Coaches need to be in command. It is virtually written into the job description, if not their DNA. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken that away from them.
“Coaches are control freaks. We are not in control of this, and that is the most frustrating thing for our profession,” said University of Victoria Vikes women’s soccer head coach Tracy David.
The wide-ranging spring and summer impact on Island sports — from the cancellation of the Victoria Royals hockey playoffs to the postponement of the Olympic qualifying basketball tournament — will extend into the fall and winter with amendments to the Canada West university sports season.
Canada West announced Monday it will play a reduced schedule in all its sports in 2020-21 because of the pandemic. That is if there even are varsity student athletes on campus to play the games.
“Our players are keen. But if classes are still online in September, you may not have any players around,” added UVic Vikes men’s soccer head coach Bruce Wilson.
“I wonder if the season is even going to be a go.”
The Canada West soccer regular season will go from 14 games down to 10 and won’t begin until late September, four weeks later than the usual August start. All games in most sports, including soccer, will be played only against teams within your own province.
“We’re not going across the mountains,” said Wilson.
The Canada West basketball season will go from 20 conference games to 16. Regular-season football will be down to five games, volleyball 16, hockey 20, women’s rugby four and women’s field hockey eight. Schedules, along with playoff formats, will be announced at a later date.
Conference championships are still planned for cross-country, curling, golf, swimming, track & field, and wrestling.
“While there remains uncertainty around when university sport will return, the Canada West board of directors has worked diligently to ensure that when it does the conference and its members are prepared to navigate the difficult financial realities ahead of us,” said UVic athletic director Clint Hamilton, who is also president of Canada West.
“The revised sport formats reflect the financial constraints our members will find themselves in as both a direct and indirect result of COVID-19. We remain hopeful that we will be able to compete during 2020-21.”
So do the coaches and athletes.
“I’d rather have a short season than no season,” said David.
There are many issues to work through even to achieve that.
“How is bus travel going to work in terms of social distancing and three-athletes-to-a-room in hotels?” said Wilson.
“If there is no [Vikes fundraising] breakfast, will there be scholarships for the players this season?”
Wilson also brought up the question of eligibility. Even if there isn’t a season or classes, online schooling will continue, he noted. How will that affect eligibility if a varsity student athlete uses up an academic school year online but not a sports school year on the field or in the gym? Will that count as one of their allowable five seasons in Canada West and U Sports? That would be shattering especially for fifth-year players who would not return in 2021-22 after graduating online this coming school year.
It is also one thing for the Bundesliga, NHL, NBA or MLB, with their vast resources, to consider reopening. And quite another for university leagues.
“You can’t even compare the two,” said Wilson, who played pro soccer and captained Canada in the 1986 World Cup.
“We cannot command an entire hotel floor to ourselves and do not have the resources or people at our university level to conduct the amount of testing they will need to be doing at the major pro level of sports,” said David.
“There are a lot unknowns and we are rolling with the punches right now. We are planning with what information we have at the moment. But the situation is fluid and changes day to day. Hopefully, we can have a season of some sort.”
There is also the current B.C. regulation banning crowds of more than 50 people, something the province says won’t be lifted until a vaccine is available or herd immunity attained.
“Forget about crowds in the stands,” said Wilson. “I’m only concerned about getting 11 players on the field.”
