Confederation Secondary School  Confederation Secondary School is a school in Val Caron, Ontario, Canada. Enrolment as of December 2019 is 567. Confederation S.S. was built as a Canadian Centennial project, and opened in September 1967, making it the first English secondary school in Valley East, Ontario. Today, Confederation is a diverse school that blends academic excellence with athletic and extra-curricular activities available to all of its students. Like all sports teams at Confederation, the mascot is a Charger. Its football program began in 1968 with a Junior Program but, due to financial constraints and a serious injury to a player, the team was discontinued in the mid-1980s. Confederation was without football from that time until the fall of 2002 when it fielded a varsity team which posted a 2–4 record in its first season. This was considered an accomplishment as the last expansion team of Sudbury District Secondary School Athletic Association, the St. Benedict Catholic Secondary School Bears, had to wait a full seven seasons before their first win. The Chargers have become a regular member of the post-season. In 2003, they made the playoffs for the first time and knocked off the perennial powerhouse St. Charles College Cardinals by a score of 30–16. They then handed the previously undefeated Lasalle Secondary School Lancers their only loss of the season in the championship game by a score of 14-7. Interest in football all across Greater Sudbury then spiked as several high schools hoped to duplicate Confederation's success. The Sudbury Secondary School Northstars took the field for the first time in over 20 years in 2003 but were unable to match the Chargers' success, going winless in three of four seasons and folding in 2007. To replace them that fall was the Lively District Secondary School Hawks who have traditionally fielded excellent flag football teams. However, in their first season, they also went winless. Situated in Northern Ontario's Boreal Forest, Confederation offers an outdoor education program. These courses provide opportunities to develop a personalized approach to healthy active living through participation in classroom activities combined with strenuous outdoor experiences. Students are expected to explore and demonstrate appropriate knowledge, skills, and attitudes in three interconnected themes:  Students learn wilderness skills such as first aid, Nordic skiing, snowshoeing, winter camping, wilderness survival, ecology, hiking, orienteering, backpacking, swimming, canoeing, weather interpretation, teamwork, and leadership. Each semester the classes take canoe trips through the Temagami wilderness, hiking trips in Killarney Provincial Park, and a winter camping trip where they sleep in quinzhees they have constructed.