of years, in terms of the sport leaders and the great athletes. We hope to resurrect some of that as well. “

CASA was developed as a result of the legacy of the 2019 Canda Winter Games. In the fall of 2019, nine candidates were selected to the inaugural CASA board of directors.

That group has built an initial business plan and developed a multi-year strategic plan to guide the organization over the next several years.

“We recognize these are trying times for individuals,” said Allan Ferchuk, CASA board chair.

“A pillar of CASA is to support community and sport development and we want to be the voice of sport for central Alberta as we navigate sport hosting and development opportunities post-pandemic. We are ready to make our mark and support in the rebuilding of the sport sector.”