Today’s athletes are far too young to be acquainted with Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by the Platters. But smoke is getting into their eyes, noses, throats and just about everything else, and affecting their sporting plans in a big way this week and last.
The University of Victoria Vikes’ scheduled season-opening Canada West men’s soccer doubleheader tonight and Saturday in Prince George, against the UNBC Timberwolves, has been postponed due to poor air quality caused by the wildfires in the province.
The decision was made Thursday morning, before UVic travelled to Prince George.
According to the Canada West conference, air quality in Prince George was rated as 10-plus Thursday morning on the Environment Canada Air Quality Health Index and forecast to remain so into today.
“We’re disappointed, but it’s the right decision,” said UVic head coach Bruce Wilson.
“We should not be playing in danger zones.”
The current haze situation is forcing sports leagues and association to respond. The Canada West board of directors approved a new air-quality policy this week, which recommends conference teams postpone games if the Air Quality Health Index is rated at seven or greater.
“We needed a policy, especially if this is the new normal. Above seven is not safe,” Wilson said.
“Players should expect to play university sports in a safe environment. We cannot put them in an unsafe situation.”
The newly implemented guidelines have also forced the postponement of Canada West men’s soccer openers for Kamloops and Kelowna scheduled for Saturday. The Fraser Valley Cascades at Thompson Rivers University and Trinity Western at UBC-Okanagan fixtures will be rescheduled.
Canada West did not say when the three postponed games would be fit into the regular-season schedule.
“It’s the right decision, but it does make it difficult regarding the question of how do we make these games up during the season,” Wilson said.
“Luckily, we got refunds on the airline tickets.”
Former NASL pro Wilson, who was the Canadian captain at the 1986 World Cup, said the worst environmental condition he played in was a severe sudden lightning storm that sent the players scurrying from the pitch to the dressing rooms at Soldier Field in Chicago.
The Canada West soccer decisions follow the cancellation of the scheduled B.C. Football Conference game last Saturday in Kamloops between the Broncos and Westshore Rebels. That game was not rescheduled. Instead, the Sept. 15 game between the Broncos and Rebels at Westshore Stadium will be a four-point game.
The Rebels were on the mainland and en route to the Interior when the game was called off last Saturday. That prompted Rebels head coach Charly Cardilicchia to make some pointed comments in the media, for which he received a three-game suspension by the league.
The BCFC announced an air-quality protocol regarding any future cancellations or postponement due to the wildfires. Starting this week, whether a game will be played as scheduled on a Saturday will be decided by 1 p.m. on the Friday before. Ironically, considering the Rebels’ situation, that will keep other teams from exceeding their travel budgets.
The Rebels (1-0-1) meet their rivals Vancouver Island Raiders (2-1) on Saturday night at Westhills Stadium.
The Olympic Mountains have been obscured by heavy haze along the waterfront at the Victoria Golf Club, but the Canadian Mid-Amateur tournament continued this week. The fourth and final round goes today for the best 25-and-over golfers in the country.
“I noticed the smoke at the airport when I got in, but the air quality hasn’t affected me playing,” said participant Phil Doucet of Beaconsfield, Que., after the first round.
The poor air quality is also not expected to affect the Canadian men’s baseball championships, which began Thursday and run through Sunday, at Royal Athletic Park and Lambrick Park.
The 2016 Rio Olympics bronze-medallist Canadian women’s sevens rugby team, however, trained this week at Westhills Stadium with some of the players donning surgical face masks.
“It doesn’t take long to feel it,” head coach John Tai said.
“Definitely half an hour or less. Your throat is drier than normal and the players can feel themselves struggling for oxygen. It’s a bit of a challenge, but luckily, we are only in pre-season training [ahead of the start of the 2018-19 World Series in the fall].”
The UVic men’s soccer team also altered its training this week.
“We had to go indoors [to the CARSA field house],” Wilson said.
The Canadian national rowing team, meanwhile, broke camp Thursday and left the hazy conditions on Elk Lake in Saanich and Quamichan Lake in Duncan for a pre-scheduled training camp in Ioannina, Greece, ahead of the 2018 FISA world championships Sept. 9-16 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Greece has also experienced serious forest fire conditions this summer, but that is not expected to affect the Canadian team’s pre-world championship camp.
