Like a fresh sheet of ice greeting a new game, an entire year of sport awaits. Here are just some of the Island sports stories to follow in 2019:
Regal tradition
As steady as it goes, the Victoria Royals have never missed the Western Hockey League playoffs since coming to the Island in 2011-12. Only three other WHL teams have accomplished that feat during that span. Can the mid-pack Royals do it again this season? We’ll find out soon enough. The Royals’ regular season closes March 16 and the WHL playoffs open March 22.
The beautiful game
Canada finally joins the rest of the world by having its own domestic professional soccer league. Will it work? We will find out beginning in the spring when Island-based Pacific FC will be a charter member as it begins play in April in the inaugural Canadian Premier League season at a revamped Westhills Stadium in Langford.
Swing time
The PGA Tour players of tomorrow are again coming to the Island for the Mackenzie Tour-PGA Tour Canada’s annual Bayview Place DC Bank Open. But they will be arriving earlier than usual. The new Canadian Open date on the PGA Tour, in the first week of June, put it in direct conflict with the usual date of the Victoria pro event. So Victoria organizers have bumped their 37th annual tournament back a week to May 30 to June 2 this year at Uplands. The Canadian Open goes June 6-9 at Hamilton Golf and Country Club.
“We felt it was better for our tournament because we didn’t want to go head-to-head with the Canadian Open,” said Keith Dagg, director of the Victoria tournament.
“We felt a lot of people would have stayed home to watch the Canadian Open on TV. Especially because it has now been moved to one week before the U.S. Open and so the Canadian Open field is going to be stellar and full of top golfers [who will use it as a springboard into the U.S. Open]. This is a good move for us.”
Running a revolution
The Spandex set filling the streets by the thousands is a demographic any city would covet. Victoria’s two main festivals of running will be celebrating milestone anniversaries this year with the 30th Times Colonist 10K on April 28 and the 40th GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon on Oct. 13.
Skating nation
The retired-for-now pairing of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir will be missing. But what has been described as Canada’s greatest generation of skaters, accounting for two gold medals and four overall last year at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, is returning mostly intact to Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre on May 14 with the annual Stars on Ice.
Sevens heaven
The 2016 Rio Olympic bronze-medallist Canadian women’s rugby team hosts the Canada Sevens on May 11-12 at Westhills Stadium. It is the fifth of sixth World Series tournaments, out of which the top-four nations will advance directly to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Canada is second in the standings after two World Series events.
Play ball
Another enticing summer of cold beer in one hand, hot dog in the other and the smell of grilled onions in the air, begins June 7 at Royal Athletic Park with opening night of the 2019 baseball West Coast League season. There is a reason the HarbourCats retain their annual position atop the WCL attendance table — they welcomed 62,599 fans to RAP for a 2,318 per-game average last season — and what happens on the field is only part of it.
World Cup, rugby-style
Soccer had its turn last year. Now the Langford-based Canadian men’s rugby team, with a significant cadre of homegrown Island talent, will play in the 2019 World Cup in Japan. The Canadians will be in Pool B and open play on Sept. 26 in Fukuoka against Italy. Then come games against famed world powers New Zealand All Blacks on Oct. 2 in Oita and South Africa Springboks on Oct. 8 in Kobe. Canada will close pool play Oct. 13 against African-qualifier Namibia with what is expected to be near home-crowd advantage at Kamaishi Memorial Recovery Stadium in the prefecture of Iwate. The capital of Iwate is Victoria’s sister city, Morioka, and fans in Iwate have plans to welcome the Canadian team in a big way because of the Victoria connection.
Island fans can see Canada prepare for the World Cup when the national side hosts Chile on Feb. 22 and Argentina XV on March 1 in the Americas Rugby Championship at Westhills Stadium.
Pam Am mania
There are two multi-sport signposts for Canadian athletes enroute to the next Summer Olympics. Islanders fared well at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia. Up this year are the 2019 Pan American Games from July 26 to Aug. 11 in Lima, Peru, with more than 60 Island athletes expected to compete for Canada with an eye across the Pacific to Tokyo 2020.
Island athletes won 20 medals, including 13 golds, at the last Pan Am Games in 2015 in Toronto; and 21 medals, with three golds, at the previous Pan Am Games in 2011 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Luck of the Irish
The Western Lacrosse Association season begins in May. But the real question is what happens in September. The Mann Cup national Senior ‘A’ final is scheduled for the home of the WLA champion this year and the Victoria Shamrocks have indicated they are loading up for 2019 because of that.
Hoop dreams
Canada Basketball brings the 2019 Under-15 and Under-17 national girls’ championships, with teams representing all provinces and territories to CARSA Gym at UVic from Aug. 5 to 10. These are the Canadian hoops stars of the future.
“Many of these athletes will move on to play at the U Sports level, and some will even have the chance to represent Canada Basketball on the International stage,” said UVic head coach Dani Sinclair, in a statement.
