Brock University’s Walker Sports Complex is preparing to increase its operational activities as the campus and province transition to a less restrictive stage of pandemic recovery.

Beginning Tuesday, Aug. 3, Brock Recreation will reopen indoor facilities, including the Zone Fitness Centre and Eleanor Misener Aquatic Centre, as well as the outdoor tennis and basketball courts, to the University’s students.

Pre-registration is required to access the gym, pool and outdoor facilities through the Brock Recreation reservation system. Bookings open each Friday at noon for the following week.

The first bookings will go live Friday, July 30 at noon for the week of Aug. 3.

Sessions for the Zone can only be booked for one-hour periods and are staggered by 15-minute breaks to allow staff to conduct enhanced equipment cleaning. Sessions for the aquatic centre consist of 45-minute time slots and are limited to one reservation per person per day.

Students will have the opportunity to pre-book gym sessions at the Zone Fitness Centre beginning Tuesday, Aug. 3.

Brock’s outdoor tennis and basketball courts will also be available for 50-minute time slots.

The Zone and outdoor tennis and basketball courts will only open to students, while the aquatic centre is open to students, faculty and staff. With safety measures in place, the Zone’s maximum capacity is set at 40 users per hour.

The facilities will only offer afternoon and evening sessions, with potential for hours to expand closer to September. Gym sessions run from 2:30 to 8:30 p.m., outdoor tennis and basketball sessions from 3 to 7:50 p.m., and pool sessions operate from 4 to 6 p.m.

Anyone using indoor facilities is required to wear a mask.

In the Zone, gym-goers must wear a mask except when using designated cardio machines, which are marked to indicate the user may remove their mask while operating the equipment.

For anyone using the pool, masks are required in the change rooms and the pool deck until swimmers reach their lane.

The change rooms and the showers are only accessible to those using the pool and are not permitted for Zone gym sessions. People must keep a two-metre distance from one another while using the change rooms. Lockers will remain closed during this time.

The pool is limited to only one swimmer per lane when pre-booking pool sessions for swimming, walking, jogging or use of the aquatic spin bikes. The pool is divided in half with eight lanes on each side for a maximum capacity of 16 total swimmers during any given session.

Students who were registered for classes from fall 2020 to summer 2021, as well as those registered for this coming September, may access the facilities. In addition, faculty and staff must be registered in the Faculty/Staff Swim activity within the reservation system to book a lane in the swimming pool.

Participants must go through screening before check-in and provide a valid Brock ID upon check-in.

Brock Recreation is also running mini soccer and tennis leagues for Brock students during August. Registration is free and can be found here.